Primitive Technology: Sling
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Published 2015-11-27
To use it, the loop is slipped over the finger and the knot is held down with the thumb. A stone is placed in the pouch and the sling swung over head. At the appropriate time the sling is swung forward in a throwing action and the knot held in the hand is let go. This causes the pouch to open and the stone to fly (hopefully) towards the target.
I hadn't used a sling for eight years but the first target I set up and filmed, a potsherd on a stick at 10 m, was hit first go! Next I set up a log at 20 m and required more practice. Targets of potsherds and tiles at 10 m were set up in a clearing. Tiles on sticks at 15 m were set up in a stretch of creek. The last shots are back in the clearing at 10 m.
Learning to use the sling is difficult and practice is necessary. When aiming line up the swinging plane of the sling with the target to determine Y-axis aspect and use release timing to determine x-axis aspect. With timing (right handed) too early and the stone will got to the right, too late and it will go left. Practice to make it go at the right time. Use larger stones as they swing slower and are easier to time. Use smooth stones so they fly straight and don't cling to the pouch when released.
The advantage of the sling is that it's easy to make, portable and the ammunition (stones) are every where. The disadvantages are it's difficult to learn to use accurately, noise and movement give it away when used, it can't penetrate a target like an arrow (unless using some kind of weighted dart) and it can't be fired in thick forest. Interestingly, the sling has a range comparable to a bow. From my research, the record for the longest sling shot was 505 m and that of the bow just under 500 m. For some great information on slings and slinging look at: www.slinging.org/.
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All Comments (21)
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6:28 That nod of "fuck yeah" may have been the only emotion I've ever seen from this guy,
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that's what you get for putting all the perks on survival, not accuracy
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6:25 He’s so pleased with himself I love it
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Love how he shows his progress due to practice. Also, this shows how a handful of slingers hurling into a tight enemy formation would be utterly devastating in ancient times, regardless of their individual skill. The slowest stone he slung was probably moving at 90+ mph. Imagine if he was using moulded lead or clay ammunition.
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That slight head nod at 6:28 is the most emotion I have ever seen him display.
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I love how you showed the misfires. It reiterates how much effort that goes into something before becoming proficient at it. Your videos are awesome
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the most amazing thing about this video is that he built the camera he used to film it out of tree bark, spider webs and pine pitch.
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I love how he shows how accurate, or how unaccurate the sling is. I remember as a child, watching an old movie, "Clan of the Cave Bear" and thinking the sling was this badass weapon so I tried it. Many windows suffered from my ignorance....
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this is why this guy is a winner, he never gives up. see that kids, for every success there was alot of practice and failures
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the amount of patience this man possesses is incredible
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After watching so many history videos on how valuable Slingers were in ancient armies , this puts it in perspective on the difficulty to master it and how it only suited certain people who used it for their day to day hunting and guarding their animals
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Australia: Bans guns Australians:
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Its cool that you dont talk at all. It makes it feel real for us viewers.
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And on the other side of the forest just some poor family trying to have a picnic getting bombarded with rocks.
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I've watched all his videos and the only emotion I've found is at 6:26 when he nods his head in satisfaction
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Not faking the trial and error and learning process is the best decision this guy has made. EXCELLENT VIDEO
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Gotta give this guy props, he's not afraid to show his failures....really gotta respect and subscribe to people like these Edit: The point is: who shows a video of themselves missing. People only post stuff that makes themselves look good like "wow, look at how good i am". So I'm applauding him for showing it all, not just the ones he hit.
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Man, the sling sounds super lethal when launching rocks.
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I'm glad you've shown just how difficult this style of hunting would have been in the old days. The amount of hours that someone would have to practice to get good enough to hunt with this effectively is astronomical.
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The only legit primitive technology channel
