It was our weapon of choice for defence, protecting us from pirates and would-be conquerors as well as farming, as shepherds used both slings and dogs to herd and protect their animals.
I find it pretty fascinating, I'm also a terrible shot with a sling, you have to try it to really understand how hard it is to aim when swinging a rock at something.
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.
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
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 and it is effective. It does not stop the traffic though, it merely redirects it. I want the deer to avoid my property and using the scented repellent products is ineffective.
I bought a slingshot with a bunch of mudball ammunition and started using that every time I found them over the fence on my property. It is effective enough that you can make them leave if you tag one of them. After a while, they recognize the sound of the slingshot release and will trot off a little ways to buy time to determine whether there is an issue. Aiming and hitting targets is not hard and your skills improve over time so that it is pretty easy to score on 80% of targets in no time. The real problem is the effective range of the slingshot. For deer more than 50m from you the ball has lost most of the energy and when it thumps on the deer the usual result is that the deer raises its head from the grazing and looks around to locate the source.
I think a sling will be the next tool that I employ to make them graze someone else's property. The improved range should help me keep them on the other side of the fence.
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?
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.
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.
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.
edit:
that scene: https://youtu.be/XotiySdBICU?t=107
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.
I like to believe it’s so fun because I’m tapping into some primordial fascination with spinning objects, like a dog chasing a wheel.
They're very lightweight and are definitely an underrated backpacking tool for keeping marmots at bay when they're attacking your tents and gear, haha.
Horseshoes, curling, shuffleboard, etc use where the projectile ends up but that’s not a viable option with a slingshot.
Still think they are very cool though.
And also explains why the bow was much more popular. Gotta try much harder to shoot yourself.
