I have used 2mm curtain cord.  It is a braided nylon cord.  It starts out pretty stiff but gets a little more flexiable as you use it.  I stays a lot stiffer than any natural cordage that I have used.  And it never seems to wear out, I made one right after I started slinging, the ends of the release cords are only slightly frayed after a couple of years or pretty steady slinging.

How about some pictures of your work this time SSlinger

Simple--braid tighter
It may take a sling two to get the hang of, but you gotta maintain an even pressure on the strands and sling while braiding to keep it from looking lumpy though.

slingbadger wrote on Jan 29^th, 2014 at 6:21am:


Ha! I have the same predicament

My nylon slings are my stiffest ones.  I like some degree of stiffness but certain weaves of nylon make a sling that's too stiff. Rather than throw it out I'll combine it with a material that's more limp like jute.  Often I'll combine three or even four different materials in the same cord to get the desired combination of stiffness, limpness, durability, etc... It's a never ending experiment.  I was actually just about to put up a post about that as soon as I take some pictures.

I'm late to the conversation but here's my two cents!
So I figure stiffness does play a role in performance.... For slings of course What I think is stiffness is just another word for suppleness. A more supple sling will be more reactive to even the smallest tweak hither or thither while a stiffer one wouldn't be affected as easily. So perhaps a stiffer sling would be more forgiving and easier to use? Especially since the rock at the end probably twists during a wind up so stiffness would brace it better.
On the flip side a more supple sling should be more dynamic and perform more precisely if the user were skilled enough to handle the added sensitivity. I imagine a supple sling is faster too.
It's a tough decision which is the better way to go methinks lol
My slings usually seem to be somewhere in the middle since they come out stiff but break in. Seeing as I like it when a sling is broken in I'll say I prefer a less stiff sling.

As it is currently I do believe that a properly balanced sling, when it comes to stiffness, is very beneficial for accuracy, and so is proper knowledge and implementation of pouch angle control.

It's true that a very flexible, light, thin round cord slings are efficient, but essential control for accuracy can be lost. Come to term with the fact there is more to slinging than simple efficency. It might seem counterintuititive to make a sling stiffer heavier or flatter but this is price to be paid for increased control.

I do like the simple 3 and 5 strand tight flat braid for another reason and that is untangling. You can run down your hand and reload very fast.

A 4 strand round braid has corners, and takes longer to straighten out the twist after each shot. You can go up to a 32 round braid (a paracord) and make the sling cord into a near perfect efficient cillinder, and what you get is that some twist less effects the sling, but to get out of the twist after each shot and have it perfectly straight takes way too long. Techically a round braid still has corners that ideally should run down straight.

I think the stiffer flat braid, when I wager everything against each other, is still the way to go, for an all round workhorse sling.