How to make a sling

This video shows how to make a nice medieval style sling from cord and leather and a really quick and 'dirty' sling from para cord and tape.

[walkerman]

As a kid, me and my friends made slings from the tongues of old shoes, and cords from anywhere. I got to be a fair hand with a sling, and I think I may try my old hands on one again.

[Trollvolk]

Tod is like the Bob Ross of weapon crsfting... " just experiment around, you know, just to see what happens" XD

[siestatime]

It's a pleasure to listen to someone jump back and forth easily between metric and imperial units, and not fall into a childish pissing contest.

[snuffle]

I live in an area of mostly sand and clay but recently they have been doing street renovation and have hauled in beautiful stone which I pick up for my slingshot. I always wanted tolearn the sling so now I shall drive my wife crazy with pockets full of 70 gm stones. Spring is in the air. Now to find an old sign. Thanks Tod. I'm a 70 yr old kid again.

[forgottenrights]

Cheap, compact, and deadly. It's basically the ancient handgun. It's underrated as a weapon, as it has cheap, reusable ammunition, requires little training, and can be quickly made from common materials. The bow might be more deadly, but the sling is a very accessible weapon that doesn't require a lot of time or resources.

[kevinfelton]

"So I'm gonna show you how to make this weapon, then you can mess about have a go do what you like".

Congratulations you're an honorary American 🇺🇸🦅🏈

[greenjackl]

Most under rated ancient weapon of all. Imagine 500 peasant levies armed with these, having used them since childhood, concentrating their fire on a 10 yard stretch of the enemy line at about 10 shots a minute. I have the loop on the opposite side of the middle finger, it feels more natural.

[ianknight]

Thank you, very interesting and I will certainly make a leather sling
When we were kids back in the 60s we made what we called ‘throwing arrows’. These were longish home made arrows propelled by a piece of string with a knot tied in the end. The string was wrapped around the arrow beneath the flights and passed over the knot. The string was then pulled out straight and tight and gripped along with the arrow behind arrow point. The arrow was then launched by releasing the arrow and keeping hold of the string. We used to accurately throw the arrows a distance of over 100 yards.

[johndarby]

Loved the 'nasty' para-cord one. First time I've seen that.
Easy to make, got all the tools and materials, and easy to replace if you need another.
Yes... you'd be embarrassed if someone saw you. but the fun factor will still be there.
Anyway - I have black para-cord... not as bad as day-glo orange

[JS-oboh]

When I was 8 years old, a cousin introduced me to the shepherd's sling. I got good enough that I could hit an 8 inch diameter target at 20 paces fairly consistent, but my cousin was absolutely amazing with it. He could put his shots into a 3 inch diameter bullseye consistently. I remember watching him put 15 shots consecutively on target before we quit for ice cream. Anyone know if there is a Guinness World Record for shepherd slinging?

[lancerd]

You may already know about this, but since you mentioned quick and dirty it's possible to make a perfectly functional sling with nothing but a single piece of string. You just tie a dogshank knot in the middle which creates your pouch and then do your knot and loop in the ends like normal. The nice part is you can just untie it and you still have a useful length of uncut string.

[AFCAWorldBodybuildingArchive]

*Breaking News: Amount of deaths in suburban areas increases drastically. Toilet paper wrapped in duct tape found in victims' backyards next to the bodies...*

[beansmalone]

I practice with acorns. they're easy to find and sort of consistent in size and shape. they pack a wallop.

[SmevMev]

If anyone's trying this for the first time, remember the shot travels at right angles to the radius of the circle you're swinging it in, so swinging anti-clockwise, release at 3 o'clock to hit at 12 o'clock - a quarter of a circle before your strings line up with your target.

[bingtim]

No material is needed in the pouch of your paracord sling-the loop grips the stone perfectly fine. I didn't believe it until I tried it( I expected it was stupid & once I'd debunked it I was going to add leather for the pouch), having seen YouTube tutorials on braiding open loop slings, but I've never had a stone fall through or slip! You can sling anything that the loop can cradle up to quite big rocks. Braiding a loop sling is a very ancient design & you can make one in the field with just a knife to strip the outer layer from bramble stems (having trimmed the thorns off first) & using 6 lengths to then braid a sling. No other tools or materials necessary. You can make them from many strings & twines, like paracord, though more traditional hemp/cotton/linen/wool etc looks really ancient & authentic.

I'd always tell anyone starting to learn slinging to wear a helmet of some kind-even just a hard hat- as when I 1st started, a little too often I'd sling a stone I think, "where the hell did that go?". Then, "Thud!", the stone would land just beside me having gone straight up! How I never brained myself I don't know.

[PraecorLoth]

I was around 4-ish years old when I first saw a sling, in an old school DOS RPG. I've since then been a bit fascinated by it. I think I will try to make one in the future. Thanks for the video.

[WindWolfAlpha]

Thanks you Tod for the cool crafting video. Your knowledge is always appreciated. As a leathercrafter, I just wanted to mention that the approximately 11.6 mm leather used for the pouch for the second sling, is known/listed here in the States as 3 - 4 oz. leather. 3 - 4 oz. leather has a thickness of 1.2 - 1.6 mm.

[samuelheol]

Hi Tod, thanks for this video! Today I tried to make myself a medieval style sling following your instructions. I used a piece of leather (about 2mm thick) and cotton string. I had to braid the string, because it was too thin. After I finished my work, I went for a walk in the forest with my dog and tried my first shots. And it works surprisingly fine! I started with pinecones (for safety reasons) but they don't fly very well. So I collected some rocks on the forest road and they did a much better job. I thought the sling was much more difficult to handle but it's quite easy - I mean aiming is a big challenge but the basic usage is really simple. There's only one minor drawback: the cotton loop partly rubbed the skin off my finger after several shots. Next time I'll use a glove ;-)
Best regards

[custardthepipecat]

Dad used make my slings and sling shots back in the day i had one with a cloth pouch and used to launch pretty big stones out in the bush when we camped out back in the 80, s

[Rick-velx]

Interesting. I usually have the loop on little finger and hold the retention cord across the palm. I bought one of Tod’s slings years ago and had to adjust the release knot’s position by retying it further down to suit my style. All his knots were beautifully tied, particularly the retention loop.