Slinging Big Stones

Lol!  Well, we need to know what kind of momentum the rocks need to be to bring down the wall. 

There will likely be more tests with other stones and targets once I have all the stuff done with the big ones.

Thanks!

No, haven't used egg sinkers as projectiles before.  Although there will be something very similar coming eventually.  Way back when I used to make wooden swords, some of the larger ones were very tip heavy.  So I hollowed out the pommels and filled them with lead.  I still have a bunch of lead ingots left over from those days.  When I get a chance, I'm going to build some biconical molds and make some lead glandes.

There's quite a bit of difference.  First thing to mention, when just slinging normally I usually have a projectile in the range of 3.5 - 5 oz.  So all these stones are way heavier than normal.  And the heavier ones do force me to change the throwing motion.

If you look at the first stone in the video, you can see that my shoulders rotate, and then the throwing arm follows through (similar to the pitching motion in baseball).  But when I get to the heavier stones later on in the video, the throwing arm stays in line with the shoulders.  There is just too much weight for the arm to manage by itself.  With this method it becomes more like a discus throw, but without the whole body spinning around.

Thanks man!  I appreciate it.

Totally agree.  A very underestimated weapon.  Although I think a big part of that is there's just not a lot of slingers out there, so exposure is very limited.

There is definitely something about the simplicity, combined with the difficulty to use it well, that I find intriguing.

Distance slinging Part 2 has been posted.

Unfortunately the only answer I can give on that is possibly.  There are plenty of records of slings being used, but nothing I'm aware of about very large projectiles specifically.  It's one of those things that I have little doubt it happened on occasion, but not regularly enough to get much recognition.

That being said, what initially sparked my interest in this was an image that was brought to my attention from a 15th century manuscript.  Here's a link: ica.themorgan.org/manuscript/page/13/147009.  On the left you can see a soldier holding a pretty large sling with a big stone in it.  Like any other picture from the medieval period, there's no way to know for certain if this is an accurate representation or just an artist's interpretation.  But it got me interested in trying to sling some really big stones, and also using two hands (as shown of the slinger in the image).  Before the big stones, I did a couple videos where I tested out some different methods of holding and using a sling with two hands.

On the topic of effectiveness, the range does get much more limited than with smaller projectiles.  But the impact force is immensely greater.  As with archers, I think it could be very effective against a close range charge.  The longest throw I had was just over the 50 meter mark.  I would have no doubts that a trained soldier could easily do twice that distance, and quite possibly three times or more.  That's going to be a devastating hit, even against an armored opponent.  The technique could also be used for more height or distance if throwing over a wall.

I have one more (planned) video with the big stones.  It's going to be along a similar line to the first and include some more impact testing.

In my younger days I played with slings. I found that standing 90 degrees from the target and spinning the sling one time while rotating the body toward the target and releasing when every thing lined up generated a much higher velocity, as well as better accuracy once you get it down pat.