The Ancient Sling Power: Chronograph Test
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- čas přidán 7. 10. 2022
- Throughout historical warfare, the bow is commonly discussed. However, the sling was an important projectile weapon in antiquity, and we will discover the true power of the sling bullet with radar chronograph testing today. (140 fps is considered impressive in professional baseball pitching. Meanwhile a Balearic sling can reach 250-300 fps.)
This is a collaboration project with archaic arms, I strongly recommend you to check his channel out for historical slinging and also Acroballistics channel.
A sling is a weapon typically used to throw a projectile such as natural stones found in the ground, clay, or lead bullets. The sling is inexpensive and easy to make. Historically it has been used for hunting, warfare, herding animals, and recreational use. A classic sling is braided from non-elastic material. The traditional materials are flax, hemp or wool. Slings by Balearic islanders were said to be made from a rush. Flax and hemp resist rotting, but wool is softer and more comfortable.
It is possible that the sling was invented during the paleolithic stone age, but the archeolgocil finds of slings themselves are rare. This is because slings are made of natural materials and they were lower-status weapons, so rarely being preserved for burial.
The oldest-known surviving slings-radiocarbon dated to c. 2500 BC-were recovered from Peru. The oldest known slings from the Old World were found in an egyptian tomb, who died c. 1325 BC.
A pair of slings intended for the departed pharaoh to use for hunting game.
Representations of slingers can be found on artifacts from all over the ancient world, including Assyrians, Egyptian, roman and norman artifacts.
The oldest representation of a slinger in art may be from an anatolian settlement from c. 7,000 BC,
The sling is mentioned as early as in the writings of Homer,[14] where several characters kill enemies by hurling stones at them.
The greeks and romans wrote about the usage of slings by Greeks Romans, Iberians, Lusitanians, Gauls,Persians and Arab , Libyans and Phoenicians.
Livy mentions the most famous of ancient skillful slingers: the people of the Balearic Islands, who often worked as mercenaries. Strabo writes: "And their training in the use of slings used to be such, from childhood up, that they would not so much as give bread to their children unless they first hit it with the sling."[13]
Balearic slingers were amongst the specialist mercenaries extensively employed by Carthage against the Romans and other enemies.
The late Roman writer Vegetius, wrote that the sling caused more annoyance to the soldiers than arrows of the enemy. and the greast reason for instructing all troops with the sling is its portability while carrying their typical gear, especially in stony places where ammunition can be easily found:
Recruits are to be taught the art of throwing stones both with the hand and sling. Soldiers, notwithstanding their defensive armour, are often more annoyed by the round stones from the sling than by all the arrows of the enemy. Stones kill without mangling the body, and the contusion is mortal without loss of blood. It is universally known the ancients employed slingers in all their engagements. There is the greater reason for instructing all troops, without exception, in this exercise, as the sling cannot be reckoned any encumbrance, and often is of the greatest service, especially when they are obliged to engage in stony places, to defend a mountain or an eminence, or to repulse an enemy at the attack of a castle or city.
The sling is mentioned in the Bible, in the Book of Judges, thought to be written c. 6th century BC,
The Bible provides a famous slinger account, between David and Goliath from the First Book of Samuel
As a weapon, the sling had several advantages; The sling was light to carry and cheap to produce; ammunition in the form of stones was readily available and often to be found near the site of battle. a porper sling bullet lobbed in a high trajectory can achieve ranges in excess of 400 meters (1,300 ft). A bow and arrow could also reach these distrances and more analysis is planned on this channel to comapre the bow versus the sling. Ancient poets wrote that sling-bullets could penetrate armour, and that lead projectiles, heated by their passage through the air, would melt in flight
According to description of Procopius, the sling had an effective range further than a Hun bow and arrow.
Music:
Desert Caravan ~ Aaron Kenny
"Suonatore di Liuto" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b... - Věda a technologie
Anyone who has seen the effort which goes in to making an arrow will appreciate the ability to pick ammo up off the ground.
anyone whos made a primitive bow will also appreciate the sling, i wonder what changes can be made to the sling to modernize it to be stronger or give it more launch, cause theres so much you can do with bows i wonder the same for slings.
@@Rubblage Frankly, I think the sling is too primitive a concept. The next step would be a staff sling or a trebuchet.
If they used the more modern imperial units of measure instead of the archaic metric system, this video would be more meaningful.
Lol @@goofyfoot2001
@@Rubblagerail guns come to mind as modernized slings.
Lol I love the Greek lead bullet having "take this/catch" engraved on it
Or suck this “emperor name”
It's like people in modern times with the engravings on their gun receivers or patches / edgy stuff on their gear lol. Some things never change
Thank you, It's a real privilege to contribute!
cant wait to make javelin videos with you. im sure your talented in that too
@@HistoricalWeapons I'll try and get some test data with the plumbata, and practice that type of throwing more.
@@Archaic-Arms awesome excited to make video on javelin/plumbata testing.throwing pointy objects were widely used in ancient european warfare but almost forgotten today with little data
You got quite a workout there
150j is roughly the equivalent of a .22mag rimfire. Very impressive. I'd be curious to see how far a tungsten ball would go.
the bit about lead bullets heating up enough to melt in flight is hilarious. I don't know if I would take that seriously. More likely the bullet deformed upon impact and they thought it melted in flight for some reason.
My thoughts too. Lower velocity bullets and airgun pellets after hitting steel plates often look like they have melted. Watch high speed video of lead bullets hitting objects; due the the extreme deformation the lead acts like liquid.
@@4d4m22 Yeah it sounds more likely that they just thought the projectiles were heating up and melted from they deformed upon impact.
In bullets, the the energy given to the projectile by the expanding gas is dumped into the target upon impact. If the target is unyielding and impermeable that can result in quite a lot of heat. Some melt is possible. That’s how depleted uranium anti armor rounds work. A large amount of powder pushing a very dense mass into a very resistant armor plate. The resulting heat transfer melts a nice fifty caliber hole on the outside. The inside is a three inch cone which throws a lot of molten metal, some spalled off metal fragments from the interior and what’s left of the bullet. And a whiff of radioactive gas.
They didn't have high speed cameras back then and high velocity lead acts like liquid upon impact because it's a relatively soft squishy metal
Little was known of physics back then, kinda like "Scientist" thought speeds over 50 mph would crush a man, when the railroads were being built in the settler times of the US.
Awesome work! Thanks for the shoutout!
By the way the WR with stones is 437.1m 52g stone 130cm by Larry Bray and there is an unofficial record with lead at 505m.
Thats awesome. gotta make a collab doing javelins some day
What about with lead bullets?
How thick was the linen cordage you used for that Lahun sling? I love how it came out!
@@HipposHateWater 1 to 2 millimeters
This is well within pistol range, specially weight-wise.
My theory for why we don't see or hear much about slings is simple: For the same reason modern golf is regarded as a high class sport while disc golf is mocked. Hear me out...
Slings have been common and available for literally forever, for everybody - at all ages one can use it with just one hand. They are easy to make and are basically free. There's no need of a dicipline to wield one and because of that there's no use to come up with rules or competitions. You can't regulate them and anybody can teach and learn to use it, so there's no use for associations or grand guilds of slingers. It's basically a free weapon for self defence or hunting.
As a king or emperor of old, I wouldn't want to give my scholars an order to write down accounts of how the peasants can weponize themselves with a sling and devastate armored troops with modern weapons. I would tell them to write about my superior weapons that no other force should dare to challenge. :)
I agree, meanwhile a bow in Asiatic culture is from the higher classes
i play a game with slings and arrows where i try to land them into a tire from various distances and conditions. i also play the same game with rocks using my feet. with the right rock and footwear, i can flick a stone directly into someones face from considerable distance with barely a two-step shuffle.
@joshuawayne9811 it seems that ground definitely was not to his advantage. I think the extra muscle energy required to just keep his balance on those loose rocks definitely affected his endurance and accuracy
20 years ago when I was making an throwing slings, I remember reading that you weren't taken into the Roman sling corps unless you could reliably hit a melon at 100 yds, or thereabouts. Another thing about slingshots is that you could fire projectiles over walls
Every time you make a video it makes me want whatever weapon you happen to be talking about
I am Balearic myself and I apreciate this type of videos were I can discover new things about our ancestors, Thank you for this video and you have amazing skills with the sling too.👍
Great, fellow slingers!
I spent years slinging(the most difficult task I ever learnt).The difficult part is accuracy...
-then I got into throwing javelins with a string and the force and accuracy is amazing.
what is it called, is it Atlatl?
Very nice, I hope your channel will be blessed by the allmighty algorithms!
thanks
Great job guys! Know that your work is appreciated!
Due to shoulder problems I cannot use a sling the way you are doing but if I attach a sling to a 4’6” staff I can throw a stone the size of a hens egg well over 100yards. Which is quite good for me as I’m in my mid 70s.
We'll have to have a side-by-side comparison in person some day! Thanks for bringing some attention to this amazing, but forgotten weapon!
i'd be curious to get some information on staff slings as well. It's nice to see people putting effort into this kind of information.
Exactly and I belive David used a staff sling on goliath considering the much heavier rock and easier aiming since u have a straight stick and also because Goliath said to David "Am I a dog that you come at me with sticks and stones" why would David carry his staff and sling up to Goliath only to drop his staff?
Keen on staff slings video too
@@Daylon91 staff sling less portable/concealed and the goalithe would of been more prepared and might of actually used his shield
@@HistoricalWeapons it was a boy though. Goliath was 9'6 he probably wasn't intimated and was actually insulted that after 40 days of mocking their God and calling for someone to fight him a shepherd boy came out. David charged Goliath first and it makes sense with a staff sling because I don't think you'd charge forward with a sling in hand. Either way it was obvious that Goliath seen his weapons since he said "am I a dog that you come at me with sticks and stones?"
@@HistoricalWeapons Goliath already knew before the fight started that he had "sticks and stones"
Keep it up! I have been practicing slinging whenever I could since I was a kid, picked up throwing axes 7 years ago, and picked up throwing knives this year. I love to see ancient projectile weapons getting love!
This is an excellent video. I'm happy to finally see some direct measurements of sling performance. I'm most impressed by the numbers from the 41in sling with 50ish-gram stones. Historical lead glandes were often around 50 grams. At 70-75 m/s, I imagine lead sling bullets would be quite dangerous against unarmored targets. That's as much energy as a shot from a powerful warbow & potentially focused on the point of lead sling bullet. There were even a few ancient sling bullets with bronze points or blades. There's one from Cyprus that's 58g. Such a sling bullet might penetrate like an arrow from a powerful warbow if flying blade first.
I'm surprised by how relatively little kinetic energy increased with heavier projectiles. Some distance records with heavier projectiles indicate very high kinetic energy (perhaps 300-400 J, or even more). It'd be interesting to see more tests with other slingers & slings. It is notable that this slinger managed slightly greater velocity with baseball-weight stones than the fastest fastball ever recorded. & this slinger probably isn't the absolute best in the world.
Regarding heavier stones, I think Luis Pons Livermore could probably throw heavier stones better than the slinger in the video. Luis is a human trebuchet, He was chronographed throwing a 200 gram stone at a velocity of 52 m/s with a sling that was probably just a little shorter than the linen sling in the video.
Unfortunately I don't know of any distance records of heavy sling projectiles except for Melvin Gaylor who threw a 212 gram stone about 350 metres. (Which is frankly impressive IMHO)
@@thejackinati2759 Vernon Morton supposedly slung a 283.5g projectile 258.2m. Both Morton's & Gaylor's record would require around 360 J in a vacuum. SEB also did around 220m with a 300g stone (at least 323 J), using a 130cm sling (quite long). Based on those numbers & the data point from Luis Pons Livermore you mention, I've long been confident about the power of heavier sling projectiles. These new numbers show that even light stones can manage respectable energy figures.
@@b.h.abbott-motley2427 Another great thing with this data... I think it goes quite well with Xenophon's mention of sling use in the Anabasis. The Persian slingers were, according to him, throwing with 'fist sized' stones out to around ~200 metres.
Now It would be cool to see distance records for lead projectiles, but I think that getting double the distance with lead with some Rhodian peeps is very possible.
Note that medical texts of the Roman Era have extensive techniques on removing sling stones from bodies and having penetrated armor.
they'd be dangerous against armored targets too, considering the blunt impact force // Spanish conquistadors despite their breastplates & helmets were terrified of Aztec Slingers
160J is the same energy as a .22LR bullet at the muzzle. Some of those heavier stones had energy exceeding that of centerfire pistol rounds like .380 Auto
Yeah, that's because of their weight. They don't have the velocity for lethal penetration.
@austinhuber3131
Penetration isn't necessary. That level of blunt/ sharp impact will crush bone and cause massive soft tissue trauma.
I remember reading somewhere that a group of slingers will always outdistance a group of archers.
this is in the context of using military sling bullets and military arrow, in this case the military arrow is too heavy it will only reach around 150m-250m. anything lighter and it is meant for flight archery which is harmless. the sling as proven here has more kinetic energy so the heavy projectiles can still reach over 250 meters
@@HistoricalWeapons the Turks especially and Tatars from what I've heard Lukaz Nawalny say also used light arrows for battle. 30 grams or more. I'm guessing the Tatars also had heavier arrows as well but even the mongols had different weight arrows for different situations.
Xenephon mentions that slingers outdistanced Persian archers whereas their own Cretan archers could even get their arrows there
@@Daylon91 couldn’t or could
@@Daylon91 then I’m estimating 80lb draw weights with 7 gpp
The sling and atlatl are unique in projectile weaponry because they are nothing but mere extensions of the human arm which together can generate a lot of power, though i guess it turned out that "less-powerful-more accurate" weapons like bows and crossbows were better. And it seems like that the far east cultures like chinese, japanese, mongols,... didn't use the sling at all for some reason, at least not for war afaik.
Far East for china it’s cuz crossbow
The Japanese used slings in warfare, though it was seemingly more prevalent during the Genpei than it was during the Sengoku period. sling use was also quite frequent in Religious festivals held in May where sling fights between villagers were commonly staged (They unsurprisingly turned out to be very bloody and were subsequently banned in the 1600's).
Korea also used slings in a similar way in Seokjeon or 'Stone battles'. These were very popular in Korea, though surprisingly it turns out the Japanese actually banned those too... Turns out it sucks getting pelted with rocks in any era!
Crossbows are more powerful than sling. Atlatl also weaker than bow in penetration due to bending of shaft
More on their style of warfare, as slings is quite hard to used while riding a horse.
@@AnkunFang That depends how you define.. mote powerful.
I can sling farther then I can get a crossbow volts to go.
A crossbow will penitrate.
While a sling slams.
Both are very good in the right hands.
Awesome work!
As a child I made slings. Something around 32” to 36” long. It actually tore chunks bark off of a mature willow tree. I was maybe 10 or 12. I stopped using trees as targets. But an amazing tool. Fun.
Same. I learned my first lesson on aerodynamics because irregular stones would be far less predictible than smooth, fairly rounded ones. I made bows from mimosa and arrows from a local weed that grew literally straight as an arrow and tipped them with wicked 2 inch long thorns. crappy bows and arrows but great fun.
Great stuff! Always love to see some more sling testing!
That was super interesting thank you for sharing
I wonder if a modern hunting sling could use a guided dart instead of a stone. I mean hunting for food, not for sport. The fact that the guided dart always hits regardless of hunter skill is a feature - not a flaw.
Compared to a gun or bow, a hunting sling+dart could be carried in a pocket at all times, or worn around your neck or something. And it could be used to hunt birds on the wing.
I think simple stones is better because that’s the whole point of this weapon being very portable so u don’t even carry ammo
There records of greek slingers using arrow like projectiles on the romans but its probably not worth
I'll try this.
I'm not quite sure what you mean by guided, but there is a cestrosphendone/cestros which is a dart throwing sling. We have accounts of Macedonians using them, but it's not clear exactly how they worked
This is my interpretation
czcams.com/video/lvH-Lm5xmA4/video.html
@@StonesSticksBones I mean guided like a guided missile. It could use a mechanism similar to the submunitions of the Starstreak anti-aircraft missile - a rotating guidance fin with an electromagnet clutch to control which direction to turn in.
That way, you wouldn't need to have perfect aim in order to hit a target (such as a flying bird, which would normally be practically impossible to hit).
Just like they in the past and David and Goliath I love the story
for a further comparison, a 22 long rifle cartridge has around 200 joules of energy. Comparable to the sling with a 225g projectile. That is pretty impressive for a string.
1:19 kamehkameha
Nice work. I’m new to archery. It led me here. I’m aware of the atl atl you mentioned but only from the context of the film “quest for fire”. It was a big deal for a twelve year old ,especially when Rae dawn chong showed her…anyway. the atl atl made almost as big an impression as did Rae dawn Chong’s …anyway. Good video. Tell me more about this atl atl while I day dream about Rae dawn Chong’s ….anyway.
200 joules from a sling! Absolutely amazing!
as you said, many peoples used the slingshot or (sometimes called in medieval Italian frombola), one of these peoples are definitely the Irish Celts; sometimes they used special projectiles called tathlum (Old Irish Gaelic) made by mixing human brains with lime and letting it harden. They are mentioned as a weapon of Lug used to kill Balor and often used by the hero Chuchulain
It's so nice to see that I'm not the only lover, and practice of slinging. Thank you.
thats more powerful than warbows, but composite crossbows are superior in energy and penetration
It's more powerful than yew warbows. Manchu bows deliver even more kinetic energy, if the current test can be believed & scales up.
This is just kinetic energy. People forget arrow heads are much sharper
I made slings as a kid after reading a craft book for boys in the 70's. The pouch was the leather tongue from an old shoe. I could also rig one pretty good from a handkerchief . We had a creek nearby where I could find good stones. On a good day i could hit a tree trunk but it was still fun .
I tried skeet shooting with my sling. Score 1/25
Impressive. I'm sure my scores would look more like 0/25 no matter how many rounds I shot.
@@cristianespinal9917 that’s what I thought going into it. I had never tried a moving target before.
Your enthusiasm knows no bounds👍👍👍
What a cool project! And great footage :)
That was pretty interesting to see. To really give these tests some context to what the velocities mean in practical terms, you should set up some targets for the slinger to hit, maybe some sheets of mild steel or brass around 2 - 3mm thick to act as an armor analog. Granted a flat sheet of metal is hardly an accurate representation of armor but ti does give the viewer an idea of just what a sling bullet can do; much more so than just numbers on a chart.
big stones and long slings would be devastating
Big stones were used with staff slings at close range. They hit much harder then normal slings and you're much more accurate
It will keel
I imagine that big stones on long sling would wreck one's joints, if they were possible at all.... Huge angular momentum.
@@lscibor staff slings were very common and no the it wouldn't. U can see guys on CZcams using one and destroying coconuts and watermelon.
@@Daylon91 staff slings are great for much bigger payload and non moving targets like fortifications.
Brilliant documentary!
Nice video. Content was good . I liked the bit of history which is definitely still shrouded in alot of questions and mystery. I've been slinging for years with a short Sling just to plunk cans out back but I'm confident enough to bring it for defense where I cannot bring my bow. They are both very effective weapons for defense and hunting while camping or wherever. Most people would see my rlqrist band and never know I could use it to scare off large predators!
Awesome video. I really like this work you're doing.
Thanks
So if I did my math right, 115 grams is 4 oz, and there is 437.5 grains in an oz, so that should be 1750 grains. And 60 meters per sec converts to 196 fps. By comparison, a .45 ACP shoots a 230 grain projectile at 850 fps. Deriving energy requires squaring the velocity, so energy favors the higher velocity of the .45 round, but momentum is simply mass times velocity and favors the higher mass of the sling. So the sling is generating a little less than half the energy of the .45, 149 foot pounds verses the .45's 368 foot pounds, but is also generating nearly twice the momentum, 49 ft'/lbs per sec verses 27 ft/lbs per sec for the .45. Sorry to bring imperial into your tidy metric system.
Not bad for a piece of string.
Awesome historical slinging!
agreed
Really awesome videos 🔥. Looking forward to the comparisons.
Wow that's a bunch of rocks thrown. Kudos my friend.
That "Swoooeesh" sound would have been intimidating, in a battle 😬
Really interesting. Be interesting to see data from cast led bullets as stone rocks were back up ammo once the led was exhausted.
Very interesting thank you
love slings, great content. id like to see staff slings involved if youre going to test atlatl against sling and bow!
This is awesome man. So cool 😎
thanks man
Fantastic video
great video
What if you use a longer sling? Could we shoot 2,5lb proyectiles at short distances?
Archaic Arm has chucked up to 700g stones, so, a bit over 1.5 lbs with a short sling. Check out joe meadmaker, he's thrown a 15lbs watermelon with a long sling. czcams.com/video/EbD8fXLGgkk/video.html
@@IronGoober I just saw it. Amazing.
For heavy projectiles staffslings are a thing. Can't be bothered to google it right now, but i heard about some spanish WW1-ish units using staffslings to lob grenades in the enemys trenches...
@@andreasgoebel1269 true, but staff slinging requires mechanical effort, swinging a regular sling does not.
@@gn2650 Oh but it does require effort. As much effort as regular throwing without a sling requires.
The whirling motion that you often see is from my own experience more for tentioning the strings and getting the whole thing in the right position for the last half circle where most of the energy is put into the throw.
But i have to admit that i never build and used a staff sling before, so maybe it's a bit more effort.
Very interesting indeed. Could you possibly compare this performance with that of a staff sling ?
They actually used pointed glands for slings. If any of those sling shots hit even on my chest I would be died.
If I were going into battle during the Roman Empire, my preferred bullet weight would probably be ~85g (3oz) One of my throws with the 41” was 88g 68ms 203J 6.0kgms.
So an 85g bullet going 70m/s is going to give close to max range, but with frightening impact at the receiving end…
Then you'd have loved being in the Roman army in Pannonia. There are a great deal of lead bullet finds in that weight range!
Yes and it was certainly done for a reason…
A hint toward what my next video project will be.
@@Archaic-Arms Noice!
I actually have a sling glande that came from that region... and once I can figure out how to make moulds using the bullet to make an impression I will likely cast a few and see how they fly.
Given that Irongoober was able to hit ~350+ metres with stones, with lead I think you could easily hit 500 metres.
Don’t forget the shield
ur reward is women not money though
Good data table.I grateful.
Answering a reoccurring question, the data is organised by increasing projectile weight, with 3 slings (long, medium and short, in that order). That's why the speed is generally going down over time, not as a result of exhaustion. I do archery and slinging, and I find full-power slinging to actually be less effort than the 50lb bow I use (even with heavy projectiles). Slinging for several hours straight is no issue at all, and performance does not degrade as far as I can tell. If your comparing sling vs warbow, I don't think it's any comparison as far as user effort is concerned.
I agree completely!
Nice video!
Excellent video, I would love to see the energy comparison done where you had good footine
so the 41" seems to pitch harder, is there a length vs. accuracy trade off? and at what length do you start to get diminishing returns?
any chance you could post the table of results in the description, or as a pinned comment?
Nice
Nice !
Did you publish those tables somewhere?
Yes, I am intrested in that comparsion :) However only KE is not enough because bow arrow shaft is thin flexible and arrow can't delever all ke, a loot of energy is lost, but the energy is applayed over smaller area than sling bullet.. but KE is really intresting and I cannot wait for you comparsion. For javvelin you probably should involve some olympic thrower and ask him to throw without run up ;)
Should have used Sheppards sling as well, they were likely far more common in warfare than remaining art shows. David was said to have a sling and a cane/stick when he got his stones to fight Goliath, it never said he sat down his stick he was holding for seemingly no reason, which means he likely had a Sheppards sling specifically.
Thank you! That was fun to watch. If it could cut, pierce, and penetrate as well as arrows might have stayed on the battlefield longer in larger numbers. I don't see Crecy and Agincourt going the way they did with slingers. Nor Legnica and Mohi. would rather hunt lions, and tigers, and bears (oh my) with bows and arrows than slings and stones. Or the deer and elk I did hunt with bows and arrows.
Looks like once you get up to a 125g projectile and larger, you start generating as much energy and more than your average .22 long rifle round. That's pretty impressive.
It would seem that in a close area ,the short sling would be the most effective even though the speed seems slower, but it appears to take a little less energy to use,but they all seem to be very strenuous to use especially over an extended period of time.a young man's weapon.
Something that bears consideration is the retained energy at impact. Knowing the "muzzle energy" is certainly important data but the ability to kill or wound at distance is essentially the point. Given the weight of the projectiles even moderate velocity could make them very dangerous so studying what energy they have at what distance could be quite revealing. Maximum practical weight delivered at maximum practical range equals what potential to kill or wound?
Can you supply a link to the chronograph you were using
4:14 i was completely ready for that bird to drop
I'm wondering if the sling could hurl plumbata since the projectile shape is roughly the same as the weight on the plumbata.
I'm not sure you can compare projectile energy without also testing accuracy at the same time. I suspect you can put considerably more energy into an un-aimed sling projectile than one which is aimed.
When watermelon test? 😎
But seriously, that was super interesting as always, thanks for the content!
So if I get this correctly, long slings allows great velocities with lighter slings, while short sling allows you to hurl heavy stone with potentially huge energy? From physics perspective, this makes all the sense in the world.
Long slings are more powerful, but not always practical to use (see 10:09 for big stone data with long slings). Big stones and short slings go well together for close-range targets, and don't require much space to operate.
How does that compare with the kinetic energy of of, say, a 9mm bullet? (FMJ ball would probably be the most appropriate comparison, as that's a military item.
Just a Looter collecting rocks
I shoot both sling & bow, and would love to have that dataset - or at least the report. Though I injured my shoulder with the sling(SLAP tear), it is my favourite weapon and I am looking to train my other arm to its use.
You can DEFINITELY learn to sling with your non-dominant hand. It is faster than learning from the beginning because you have your dominant side that can already sling to translate into your non-dominant side. I started with my left (I'm right dominant) after hurting my elbow. It only took a few week before I could throw ok with my left. I can get decent power with my left, but consistency is lacking. Anyway, just wanted to share my experience! Acroballistics also learned to use the left after an injury, he is almost as good with his left as he is with his right!
Video on the staff sling please.
I have been using a sling for almost 89 years. Technique ls simila r to the one shown. Projectile similar to a tiny modern fot ball. Range about 450 yards. heat would newver mely lead. Romans carried tongs to extraxt pellets for reuse. Slings easily ouydistanced arrows at 180 uarrds. . David uswed a staff sling. Slower but more accurate.
This should be in the olymics.
As a Man named David of this world, I love when the slinger gets a good shot off, and you can hear the CRACK of the sling whip!
Now you're Cooking with some Gas!
I spent some time working up a sling, NOT as EASY as it Looks or one Thinks! I did the same with Archery, Much more Forgiving in Tech and Style.
Went back to muzzle loading Stoners, Also NOT as Easy as they Look.
Without the Sling, David wouldn't have defeated Goliath. Their such a underrated weapon than an arrow and bow.
I can imagine thousands of Template cavaliers running behind you very piss off because off that smash in the helmet
English Longbow did around 160-180 joules.. quite impressive what these slings can do..
The rockman sling was discovered in a cave in California. Made from blackberry vine cordage, Super old, 10,000ish? and its tapered design is impressively designed. Look it up!
awesome ill check it out
Yes. So long as there's brambles about, you can make a braided cord sling anywhere, as well as from several other plants.
Which crack 10,000 years ago? Man that would be horrifying lol.
Blue Anchor beach near Watcher?
For all the skilled craftsmanship that went into bows and arrows, the training and status of historical archers... to have that performance rivaled by some rope and a rock. Humbling. I wonder why we don't hear about slings being used much in 'medieval' (1000-1400) times. Is it a high-skill weapon? Maybe other weapons & armor just improved enough to make it not worth it? Bows got much stronger w/ better materials (I heard the Ottoman bow wasn't developed until after the Mongol conquests) and horses were bigger than ancient ones.. hmm.
3:51 Jeeze, 70-80 m/s at 50-80 g? I think we can expect those numbers from a high quality bows in the ~100+ lb draw range no? Either way, +100 J kinetic is very impressive.
Because kinetic energy is not everything. The force is not concentrated on a sharp point, it’s blunt
@@ianuser9650 Most lead sling bullets weren't sharp but had rather narrow points & were small. A few did have sharp bronze or iron blades. Based on ancient sources, sling bullets did penetrate people's bodies at times & need to be extracted.
Slings did see use in medieval Europe, particularly in the Iberian Peninsula. According to Jean Froissart, Castilian armies included thousands of slingers into at least the late 14th century. Even into the age of the arquebus, slings in Spain, France, & the Americas impressed certain European observers.
However, it is important to note arrows are generally much more efficient at wounding than sling projectiles. (Ancient sling bullets of lead with bronze or iron blades or point might be an exception.) Current evidence also suggests that warbows, while not very accurate, are more accurate than slings. (Experienced slingers can struggle to hit targets at even close range.) Slings require more horizontal space, which may have allowed massed archer formations to be denser than massed slingers. I suspect slings also telegraph more, though this may depend on technique. In any case, the accuracy difference would probably have given archers the edge in skirmishing & the density & penetration difference probably would have given them the edge in mass formation. English archers defeated Castilian slingers at Nájera 1367. Froissart mentioned how the slings wounded & unhorse soldiers in armor, & damaged armor, but that the arrows shot against the slingers wounded & killed.
I do sometimes wonder why medieval & Renaissance slingers don't appear to have used lead projectiles regularly. In theory, heavy lead bullets should be even more effective against armor than heavy stones. The difference may have been marginal & not worth the cost of lead bullets.
@@b.h.abbott-motley2427 yes but not as sharp as broad heads
@@b.h.abbott-motley2427 i think cuz crossbows replaced slings in medieval period with more kinetic energy 200-400 joules see Andreas bischer
The energy in some of those shots was comparable to a handgun. I saw a number of readings above 160 J; a common 9 mm round goes about 470 -- roughly three times -- but does it with a bullet massing around 10 g. A .22 rimfire, on the other hand, needs to be fired from a *rifle* to get into the same energy range -- can't do it from a handgun barrel.
The speed is actually superb. Could be very leathal . Much more better than a catapult.
Atlatls. The world needs more on atlals.
This is the Forgotten Roman secret weapon, the Roman Slingers and slings were arguably the best in history can outrange many other projectile hand weapons...they could even outrange crossbows!
European Slingers were so deadly you can still find them writings of them in the battlefield up until the 18th century and historians talk about their effectiveness even by that time.
i will say some bows and crossbows can outrange slings, it just depends on design. most military arrows are too heavy for long distance though
Nice! The video would have been better if the energy of the sling was computed in foot-pounds. Energy in foot-pounds is easier to conceptualize than in joules.
However most of the scientific world is in joules. I’m Canadian so we use both units but I agree foot pounds is easier to conceptualizer
For reference a 124 grain 9mm bullet fired from a typical handgun has approximately 476 joules of energy.
MOST FAMOUS SLINGER OF ALL TIME = The boy David who slew Goliath: a real life giant who possessed amazing strength ( research how much the tip of his spear weighed, along with his breastplate, helmet, and sheild!)
I see what you did there. And it worked.
I cant believe he's attacking that ship with rocks and everyone doesnt see it