Staff Slings - YOU! can make one

Staff slings were amazing weapons that threw large stones long distances with ease. They were particularly amazing because they were so cheap to make and even a novice could pick one up and use it to great effect.

However when the user was really proficient they became devastating!

This film discusses the history a little, how to use it and tune it and is mostly about making one yourself and yes even YOU can make one.

[joshyaks]

It was only a matter of time before Tod turned himself into a trebuchet.

[jeremyyerger]

He's like a Bob Ross of medieval weaponry. Always encouraging and happy how things turn-out.

[lindybeige]

Good stuff. There is a school of thought that the proper staff sling is a bendy stick, much like a bow stave, that curves forwards (the opposite from the one you use in the earlier parts of this video). As you sling with it, it straightens out, and then returns to its forward curve, supposedly adding power to the shot. I don't know whether this actually works, though, and would like to see it proven.

As for changing string length, I'm not convinced. In a siege, perhaps, but if a man is fighting an open battle, where the range of the shot will vary unpredictably and sometimes quickly, one length will have to do. I find that if I want a flatter trajectory, I need just drop my front hand during the slinging action and this does the trick.

As for stick length, many depictions show them shorter - about broom handle length seems to be the commonest, but this may be an artefact of medieval drawing. They were not reliable with scale.

One point that I think you missed out here is that staff slings don't seem to add range to a slinger. Instead, the big difference is the mass of the projectile. Great for chucking grenades over a city wall.

[thecreweofthefancy]

They are great if you have high energy dogs and want to throw balls further and are a lot cheaper to make than some of the launchers at the pet store.

[feldamar]

You were absolutely NOT the first person to add plumbata to a sling. Just the first SOBER person.

[blusofa]

The filming location by the river, framed by the tree, such an awesome and creative touch to the video

[PBGetson]

I have a walking stick (made from a broom stick) that I cut a couple of grooves in, that I can attach my sling to. I've been able to throw rocks about the size of my fist, about 80-100 yards.
I've been carrying a sling in my pocket since 2016, and occasionally toss a few rocks, but I don't practise regularly.

[jardel_lucca]

The slow motion parts are a great illustration on how the thing works!

[MichaelGrundler]

The way the sling induces a backspin in the rock (seen at 3:35) is exactly how baseballs are thrown and what makes them fly in a straighter line than a purely parabolic trajectory. So you're sort of right with that it makes you throw like a baseball player.

[justskip]

Finally a video about these. Staff slings and lever spears are such under appreciated weapons.
It would be interesting to see Matt Easton try this out too next time you meet.

[lukediehl]

Some people actually believe this is what David used on Goliath. When he comes out, Goliath says, "Am I a dog that you come at me with staves?" Note that it's staves, plural. We know David had a shepherd's staff. If the second staff was a staff sling, and the "smooth stone" from the river was sized for a staff sling, it explains how David knocked him senseless despite the helmet.

[muddundee]

Just remember folks, Sling stones have a magnetic attraction for windows at unfeasibly long range!

[aaronmccullough]

I made a staff sling a while ago, took a set of old pool balls and made a silicone mold of them, filled the mold with type s mortar, and made perfectly spherical giant knobs of rock. Brutal impacts once you figure it out

[paulkinzer]

I'm 64 and handicapped, but I think I HAVE TO make one of these!

Just from the thumbnail, I immediately thought of an atlatl, or spear-thrower. I got to try one when a docent came out to the primitive campground my family and I were camping at the Sage Creek primitive campground in Badlands National Park, in South Dakota, USA. (I was really pleased that the Park took the effort to do this: the campground is free to camp in, and more than 30 miles from Park headquarters; a third of the distance being gravel road.) Trying out a tool that Native Americans used for thousands of years for hunting was especially exciting in this beautiful location, in part because, not more than a few hundred feet away, a huge male bison was grazing.

[shcomptech]

Instead of changing the sling length to change the trajectory, a more simple way is to have a second release notch, or peg as it's called in the video, cut at a different angle. One notch for distance and another for a flatter trajectory.
A tip for those who want to try slinging but can't get the hang of a shepherd sling, is to make a staff sling with a short stick to use one handed.

[dougsinthailand]

The Overhand cast that you’re using is deadly accurate, in terms of azimuth. Judging exact distance comes with experience. Well done!

[pyglik]

It's basically a hand trebuchet, or rather, a trebuchet is a big and mechanized staff sling.

[Kazuhiroaka]

16:53 Tod went full Skyrim throwing the plumbata. Two knee shots in a row.

[Tennouseijin]

Staff slings have even been used in modern warfare to toss hand grenades. It's such a versatile weapon.

[JimCOsd]

I was a mechanic at a rock quarry so I made a sling since there was so much ammo around. It let me fling rocks far but I couldn’t hit anything. Then I saw a picture of a staff sling and used one of my slings and an old walking stick to make one, I could hit light poles 40 yards away with pretty good accuracy!