Even among scholars, it has not been widely known that Shakespeare himself was an experienced slinger. His "slings an arrows of outrageous fortune" (Hamlet, 3, 1) point to the fact that he preferrably used something like a cestrosphendon.

It must have been a family tradition. His ancestors (and he himself) suffered from severe dependency on strong beer. Without it, their hands became kind of tremulous while slinging darts (or "speares", as they were commonly called in Stratford), hence the family name.

You are certainly right with the slingstones and the bows.

The truth is that I made the whole cestros thing up. I only had the Hamlet quote in mind, and then everything else followed. The post probably should have been in the other topics subforum, not here. Sorry!