I know the whip crack topic has gotten a lot of discussion in the past, but I didn't see anything specifically on this subject and wanted to see what everyone's experience was.

I've done a lot of spin troubleshooting this week and now that I think I have my issue figured out, I noticed something. Whenever I got a perfect rifle spin (paralell to the ground and my line of sight), I would get a distinct pop from my release cord, even with a very low effort throw.

None of them quite turned into a whip crack since I was using very low effort during this troubleshooting, but it was the sort of pop that you can tell would be a crack at full power. This is compared to that whistling whoosh sound I would consistently get whenever I threw with bad form - a strong perpendicular spin (causing the trajectory to bend strongly to the side).

Anyways, I wondered if you all had experienced something similar? Anecdotally, it seems like videos of those of you with consistently good form tend to have a whipcrack except when there is a strong bend on your shot. It's often hard to discern spin due to video quality, but inferring from the trajectory it seems like the straighter shots tend to crack more often or "better" than those with a bend.

  I can't say it any better than Joe just did so I'll leave it at that.

To expand a bit more, I think a crack depends a little more on the sling.  That's not to say that both a rifle spin and cracking don't depend on the sling and the slinger.  But to get a good crack, a tapered sling is certainly helpful.  Also a sling that has a bit of mass to it.

You mentioned that you're not getting cracks.  Keep in mind that you might not.  That doesn't mean your form or technique have something wrong.  At the end of the day what's important is hitting the target (or should be IMO).  Personally, I don't get much of a crack either.  I use a sidearm release, but I find that if I keep the sling a little higher when releasing, I usually have better accuracy.  But if I lower it a bit (still sidearm but moving toward an underhand), I can get a better crack.  Ultimately it's not very consistent for me either.  Some days those two descriptions are the opposite. 

erricrice wrote on Aug 14^th, 2024 at 1:57pm:


Ha!  I hear that.  Usually I have a good 13m or a good 20m.  Always chasing the week when things go well for both.  Unfortunately that's a bit elusive in recent weeks.