Rat Man wrote on Aug 31
st, 2009 at 10:35am:
I have about 8 pj slings that I love. They shoot far and don't drop rocks, plus they don't look bad. The three strand design shoots farther. I worked one out this morning again and I'm convinced that it shoots significantly farther, like even up to 30%. This is just eyeballing. It's hard for me to measure exactly with beasts in tow, plus I can't see exactly where the stones land. They're way, way far away when they touch down. I've taken a lot of shots in the past 10 months though, and I'm certain that the three strand shoots farther than a pj, Rockman, or anything else I've made so far. That alone doesn't necessarily make it a better sling all around, but it makes the design at least worthy of more investigation and experimentation.
The thing is that I can take ten shots in a row with the three strand sling without dropping a projectile, then I go into the rock dropping mode and loose like five in a row. It's me, not the sling that's malfunctioning.
I believe that a good sling makes it relatively unnecessary for the slinger to do anything special to prevent rock dropping.
Of course I'm going to be subject to having a little bit of prideful bias in favor of the design known 'round these parts as the PeacefulJeffrey Sling, but I honestly lost all interest in a 3-strand version when I first made them after learning the design from Stormdrane of EDCforums. It simply did not have enough width or cupping for holding the ammo I was likely to use, which at the time was golf balls (since there are hardly any rocks to be found around southern Florida).
I do not mean to denigrate your 3-strand design, but I do reject the notion that a design that is prone to runs of dropped ammo is acceptable. At least, it is not acceptable to
my personal sensibilities. A simile came to me about it just now: it's like calling a gun a really good design because when it works it has superior range, accuracy and muzzle energy, but on unpredictable occasions the magazine will drop right out of the grip well! I simply would never carry that gun or count on it for defense. Might it be fun to take it to the range now and then to blast some rounds and work on great accuracy? Sure. But for when the gun counts--no way.
For me it's one of those "them as wants it can have it" things. If you are enjoying your Rat Man slings, go for it!
Pages: 
Rat Man (three strand sheep shank) Sling (Read 35925 times)
