Slings and Shields

Ha!  Yep, I have just a bit over an acre.  Mowing is usually about a three hour chore, even with a lawn tractor.  It's not too bad though as long as I don't let the grass get too high.

Hi Murffy.  The short answer is yes.  The long answer is yes, but it would be a slow moving projectile.  I pulled up the original recording of the first video and did some frame counts.  It looks like the ice balls were traveling somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 m/s at shield impact.  Most slingers will be able to throw faster than that.  And some quite a bit faster than that.

I am limited because a person cannot throw (straight) up as fast as throwing forward.  There is too much body movement lost in the motion.

Another thing to keep in mind is the projectile itself.  It's not just the mass that's important, but also structural stability.  The ice balls shatter on impact.  So a lot of the force is lost.  The pumpkins were closer to a real projectile because most of them held together for multiple impacts.  This was a contributing factor to their larger impact force, in addition to them being heavier.

The point of this activity (other than to have some fun) was just curiosity.  Even with the impact being much weaker than what someone could expect to encounter on a battle field, I wanted to experience what it felt like.  I'm planning some more experiments along this line.  Soon I'm going to be doing some tests to see if I can take this to another level while still remaining as safe as possible.

Your thinking is pretty much inline with mine.  Although for testing I'm just planning to use boards (at least initially).  Way cheaper and easier to work with than a completed shield.

But as you mentioned, some of the larger and denser projectiles could have possibly caused some problems when put up against shields and armour.  Here's a pretty large one: www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1865-0720-106.

I found one with him slinging lead (3 g?) through ½” flake board but failed with ½” birch plywood. I failed to find the video the second time.

I'm curious to know how your project goes.

It took a long time to get to this, but I finally reached the point I was comfortable doing some shield and stone tests.  This was quite an experience.

It is an absolute blast!

That was the exact reasoning for a big heavy shield.  So it would cover me up, and absorb most of the impact force.

I did consider a helmet with a full face guard.  I ultimately decided against it so I could keep my vision completely open.  Whether that trade off was worth the additional risk, I can't say for certain.  But that was the reasoning behind it.

And damn!  You've got the location really close.  I'm in western PA.  About a half hour drive north of Pittsburgh.

very cool videos! makes me want to try it.. although my videos would probably end with a call to 911.. LOL

Thanks!  If you do try it, definitely start with something safe, like tennis balls.  Or bacon balls.  ;)