First Projectile Caught on Tape

With my sweet wife behind the camera, I caught the first projectile on film. They're usually moving so fast that any digital camera that I can afford won't pick them up. But this was not the only thing. Apples have now moved to the top of the possible perfect projectiles list, they are inexpensive, slick on the outside, just the right weight, and about the right size, and did I mention...edible? There's a quality we haven't considered. On the sling just before this one, I came just a foot away from hitting a telephone pole 150 yards away. I am slinging a wine-sap apple here.

slingmoore.com

If my father-in-law can do it...

In general, one should be wary of sentences that begin with "if my father in law can do it..." But in this case, I must say, this is a very good first sling, in the rain, with two bad knees, and a light projectile. Maybe it's him, maybe military men are prone to excellence... or maybe... just maybe... it's the sling... Nah. The sling is nothing it's the slinger that matters. As I have said before and have confirmed every time I sling. Slinging is all skill, and perhaps a bit of good fortune, and of course I'm sure the sling from slingmoore didn't hurt. One more point of interest is that this is tennis back-board is an excellent practice ground. The field is small and contained, the projectiles abundant and cheap, and the best thing is... they come back to you. I would highly recommend this to anyone starting out. If you don't have a sling and would like to purchase one. Email me.

slingin in SC
slingmoore.blogspot.com
slingmoore@gmail.com

South Carolina Slinging

The great thing about slinging in South Carolina is that there are tons of wide-open flat spaces. Many clean shooting ranges everywhere... tons of buoys right off shore... targets out the wazoo. The major problem with slinging in South Carolina is that... there are absolutely no rocks... I've been so starved for good projectiles that I have picked up raggedy pieces of asphalt that were so pock-marked they could have been asteroids and thought to myself..."hey there's a nice one." But I have a plan. Circa 1770's when hundreds of ships would sail from England with their holds full of enormous basalt boulders used as ballasts. Upon arriving in the States, they would chuck the rocks and fill the ships up with merchandise to ship back to England which was hungry for all sorts of products/raw-materials from here. So in hopes that some of these ballast rocks (now used as jetties) have broken down over the years into some tolerable size for slinging, I'm going to head over there and see what I can find to sling.


Have rock will sling...
Slingmoore.com

Splash-down in the marshes of South Carolina

It's funny how sometimes you find your self on the top of a three story marsh-overlook venue and you just happen to have your sling in your pocket.  Does that ever happen to you?  Well this happened to me today.  Nothing special about this video except that you can see the rock land out in the marsh, just a little white splash out among the reeds. I also had to contend with a low roof and high guard rail, but the sling is versatile, and it was easy to just keep the rotations parallel to the ground. I'm using my favorite sling and the usual back pitch to send it, and of course... my little man wanted to help throw the "big rock." (no marsh creatures were injured during the filming of this video as far as we know).  Also this was done from Palmetto Islands County Park Observation Tower, and I was slinging straight North)

my first squirrel

I'm standing in my backyard with my sling in one hand, and a tennis ball in the other, and a squirrel is sitting up on a tree branch munching on a walnut... and I'm thinking to myself..."I wonder if I could hit him..." so I loaded the ball... back pitched it... around once, around twice, and released the ball kind of slower but squarely in the squirrel's direction...

In the past, the safest place to be around me when I'm slinging is near the thing I'm aiming at... I've been so unlikely to hit my target...that it's a very safe spot... but this time... I hit the little guy. Good news is... I just barely brushed his tail... but the better news is... he moved and his tail that I hit was exactly where he had been a moment before... not sure what to think...

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slingmoore@gmail.com

In search of... The Perfect Projectile #2

I just may have found it.  The perfect projectile.  A student of mine somehow acquired this polished piece of steel.  It weighs just under a pound, is as smooth as silk.  It's perfect save two small details which are revealed in the fact that I haven't slung it yet.  Here's why:  1.  I'm afraid to lose it as it would certainly go farther than anything I've ever thrown. 2.  I'm a bit afraid of what it might do. I found an academic paper on slinging recently that had calculated the terminal velocity for sling projectiles on level ground at 128 ft/sec...which translates to...87 mph... which seems low, I'll have to read it more carefully, but in any case, I personally am not interested in the a fore mentioned ball of steel hitting anything except a large pile of dirt wherein which I can find it... and not be found guilty of reckless endangerment.  So the only major problem with this projectile?...It's too nice, too expensive, too rare... It'd be like having a vintage Porche 911, who'd wanna drive it?  Just a tad too perfect...

Back to Perfect Projectile #1

slinging steel...what else?
glen
Slingmoore

Making an Impact

heading into the Pacific Ocean but... at what speed?

A discussion ensued today at work over the relative power of a sling projectile versus bullets. The only academic article I could find on the subject, "The sling, The forgotten weapon of antiquity," states that even light sling stones can have a terminal velocity of up to 128 ft/sec or 87.2 miles per hour... and now I am chomping at the bit to aim a speedometer at these little guys and see if we can get a good reading... because in the end... I don't want to know what's possible, I know want to know how fast I'm actually slinging.