timothyausten wrote on Dec 3^rd, 2024 at 1:28pm:

Hmmm...........where to find an 8 kg stone??? 

I started looking at cannon balls on ebay. 

Kind of expensive, but not too crazy.  I think I might give it a go.  It will need to wait a little while though.  I hurt my left arm moving my target around and it still needs some healing time.  I'll definitely need two good arms for handling that weight.  I'd prefer the weather be a little warmer too.  So maybe in the spring.

These comparisons are eyecatching, but I would question their usefulness. As a relatively large man at full sprint I can exceed the kinetic energy of a .44 round.

Ke = 1/2 mv^2 = 1/2 * 110 * (5m/s)^2 = 1375J

Yet a rugby tackle from me would obviously not be as lethal as a 44 round. Not even as much as a 22 round which is far lower energy (and probably a better comparison of the type of energies that can be generated with a sling generally).

With bullets we have to consider the lethality of a small dense object effectively focusing that energy to a small area. The pressure that can be created at impact point is enough to tear holes through flesh which can have lethal effects. Huge slingstones cannot generate that kind of pressure and cannot kill via that mechanism. It's really comparing apples and oranges at this stage.

JudoP wrote on Dec 27^th, 2024 at 9:41am:

100% agree.  As timothy mentioned, the term normally used in this claim is 'stopping force' or 'stopping power'.  The term itself is pretty unspecific, and nowhere I've seen making this claim includes an explanation of how they determined stopping power.

I think it's perfectly fine to push back on this claim.  There was a post on Instagram not too long ago sharing it, and I left a comment referring to it as an urban legend.  The person who posted the claim mentioned a Net Geo video and I was able to find this: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/ancient-slingshot-lethal-44-m... (Note: When you go to this site, you will need to enter an email address to view the article.  You can certainly use your own, but you can also just use a fake one like peanutbutter@jelly.com, or something like that and it will show you the article.)  The article is from 2017 so could possibly be the initiator of this claim.  But like all the others making this claim, there is zero explanation about how the comparison was determined.  This is the specific claim made in the article:

Recent experiments conducted in Germany showed that a 50-gram Roman bullet hurled by a trained slinger has only slightly less stopping power than a .44 magnum cartridge fired from a handgun.

And that's all the info they give. 
And that statement is immediately followed by this one:

Other tests revealed that a trained slinger could hit a target smaller than a human being from 130 yards away.

I feel that I've seen some pretty amazing slingers in the short amount of time I've been involved in this stuff.  But sorry, targeting an individual person from 130 yards (118 meters)?!  Tell me another one!
Given enough chances to make the hit, sure.  But that's conveniently not part of the article.  They definitely let it be implied that a slinger is going to make that hit regularly.

In short, yeah, I'm totally fine with pushing back on the .44 Mag claim.  At least until someone explains how they calculated/determined stopping power.  Then it might make sense.  But I think the concern there would be similar to what JudoP mentioned.  I'm sure we could find tons of other things that also have the stopping power of a .44 Mag.  Like a big guy running. 

joe_meadmaker wrote on Dec 4^th, 2024 at 7:08pm:


Sand cast one with lead. The diamter of an 8kg lead cannon ball should be about 2in, so slightly smaller than a tennis ball.

Well, I can't grant your wish on a cannon ball but as consolation here is a picture of Chesterfield Cannon Mill - a place where they were made.
Enjoy.

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I was disappointed as well. I had no beef with the channel/podcast and was looking forward to supporting it, but if they are going to delete comments trying to correct info then its a no from me dawg.

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If you mean an iron cannon ball then yeah...I have no idea how to smelt iron in a backyard foundry without it getting a little bit spicy lol.

I'd try to cast you a lead cannon ball if I had excess, in part because I would also get the benefit of confusingmy local post office with a 18lb small priority box. Unfortunately, good 'ol Pb is getting harder to come by these days in the islands (a 1oz sinker is like $2-3 now  ) and I mustn't part with my precious.