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And also explains why the bow was much more popular. Gotta try much harder to shoot yourself.
Thanks for this post. Sometimes you need a relatively simple tool for controlling a problem. I think this is something that I need to employ here on my place. I have a problem with deer. My property is effectively an interstate highway for them with lots of delicious grazing available in my native grass pasture and in my orchards and gardens. I have fenced the important areas where we grow our food using deer fencing…
My guess is that deer wouldn't be frightened by a drone but the sound is pretty annoying. Maybe it would be a good Pavlovian conditioning trigger to pair with some other deterrent.
Could you put sprinklers out there?
A naive estimate of accuracy is that, at a rotation speed of 5/sec (1800 degrees/sec) a 1 ms error in release time causes a 1.8 degrees aim error, or 3 yards at 100 yards. You could hit the broad side of a barn, but not a buffalo. But humans can’t reliably time things to 1 ms, and good slingers aim better than that, so there’s more to the technique than the naive version.
The culture of my home island of Mallorca has a pretty deep link to slings, the ancient Greeks and Carthaginians both named us after our slingers, and later on we became a key Roman foothold in the punic wars partly because of the slingers, who became part of an elite unit of shock troops in the Roman Empire It was our weapon of choice for defence, protecting us from pirates and would-be conquerors as well as farming…
The Federation hosts open days where only a handful of people show up. Top slingers from the islands are treated with great acclaim when they travel to international competitions but at home few know who they are. The Balearic Government and local councils show little interest in supporting or promoting this activity.
I can't help feel it could and should be much more popular, with an injection of support and enthusiasm, especially as the islands try to rediscover a post-tourism identity.
But I don't see any evidence of this yet. I continue to do my little part in telling everyone I know how fascinating this sport is.
And yes, how incredibly difficult! I had probably 50 attempts before I hit a large target just 7 or 8 metres away.
Around age 4, I learned how to flake spear points from a local flint deposit. That, string and Elmer's glue from mom & dad's repair goodies got me into the spear biz. Band-Aids were in demand.
A couple years later, I'd made arrows and single curve bows from pine branches and bowstring from braided water rushes. Flint knapping scaled down well to arrowheads and string+glue still worked.
Then I read about atlatls, and found new interest in my spears. Finally, I discovered slings, and there was no going back. I got good enough that in later life, I had no trouble crediting scientific studies that proposed early humans brought down a great range of game species with slings.
Alaska was a great place to be a kid.
Thanks for this post. Sometimes you need a relatively simple tool for controlling a problem. I think this is something that I need to employ here on my place. I have a problem with deer. My property is effectively an interstate highway for them with lots of delicious grazing available in my native grass pasture and in my orchards and gardens. I have fenced the important areas where we grow our food using deer fencing…
The sling seems like it has a steeper learning curve and colorful failure modes, like breaking a sliding glass door or somesuch. You might have better luck with a fairly low draw-weight bow and some blunt rubber-tipped arrows. My guess is that deer wouldn't be frightened by a drone but the sound is pretty annoying. Maybe it would be a good Pavlovian conditioning trigger to pair with some other deterrent. Could you pu…
I have a bow and have considered that option but I think the lethality could be a problem or the possibility of injuring a fawn. I just want to keep them on the other side of the fence. I would employ a drone to chase them since that would be fun but my place is in a no-fly radius near a small airport so that isn't an option without assuming some risk.
There is too much ground to cover for sprinklers to be effective even though the paths are well-established. I have tried path modification but that just shifts the crossings back and forth along the fence line. I have nice native grasses and plants and some really tasty fruit trees so my place is attractive.
The slingshot does the trick for the times when they are less than 35m away. Farther than that it gets dicey and they will just stand still until one is hit before they amble off into the trees.
This sling has better range though there is a learning curve. That will be the fun part.
Slinging is hard, requires a lot of dedication and systematic practice. Stil, the feeling when the rock hits a target and "explodes" is worth it.
The culture of my home island of Mallorca has a pretty deep link to slings, the ancient Greeks and Carthaginians both named us after our slingers, and later on we became a key Roman foothold in the punic wars partly because of the slingers, who became part of an elite unit of shock troops in the Roman Empire It was our weapon of choice for defence, protecting us from pirates and would-be conquerors as well as farming…
Glad to see this here, Balearic slinging has a rich and impactful history. But sadly this is not much appreciated today on the islands. The Federation hosts open days where only a handful of people show up. Top slingers from the islands are treated with great acclaim when they travel to international competitions but at home few know who they are. The Balearic Government and local councils show little interest in sup…
As with anything non-tourism related, it's can be a bit hard to find these events when the only advertising might in the town hall website (if that!) and sometimes instagram
The culture of my home island of Mallorca has a pretty deep link to slings, the ancient Greeks and Carthaginians both named us after our slingers, and later on we became a key Roman foothold in the punic wars partly because of the slingers, who became part of an elite unit of shock troops in the Roman Empire It was our weapon of choice for defence, protecting us from pirates and would-be conquerors as well as farming…
Hey paisano! Not sure about you but me as a kid in Palma we had 3months of sling lessons during PE class!