2010/12/24

Give the gift of a sling... hurry... there's still time.

Visions of slingmoore slings danced in their heads...
It's crunch time.  At this point, you either give them cash, regift the fruitcake, or see what you can find in the garage.  Instead of that, why not give them a sling?  Ok so there's lots of reasons not to get them a sling, but let's not think about those things right now.  Slingmoore can ship slings to your loved ones anywhere on planet earth, and since it's a sling we're talking about, the farther away they the better.   So there's still time.  Let them sling in the new year...with the most simple, ancient, and powerful throwing tool known to men... under two ounces... the sling being under two ounces... not the men.

2010/12/19

Slinging off the Battery in Charleston SC



You have to be careful when you're slinging off the Battery in Charleston SC. First of all, there are three year olds everywhere, and they don't mix with slinging, well maybe that was just my three old. Second, it's possible that you might hit Fort Sumpter. And usually when Fort Sumpter is bombarded from the Battery it is not appreciated and may have far reaching consequences. The cannons that were used for said bombardment are still here, sitting behind me in the park, the biggest collection of this type of cannon in the world.



2010/11/20

Gift Your Weird Nephew a Sling

You know who I'm talking about.  He's built things with legos that just may outlast the pyramids.  He can list the islands taken by U.S. forces in the pacific during World War II in chronological order, but he's not sure how you're related to him.  Last year he attempted to cut down a two-hundred year old oak in with a hacksaw.  There's usually a living creature in one of his pockets.  You wouldn't recognize him without mud on his face, and it's often not mud.   What are you going to get this kid for Christmas?  I'm telling you, Get this kid a sling.  The best gifts keep on giving.  Your weird nephew won't put this thing down until Spring.  Sure, you'll wonder why entire bags of apples and plums disappear over night, and scratch your head when squirrels cower at the sight of a tennis ball, but nothing... nothing says "I love you and I have no idea what to get you for Christmas" better, than the gift of a sling.  Meet your nephew right where he is, and give the gift that will keep him there for at least a couple more years, because you know as well as I do, he's weird, but man is he entertaining.

Slingmoore

2010/11/10

Sling Golf

If there is ever a Masters for Sling Golf, I will not be wearing the green jacket at the end.  Slingmoorehttps://www.slingmoore.com/p/landing-page.html

2010/11/08

Sling Index

The Sling Index calculates slinging accuracy as margin of error in the angle of each shot.  Assuming a circular target area.  The point of release, the center of the target, and the edge of the target form a right-triangle.  At the vertex where the slinger stands the angle gets smaller and smaller as the accuracy of the slinger improves since both increased distance and decreased target area shrink the angle.  Therefore the lower the Sling Index, the smaller the angle of error possible to still allow a hit on the target, and therefore the better the accuracy.

I was asked recently how accurate I was at slinging and found the question difficult to answer.  The size of the target, how many shots I took at it, and of course the all important, how far away I was, all depend on the likely hood of me hitting the target.  I've slung with high and low percentages but the situations were  not comparable.  There must be a way to level the playing field, so that no matter what I'm slinging at and how far away I am, I can have a gauge for the level of accuracy I'm attaining to.  To accomplish this from now on I'll be using the Sling Index.

Sling Index equals the inverse tangent of the target radius dividing by the distance of the target.  So if the radius of your target is the same as your distance from the target, the sling index is 45.  A very easy shot. At ten feet your target would be 300 square feet, about the size of a house.  Conversely, if you are 19 feet from a 3 square foot target, the sling index is just over 3.  A difficult shot, like standing on the sidelines of a football field and hitting a beach ball half way between you and the center of the field.  This graph gives some idea as to how quickly the Sling Index drops with  distance from a 1 square unit target.

2010/10/06

Tiny Target in Decatur TX



I have three reasons why this video made the cut. First, it's the first video I've taken in months. Second, the snazzy hat. Third, I came within a twelve inch radius of hitting a very tiny target at a farther-than-usual distance. This near-strike got me thinking about a way to rate the difficulty of different target situations. The mathematical formula for rating targets is still in testing, but I think it is well founded on how light decreases intensity over a distance. Moore to follow.

Keep Slinging
slingmoore

2010/09/24

Sling at me... please.

During my last few days of slinging in Kentucky I was interested in getting a shot from the target's perspective. Curiously, I couldn't find anybody willing to hold the camera. Weird. But there were plenty of people willing to sling at me I noticed. We'd open each session with "I want you to aim for my head (only tennis balls here). It's amazing how sharply everybody's target percentages jumped when they felt the motivation to actual hit the target... here being... me.


2010/08/24

Slinging: Simple Rotational Dynamics Applied

About slinging.  It's basic rotational dynamics.  Need I say more?  The sling has three parts.  The pocket, the stay, and the trigger.  The stay and the trigger are the two ropes attached to the pocket, and as you would imagine from the names, the stay is the rope you hold on to, and the trigger is the one that you release.  Now WHEN you release it is the MAIN issue.  To make things simple, imagine yourself throwing a baseball, and for this example, picture yourself watching yourself throw from the side.  You wind up, your arm goes traces a circle over your head and your wrist snaps and releases at the top of your swing, at the top of the arc.  But the ball doesn't go up, it goes forward... roughly 90 degrees from the place your released it.  Now imagine that that same ball is on a tether.  As you are swinging the ball in a circle, each moment of the ball's circular travel, it yearns to travel in a straight line... but at there is a competing force.  At the same time the tether overpowers the ball's yearning and keeps the ball consistently turning around the circle.  The tether pulls the ball towards the center of this circle where you are holding the tether.  So when you release the tether, it loses all ability to overpower the ball's yearning to go forward.  So at the moment you release the tether, the ball will get it's wish and travel in a straight line that is perpendicular (90 degrees) to the line formed by the tether at that moment.   Slinging is the same way, when you release the trigger, the pocket opens and the ball will travel in a straight line from that moment on.  See... simple rotational  dynamics.

Load it, Swing it, Release it.
Slingmoore

2010/08/22

Slingmoore back in Business

After a summer spent in the best slinging place on earth known to some as a "Canada" and over three thousand miles on the return trip alone. Slingmoore is back in business.  I'm going to be building like mad the next couple of weeks so email me your sling orders.

2010/08/13

Slinggames: Target Camera

I don't think this needs any commentary. I laughed so hard watching this thing that I think I have inadvertently created a new genre of sling games for myself.  Next stop: Finding someone to hold the camera...

2010/08/10

Sling Games: Gallons of Gath


I challenge thee to a contest of skill. Two consecutive hits on a gallon jug at fifteen paces. Impossible? Maybe. Here is a tip. Slinging involves both the vertical and horizontal dimensions. Trying to time your sling release in both dimensions at the same time IS nearly impossible. Instead, limit your dimensions. Tip the sling arc so that it is aimed at the target edge-on. Picture your sling arc like a circular saw, and line it up as if to cut the target in two. Then you are only dealing with one dimension. One more tip, don't start at fifteen paces, start at 5. Increase to 8, then 10 etc. Making this one change to my form shot my percentages up twenty percent. One more tip, begin with a standard size projectile. I recommend tennis balls, they are light, cheap, and are unlikely to damage anything or anyone inadvertently. And...they show up very well on video. The only prize this round is bragging rights, when we get to twenty paces then we'll talk prizes. Send your video links to slingmoore@gmail.com

2010/07/29

Slinging at Crescent Beach BC

Two recommendations for slinging at the beach. First, make sure nobody is around. This can be difficult since beaches usually have at least one lonely walker looking for seashells or beached whales. Second, bring a target. Despite the ubiquitousness of the perfect slinging rocks, there were few targets to be found. Occasionally the seagulls were tempting.




Slingmoore

2010/07/26

Sling Games: Target Tree

After much practice slinging at many many trees I am throughly convinced that the one thing that will improve your sling close to 100% of the time is...
a larger target... and of course a little bluegrass playing in the background.


2010/07/24

Sling Games: Sleeping like a Rock


The goal of this game is to bask in the glory of being surrounded by so many perfect slinging stones that you can even swim in them. As you can see, I scored high on this game and will have to move to another one if I want a challenge.

Slingmoore

2010/07/23

Sling Games: Straight Up

The goal of Straight Up, aside from practicing the completely inapplicable skill of slinging tennis balls straight up in the air, is to have the tennis ball fall as close to your position as possible. Counting the distance by paces, this one was three paces away, obviously if the tennis ball hits you on the head, you win... or lose rather.

2010/07/15

Slinging at Crescent Beach


the back toss
the wind-up spin

the whip, last 1/4 rotation

the release of the trigger


the wind-up spin

the release of the trigger


Here's the challenge. Stand 20 paces from any object about a foot in diameter and sling away until you've hit the object twice. Divide your score of 2 hits by the total number or throws. A perfect set will be of course 2 hits divided by 2 throws with 100% accuracy. The idea here is to aim at repeatability. Anyone can hit anything after an infinite number of throws but how long does it take you to hit the same thing twice? We shall see. To submit a score, send a YouTube link of an un-clipped video of the event to slingmoore@gmail.com

Glen Moore
Slingmoore

2010/07/05

20 paces away from the target may have been 18 paces too many

My first idea for a contest aimed at improving accuracy was this: five slings at twenty paces aimed at a common everyday item, the milk jug. "Difficult, yet do-able" I thought. Well, I was half right. On this attempt I slung zero out of the five. So I'm posting this video for two reasons. First it's a good baseline, we can only go up from here. It's a kind-of "before" picture for the slinging world. Second, I've included floating "o"s that show the approximate strike spots for the stones which is a bit encouraging as I was at least close on three of the shots. I was reminded that David wasn't slinging at june bugs. Perhaps I should increase the size of my common everyday item to something a little closer to his preferred target size, a lake perhaps.

Reconsidering the rules
Slingmoore

2010/06/20

Guess who forgot his sling?





Went hiking at the lower falls in Golden Ears Park today. Was surrounded by hundreds of rocks, thousands of rocks, millions and billions and trillions of rocks. And I forgot my sling. Perhaps the Almighty King of the Universe wanted all those rocks just where they were today.

Live to sling another day...
Slingmoore









2010/06/16

Canada, a land flowing with rocks and open places



If Oregon is the land of smooth slinging rocks, then they flow down there from Canada. On my way home from classes a few days ago I passed this scene which is I must say typical for this area. Am I dreaming? Have a entered some strange slingers paradise? In any case, with the help of my morbidly fit brother in law I have decided on some slinging contest parameters, stay tuned for an instructional
video.

Slingmoore

2010/06/15

Tons of Smooth Rocks Everywhere


Upon entering Oregon I learned that the etymology of the name of the state isn't known precisely. Due to this chink in the armor, I am going to weigh in and propose that "oregon," is an ancient Native American word for "tons of smooth rocks everywhere."

2010/05/10

West Coast Slinging

Somewhere on the rocky shores of the west coast of these United States... rocks are finding themselves back in the ocean after a wild ride in one of our slings. Adam was kind enough to send a shot of this stone's last view of the sun. I love form, it's like he's firing from a 45 degree angle but overhand rather than underhand as I do. Do you have slinging shots? Send them to slingmoore@gmail.com In other news I've been thinking a lot about a slinging contest testing accuracy. I'm thinking about five stones thrown at a standard size target, at a standard distance. Contestants could send an unedited video of their five throws... and maybe a few bucks with the best percentage taking the purse. We'll see... details to follow.

'till then, keep Slinging
slingmoore.com

2010/04/19

ESSE Contest Results, and the winner is...

Thank you everybody for participating!  I have been both encouraged and insulted by most of your guesses. :) The guesses were as follows:






















Kevin: 2... thanks a lot Kevin...
Mark: 3... you've actually seen me sling so you know...
Ben W: 13
Karagan: 13
Patrick: 17
Patti: 18
Kirk: 19
Matt: 20
Chris: 20...you and Matt clearly haven't seen me sling

In the end, I shot 11 out of 24... and if you counted the ones that were very close...(which I didn't) I would have shot 13 exactly so congrats Karagan and Ben, your slings are on their way! Thanks again everybody!

The location of the Egg Slinging Extravaganza is this little red roofed barn in the center of the this picture.  On another note, this slingame site was just a ten minute walk away from a stone on stone masonry iron smelting furnace that went bankrupt sometime in the late 1800s.  You can still find olivine slag in the woods surrounding it. 











Slingmoore

2010/04/18

Free Sling Contest Announced!


The facts: Twenty four eggs were slung at a circular target ~6 feet in diameter at 20 paces. It's the barely visible circle scratched onto the side of the barn.

Your job: Follow SlingMoore and guess how many eggs out of twenty four hit the target. Email me at slingmoore@gmail.com

My job: To send a free sling to the closest guesser or guessers.

I'll give you a hint, it's not zero, and it's not 24... rather... somewhere in between.

2010/04/06

This weekend in Fitchburg KY


This weekend April 9-11 Sling Moore will be having it's first annual Egg Slinging Spectacular of Easter. Posterity will likely be laughing at me, but will have to remember this event as the ESSE. Many videos and pictures will be taken, and I will be holding SlingMoore's first-ever contest. The contest is open to all of SlingMoore's followers (old and new) to see who can guess my firing percentage out of 24 throws at a circular target 3 feet in diameter (~27 square feet), at 20 paces (~50 ft) from the target. The follower(s) with the correct or closest guess will be awarded a free sling, in the event of having several winning guesses, both will receive slings! Send your "how many hits out of 24 eggs slung" guesses to slingmoore@gmail.com, I'll see you in Fitchburg.

Slingmoore

2010/02/17

The 9 ft. tall Goliath Should've Thought Twice

Maybe Goliath was sleeping during the Philistine class titled "WHEN TO DUCK." Or perhaps, like many, he under estimated our hero and his little sub-two-ounce weapon. He would not be the first to do either. These two slings are our finest creation yet. The smaller one shown here loaded with an avocado pit against the backdrop of the ugliest-yet-most-comfortable couch I have ever owned, known to all who have slept on it as "Mr. Squishy" is built specifically for a golf-ball sized projectile. It is trim, light, and exceptionally strong. I have yet to test the max distance and am wondering if it will rival a typical golf driver. Which brings me to the question, "has anyone ever tried sling golf?" I think the time has come. The larger one is designed to fit a baseball/tennis ball sized object, and is the first design. Genuine leather, 90 inches of nylon sheathed para-cord, and of course months of design and testing come together to make the simplest most powerful throwing tool ever wielded by a us featherless bipeds.

2010/02/02

It's the little slings...



My wife and I have been trying to eat healthy. More fruits and vegetables, we joined a local CSA, and have been eliminating preservatives from our diet. One of the many benefits has been the onslaught of avocados, whose sole purpose on this earth, in opinion, is to take their place in the grand parade of flavors that is guacamole. In the midst of this change I received a gift order for a child's sling and so I sat down to make this little guy, thinking, "smaller is better for a little slinger." The only problem? I did not achieve a reduction in capacity. Though this little guy was designed to sling a golf ball, it can handle much larger game. The stays are continuous from the stay-rod to the trigger bead by passing across the back of the pocket. This forms a subtle cradle that would hold many an odd shape, and a much heavier weight than a golf ball. Even if a projectile only contacted the pocket at two points, the hold and release would still be unimpeded. Meanwhile, the guacamole was crashing down in waves, and what is to become of all these smooth skinned, near-egg-sized, just under 1/2 pound avocado pits? Let's just say they're not getting thrown out, at least not in the traditional understanding of that phrase.
SlingMoore

2010/01/30

Snow Slinging Still Frames





















These still shots from Texas are a brief how-to for side slinging. As in all styles, it's the timing of the release that is the real trick. So if you've been slinging for hours everyday since childhood to corral and protect your father's sheep then you probably think this is easy, but the rest of us need a lot more practice and a little instruction never hurt.

Slingmoore

2010/01/27

The Natural Sling

Have you ever thrown a tennis ball and had it disappear in the distance? It happened to me last night. I was showing a friend how to use his new sling and we couldn't even see where the ball went. With the continuous stays in the 2010 model sling, the curve produced on a ball is just perfect. It maintains the shallow pocket, but increases the holding-power of the sides... these guys are naturals. Happy slinging.

Slingmoore

2010/01/04

The 2010 Models are Rolling Out

The new 2010 models are a vast improvement on previous designs. The continuous stays across the back of the pocket add strength and a more natural curve to the pocket. This allows the pocket a better hold on a larger range of objects including perfectly spherical ones which are the most difficult for a sling to hold and let go of well. These stays also allowed the chance to drop the side rivets for an even lighter sling... at least I think, I haven't actually weighted them yet.





2010/01/02

Slingin Snow in North Texas

The number of times that you have been delayed in traffic by a rogue elephant is likely close to the same number of times that it has snowed six inches in North Texas on Christmas Eve... but here I am in North Texas riding said rogue elephant all the way into town. Snow is really too light to be an excellent thing to sling but it does have some advantages... 1. It holds together well 2. It doesn't hurt whatever it hits which is why I aimed at the camera (glad I missed) 3. The dog has a great time. 4. It is plentiful! and can be sized perfectly.  Later I asked my family... "have I always had such a goofy laugh?" They just looked at me.  Slingmoore

2010/01/01

Slinging in North Texas

Over Christmas I spent time with my family. For some reason my brother keeps finding himself in possession of the best slings this side of the Pecos... we spent some time slinging on his property. Most of the hits we made went trough the tarp to our great delight and then behind the target we descended to the creek bed. In the later shots we're aiming at the space between the two rust-stain streaks.  Slingmoore