Mersa
Interfector Viris Spurii
   
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Druid
Posts: 2548
Australia
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There are a few different things that's make the sling an effective tool and an ineffective tool.
1. The sling is a tool , the glande is the weapon, you can throw a tennis ball and you will likely never kill anything or you could throw a lead glande and potentially kill a lot of things. Just like a bow the arrow is the weapon and a sharp broadhead will always outperform a field point.
2. Accuracy , we all agree that being accurate is a long hard feat when comparing a sling to a gun but and inaccurate shooter on a gun could also make poor shots, just because it is difficult to master does not mean it's not possible, people have hunted with many things throughout history that require a level of skill to be accurate.
3. Distance, I think this part gets overlooked when comparing the sling as a hunting weapon, a sling is very captive of conserving energy over distance I would argue it's even more so than some bow/arrow combinations so the hunting part may be easier with a sling if your able to make shots at a longer distance, stalking up close to an animal is part of hunting and it's possible that you never get within an accurate range.
4. Animal hunted, now I'm not saying that the sling can't kill large game but it is defiantly more suited to smaller animals and birds. I think given the potential stopping power it could kill a large number of game on the planet however as the animals get larger the target becomes more and more focused on a brain injury.
5. Noise, now the sling can vary in sound but a smoot projectile is almost silent, at a certain distance it would be very hard for some animals to know where the danger comes from, this may allow for multiple shots.
6. Cost, now this is more based on a survival situation than sport hunting but there is a large benifit in ammo being almost free if using rocks, no need to spend time searching for lost ammo or building new stuff, it's literally just on the ground and a large variety of stones can be used.
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