Went about making my sling today. The first one didn't work at all well, it was just a piece of flat material with strings at either end - the tennis ball kept falling out of the holder. So went to work in the shed, cut a larger piece of material from a pair of old jeans and riveted the sides of it into a pouch. Also to reinforce the holes through which the string goes, I sewed in some metal washers and then took Flora for (another) walk.
Met a bloke and his young son in the park, he had grown up in Central Africa and had spent the weekend making a bow for his son, so he was very interested in the sling (he read a lot of military history as well). Initially the results were disappointing - I couldn't get more than 20 yards or so and the accuracy was non-existant. I couldn't understand this as the videos on the net of people slinging tennis balls showed then getting at least 150 yards. Then I found that by rotating the sling anti-clockwise, the tennis ball went like a bullet - I was getting about 150 yards with an underarm throw. So success! 150 yards with a tennis ball suggests that it's quite believable to get at least twice that distance with lead shot. The Romans would inscribe their shot with little messages, like 'Kiss Pompey's arse' and 'Dexa!' (latin for 'Catch!')
Here are pictures of the sling. I think I might replace the nylon cord with paracord, its much softer and lighter.
No comments:
Post a Comment