I plan on hunting with the sling. And so for me practice is most important. And so good consistent projectiles are very important, and lots of them.

I just tried Quikrete  quick setting cement. The stuff handles like clay instead of concrete, concrete sucks. Once mixed I mash some into a cut piece of pvc pipewhich is about 1 inch long and scrape off the extra, this gives me very close to 100g when dried.Knock it out, roll it into a ball and set it down. Hard in about 5 or 10 minutes. Dry the next day. I would guess I can make 20 or 30 of these per hour, at maybe $10 per 50 or 60. These are very rough numbers. They are round, hard, and heavy like stone. I can make a bucket full and then recover them after practice. I spend my time practicing instead of looking for rocks, just like golfers do at the driving range.
The consistent ammo also improves my learning curve because I am not wonder if it was the ammo that caused a shot to go a certain way.That way I can focus on my technique.
Really great stuff.

I agree with you about the denser stone being more accurate. Given my choice I would try steel, and lead. But that isn't something I could ever be able to find in the woods, so it isn't an option for me. I really do like a round piece of granite, though. The stone is heavier than the cement. I think the reason they used the football shaped clay was to get the weight up without raising the center of mass or the wind resistance. A really big round ball sits too high in the pocket for me.
I am sure that for me that the better accuracy is because a heavier projectile gives me better feedback as far as where it is when I am swinging. Lighter projectiles almost always go low for me because I have a hard time feeling where the sling is and so I release later.
I'll practice, practice , practice with my home made balls. Then if I am out and about I can take my time to find maybe 3 good stones to carry to actually hunt with. My skill level is no where near good enough to hunt with right now, but I am getting better. I am having those occasional shots now that are surprising in their accuracy. The consistent ammo helps a lot with that.

"I am having those occasional shots now that are surprising in their accuracy. The consistent ammo helps a lot with that. "

Yea it sure does. That's exactly how I see it. Practice with the consistent ammo then if I ever felt like hunting with the sling, use a couple carefully chosen stones. Round cement ammo of decent weight does sit high in the pouch. I could pretty much sum it up by saying I agree with everything you just said.

But about that point in particular the type of sling you use makes a difference, just based on my own personal experience, on how spherical ammo can feel "too" high in the pouch. Peruvian style slings seem to handle it very well. On the other hand the Apache style that I prefer (with a small, leather pouch) definitely does not. I would assume most slings don't.

It really does look like we are all coming to the same conclusions through our own experiences.


"On the other hand the Apache style that I prefer (with a small, leather pouch) definitely does not. I would assume most slings don't."
That's interesting. And definitely worth investigating. I use a paracord braided sling with a formed pouch. A lot like the apache I would think. And I have hide I was going to use to make my next sling. I'll have to think about that a bit.