Over the past few months, I made a few rockman slings out of both synthetic and natural cordage and while I love the design, I'm wondering if there is any significant advantages disadvantages between the Rockman and the Balearic design.

Have spools of #18 and #36 tarred bankline arriving in Tuesday and wanted to see if it was worth it trying out the Balearic template or if there isn't really much difference compared to the Rockman, as I'm now very familiar with that template.

Kick wrote on May 10^th, 2021 at 5:10am:


Probably the “most” correct answer you are going to get to this question was your first response.

That being said-



I’ve been using a Balearic from IG for awhile. I was a bit too harsh on it and the release cord broke. No problem, easy fix but it made me want to get out an old rockman and compare the feel.

The transition area from cord to pouch is what I call the “fades”. It’s a bow building term but it fits here as well. The fades on the Balearic sling are a big difference to this rockman. One is quite thick and doesn’t allow a huge amount of lateral movement. The other is thin and can feel like it rocks back and forth.

The Balearic definitely feels more stable but in terms of accuracy I don’t know if it makes a huge difference or not yet. I did use the rockman last night and although the feel is...for lack of better words...a little more sloppy, I seemed to be just as accurate with it.

Now don’t get me wrong here! This means nothing. Feel means nothing because every person with every weapon is going to have a different feel for a weapon and swear by their own experience. And even more so I wholeheartedly admit that this particular session with this rockman was a grand total of 20 shots max.

So I need to go out and try it some more with different ammo.

That being said, my conclusion from last nights practice session is that given the choice I would take a Balearic but I saw no huge difference in accuracy in the Rockman. **BUT** I would also not be surprised if after several weeks of comparison I threw that opinion in the garbage heap. The balearic definitely feels better, so 20 shots is nothing in terms of comparison.

There are some other questions I have...for example the other major characteristics that seem to really define the balearic sling is the large, inflexible retention cord and the overall inflexibility (when compared to say paracord) of the fibers themselves.  The nature of sisal like fibers for being both extremely coarse and inflexible seems to add a high degree of internal friction making the pouch also relatively stable and resistant to changing split opening size once set for the ammo.

It’s a very interesting design, but after using it I believe all of those characteristics can be applied to other designs, possibly even without using Sisal or other stiff fibers or the basic balearic design in general.

quentonium wrote on May 10^th, 2021 at 6:22am:

I have absolutely no idea There's just so little that's been definitively proven about... well... almost any aspect of slinging. It's all come down to personal preference.

My view is that the balearic sling is much more dependant on having thick braids in/around the pouch and is thus superior with larger ammo and likely a more stable (and possibly a more accurate) sling.

The rockman has a much more built up pouch and can make do with thinner cords and less stability, possibly more appropriate for smaller ammunition and longer cords.

Thanks for the input, everyone.

I'll definitely give the balearic a shot with my #18; don't think it would work too well with the 2mm diameter of the #36, which I think is more suitable for rockman's design.