NooneOfConsequence wrote on Jan 21
st, 2021 at 8:57am:
Great post!
I will say he was unfairly critical of horse slingers though. From a historical perspective, Mongols may make the mounted bowman seem more effective...legendary even, but we should not forget about Jaegoor on a bicycle
The quote:
Quote:The moving horse is a different proposition entirely. Some bows can handle it as can some crossbows, but a sling is useless here. While you may be able to be accurate at a walk, a trot moves you up and down quite a bit, to a point where I wouldn’t be sure you can even spin the sling properly. A run is better in this regard, but the loss of accuracy will still be tremendous.
No, I'd say his reasoning is sound. A bow and arrow is stabilized by the body of the archer until fired. A sling would be much more difficult, though not impossible, to stabilize.
Though if anyone has access to a stable and would like to try this (with tennis balls) I'd be much obliged. Or if anyone can get a hold of Jason Kingsley at Modern History on YouTube. He might give it a go.
And his last quote:
Quote:And as a final blow to horse slingers, you can’t turn with a sling the way you can with a bow or a crossbow.
That's completely false. I've had many tennis balls go completely behind me. It would just be a matter of training to make that the desired outcome.