2016/08/28

The Slingmoore Story

I dug this up from the archives of Slinging.org, a site full of sling resources and wisdom.


In 2008 I finally decided to not buy a sword.  I had been wanting to make buy or find one for most of my life but with two kids and many international moves ahead of me, I decided the only thing that a sword was going to do was take my toe, my child, and/or my money to the hospital or worse.  But the fascination with ancient weapons remained, a fascination not novel among visitors to this blog I'm sure.  The main problem with a sword is that, you can't use it.  I want to wield an ancient weapon, not just look at it as it glistens on my wall threatening to cut my toe off.  And so from a source I cannot recall, the sling came to mind.

I figured I could build one pretty easy but gave up after three designs that kept landing walnuts onto my head instead onto my target.  I figured I could just go online and buy one, but of that... a despair.  Absolutely nobody was selling them.  Slinging.org was a well spring of information at this point and I eventually came back to the idea of making one.  Ten designs and many pieces of scrap leather later the long-draw, pinched-pocket, back-folded sling emerged as my sling of choice.

Little did I know that making one was simple compared to using one.  I actually stood in front of a large building once and missed the building five times, ironically nearly hitting a squirrel that was after the walnuts I was chucking.  But finally my projectiles were shooting in a forward-esque manner and so I figured slinging had the potential to be a gloriously-difficult, skill-intensive, up-hill-battle of happiness.  

"So..." I says to myself, "if no one else is selling them..."  And thus began slingmoore.com.  And what started as a way to pay for more leather and paracord has become... a way to pay for more leather and paracord.  I enjoy slinging and yapping about it.  My current goal is to shoot 80% at 20 paces at a 1 meter diameter target.

And so what began with the dearth of sword has become a glut of slings.  Ironically for all the injuries that I have avoided by not buying a sword, my first shot with a sling hit me... in the toe.  Go figure.