The advantage of using pebbles over arrows is that arrows have to be crafted, while pebbles can be found everywhere on the ground. And they respawn after three days.

The accuracy of those shots by itself convinces me that this sling was an effective weapon. I had no idea you could learn to sling stones so accurately.

3:49 Imagine being 4 rows back, behind a shield wall, just gearing for the charge and a small boulder decimates your nuts.

A sling around his waist and a pocket full of pebbles makes this chap a dangerous proposition .

Hearing those stones hitting that helmet is impressive by itself.

7:43 This level of proficiency sparks joy. Beautiful shot.

Good lord, I didn't expect the mental image of being faced by a THOUSAND slingers

A teenager could take out a giant with something like this.

At a snowball fight on MU campus in 1984, I witnessed Lacrosse players using their lacrosse throwers to launch snowballs through an entire house, smashing the window on the street, traveling through the house and exiting by smashing rear windows and continuing through the back yard. I never forgot that.

even if a stone doesn't cave your skull in there's still the matter of spinal injuries because sweet holy whiplash

When you consider the amount of blacksmithing, woodworking, and assembling needed to make an arrow, a cart load of river stones is far more bang for the army's buck. And if you win the battle, you can collect them undamaged for the next battle. I am sure they were used more than we think.

Charcoal covered stone; the beginning of stealth technology

Those stones are carrying about the same energy as a .32 ACP bullet. Pretty crazy energy for a dude with some string and a rock.

There's a reason various 16th-century Spanish accounts compare the sling to the arquebus. A thicker helmet would provide better protection, but slung stones remained a threat even into the age of firearms.

Now imagine the skill of someone from Rhodes or the Balearic Islands who has practised since childhood. Roman General Paulus was killed by a sling stone in the battle of Cannae. Great video.

The Romans, Carthiginians and others hired Menorcans as mercenary stone-throwers for centuries. In the 1960's a historian wanted to prove this and started hunting on the island for throwing stones. After weeks with little or no luck he asked the local children if they could find any, and he would pay them 10 pesetas (2/3 the cost of a bottle of Coke) for each one. Ten minutes later they came back with their hands full and asking for a bucket to carry the rest! They had found a large pile of them, used for practice.The opposite side of the field had dozens more, left where they had been thrown.

As a nurse, I can't help but think that even with the glancing blows to the head, they would incapacitate, discombobulate, and take them out of the battle or make it easier for their opponents to dispatch. This video really adds context to the account of David and Goliath. Well done! My son is going to enjoy watching this :)

That's some really fine slingin"!

backface deformation of a helmet by a heavy projectile like that can kill surprisingly easy, even if theres no visible damage on the watermelon behind

Really shows how overpowered armor is being able to increase the survival chance from the glancing blows, but probably working much better against the lighter projectiles. Great video as always

Glad to have you back man! Slings are extremely useful things 👍

I've always said; people misunderstand the story. Goliath never stood a chance. Remember Indiana Jones shooting that swordsman in the market? ... That is the story of David and Goliath.

I like to consider the number of throwers in battle, how glancing blows off one soldier can impact another, and the probability of striking soft spots. Like you demonstrated, a stone in the right place can obliterate tissues. A video exploring stone skipping with a leg and shield target would be very interesting too!

Aside from severe headaches, I am sure that most victims would have had many brain traumas.

"Slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." Learned a lot from your work. Well done! Our lot's favorite game, been killing each other forever.. yea, go us

In the Spanish civil war they used slings to lob grenades over building tops into the adjacent street

I was a big slinger for decades but I injured my shoulder and couldn't continue 😢. But yeah, slings are great. Lightweight, easy to improvise, innocent looking in society, emergency survival tool, totally non-metallic, fun skill to practice, and lots of cheap ammo everywhere. I use one as a hatband on my boonie, and have a frameless as a bracelet in plain sight.

Don’t let them see this in London or they’ll be knocking on your door asking for your string permit

I took my sling up north to the Klamath River and slinged rocks the size of my fist across the river. So much fun! Bless you for sharing the swing and its history

i understand slinging into a big mass of people, but its just nuts that they can be accurate like that.

Brains are surprisingly vulnerable to shock injury. The brain sort of floats inside of the skull. I have suffered from a subdural hematoma from a short fall from a bike, with a helmet. Getting hit by a 1 pound rock traveling at this sort of velocity can easily kill, even with the steel helmet with very meager padding.

The quality of your slings are incredible. I've made 2 from your guide and they are quite hairy, but perfectly useable! Another great vid.

How timely, i finished weaving myself a new Egyptian sling and moulding a batch of clay shot an hour ago

I live in Peru, and here there's a festival every year where villagers make a campal war (keeping the tradition of having real life experience for war). Every year, there's at least one dead and a lot of injured people. Villagers consider it as an offering for mother earth. The point is that I saw the effects of those weapons in real life, and they are deadly. I will go back soon 😉

Really makes me wish I had been practicing with a sling since I was a child... Always enjoy these!

glad to have you back after a long break from YT

I am from Menorca and I have used slingshots for 30 years, I have competed with slingers from the other islands and I have even participated in one-on-one duels with real stones and I assure you that only hearing the roar of the stone passing near your head, even at Two meters away is terrifying. You are very good with the slingshot and it shows that you have good technique and have worked hard to achieve this precision. 300 guys throwing a pile of 200 gram stones on a battle formation, shooting 4 to 6 stones per minute, would be like having an army of 1500 slingers.

This is why it's a battle of attrition in ancient warfare. Wearing armor and having a shield is tiring and if those rocks keeps coming......either the armored soldier die of heat stroke or actually make it to the slingers position.....in which the slingers have fled. The soldiers then need to eat, then the slingers come back....

Just finished binge watching the channel and now I get even more content! Perfect timing

Man I was waiting for this

"he need some milk!" 7:38

Dude that was metal af. You're goddamn surgical with that thing haha.

And as you said early in the video, from a higher position, the helmet would have received the projectiles more on the top and the brow ridge would have protected the head way less than direct shots. Amazing video (and shots btw ggwp) maybe will try to braid one soon, I will see how it turns out o7

I enjoy watching your videos. I definitely think the sling has really been neglected when discussing it’s importance in historical battles. Your videos are well filmed, informative and entertaining. Please make more.

It lends some credence to the story of David and Goliath. I used to be skeptical of the story. A sling is easy to make, and I made one in my teens. But with no amount of practice could I ever achieve even the most marginal of accuracy, so your performance here impressed me to no end. :-)

Impressive! Thanks for the attention to detail you put into your videos. I really understood what an impact slings had about 3:48 into the presentation. I gained a new appreciation for brutality of ancient combat.

"Popped his clogs" is a new one for me. It wasn't even included in the Dead Parrot sketch!

One of the first Scientific American magazines I bought (I wanna say the 1973 October issue) featured an article about slings. Accurate and deadly , shepherds would train while protecting their flocks from predators. Despite comments below, the slinger could choose which unsuspecting eye to take out at distances difficult for modern readers to believe. And remember biblical David, lightly armoured and able to run rings around Goliath in his heavy armour; David could take out a knee or a forehead at will, from an unreachable distance. It has been a few minutes since I read the article, but I believe I remember 400 yards mentioned as an attainable range. It was certainly longer than a modern football field, and beyond the range of a contemporary bow or javelin. A MOST formidable weapon. Thanks for the video! Oh, and you should never eat your enemy's melon. People might get the wrong idea. LOL

i really love the sling, making them and throwing stones is fun. Unfortunately i am very bad at hitting a target though!

Dude this video was amazing, well done and fantastic results. You are a beast

I'm so glad you're getting closer to the audience that you deserve these days. Absolutely phenomenal content as always.

What a fantastic video about the ancient sling. Most have no idea!

This explains why riot police sometimes shoot at people throwing stones. People imagine stone throwing to be fairly harmless but Stones can absolutely be deadly, especially if aimed precisely by a practiced sling user.

Sehr schönes Experiment, es zeigt deutlich die Gefährlichkeit kompetenter Schleuderer. Ich bin etwas neidisch wegen dem tollen Strand, wegen dem Mangel an Steinen in meiner Umgebung muss ich mich auf Tonprojektile beschränken. Die Qualität deiner Videos ist mittlerweile sehr sehr gut geworden.

In the Great Wars on my street in the 80s we were careful to use gravel. Non lethal but providing a good smart sting. Often used to great effect when targeting an opposing family group 😂 Much respect for your research and presentation. 👏

those longer slings give out narsty amounts of damage. I shudder to think of the extra impetus a large rock will have at the end of a high parabolic arc

The sling is indeed a fiercesome weapon. As a boy I made one and with a little practice was able to hurl large rocks almost 100 yards with amazing accuracy.

That was a fantastic presentation. And with slings too! Cheers.

Very well done thanks for the comparison data

That’s why I always thought that David killing Goliath was a terrible battle because he used a sling in the story.

As Malcom Gladwell has said, David was not the underdog. A hit from one of those stones can render you truly meloncholy.

The Diodorus quote touched on a very important aspect of using a sling: years and years of practice. That was something that crossbows and firearms fixed, the speed of training.

This makes you appreciate the primal aspect of sports, its connection to hunting and combat, and why fans get so excited at a great play, like a strong throw or an amazing catch. We love that it helps us win a game, but we used to love it because it meant we were going to have something to eat, or we were going to get our stolen stuff back 😉

The sling bullets on the battlefield look quite devastating too at distance against the archers and cavalry.

Whilst the current melon shots do an impressive job of illustrating the damage a sling can do (and are generally fascinating/a delight to watch), i do wonder if the test setup may underestimate a sling's damage? The melon setup isn't attached to a neck and body, and can thus be pushed out of the way by the projectile, absorbing less of it's energy directly. A human head on the other hand cannot snap off of the body, and must absorb a lot more energy directly (whether it's absorbed deforming the helmet/head, snapping the neck, or a combination of both). I don't know how much of a difference that'd make practically, however i'd imagine that it means that a lot less of the projectile's energy is going into the disconnected melon than an equivalent human head would? Again i don't know how much of a difference it'd make, but maybe skewering the melon onto a post may be more accurate to the damage a sling would do to a human head? edited sidenote; but the bouncing projectile throw at 3:43 is very impressive and not something i'd considered possible; either way genuinely impressive, and it's always a pleasure when you upload

3:43 A STONE TO THE STONES! BRUTAL!

It was some thirty years ago when I read an article about the value of slingers in ancient warfare. As an illustration, article writer mentioned the story of David and Goliath. Apparently Goliath wasn't too smart, or just plain arrogant. He heaped scorn on David for thinking he could be brought down with a stone. Too bad for him. Anyway, the author said this tale, and that David said he'd killed lions with his sling, served to prove just how accurate a slinger could be.

I was waiting for your video))

This was really cool. Idk where you live, but I'd love to see a collab between you and Tod Cutler on bows vs slings.

Excellent video. Thank you for all your time and effort.

I dunno, but there's something hilarious about the idea of one of the most powerful and advanced armies of the ancient world, having throwing rocks as an official part of their military decorum.

Who else cringed, tucked up and went "nnnnnrrrr" when they saw where that skipped stone hit?

Eating your enemy's brains certainly is a disgusting habit.

Wonder full video, I found it very interesting and in formative. I look forward to many more such videos from you. Thank you.

It's so good to see you post!

I watched a video about how with a little practice you can get pretty accurate with a sling. Professional soldiers who practiced often had to be a nightmare to face.

Slings are my second favorite weapon, first would be the flail.

your videos are so informitive, keep up the great work!

Goliath brought a knife to a gunfight.

With a range over 400 m, surpassing the long bow by 100 m. The legend of David & Goliath was probably something like this, a small but fast army of slingers with infinite ammo, slowly wearing down a bigger and heavily armed but slow army.

Alternative title: Why absolutely massive old shields were so relevant to ancient warfare. I wouldn't wanna be the one taking these shots to the helmet, however having them just bounce off a scutum or apsis probably wouldn't have been too bad, aside from possibly an unpleasant shock to the wrist.

These weapons are a good reminder that you didn't need to kill the enemy in a battle. Every man knocked out or physically disabled was out of the fight, helping him took away resources & seeing many colleagues injured and numbers depleted destroys morale and order.

Fascinating stuff Sir. I have always wondered how a sling works. Thank you.

I believe that in real-life most of these hits would have been debilitating or even fatal. That's because our heads are somewhat rigidly connected to our spine and the rest of our body and cannot move as much to dissipate the energy of the blow

"B I G R O C K"

I really appreciate the fact you approach the topic from a scientific and a practical point of view - these days there are too many historians who could elaborate for days about the topic but are unable to show in practice what it means.

throwing stones or using a sling would have a significant effect on a large group of soldiers. If you throw stones into a group of people they would start getting scared as stones zing by. A glancing blow will then hit someone else like a ping-pong machine..

David done alright against Goliath using a sling.

Job very well done! I haven’t seen your work before, but this was an instant subscription.

3:48 ...that groin shot 😵‍💫 *_War won. We surrender_*

A VERY good and educational video. I never realized the sling could be so effective. I have played with the sling a lot in my youth, was amazed with it's range, but almost never used a stone of the same weight. Thank you for the video!

I've just discovered this channel by sheer chance!! fascinating!! I've always been interested in pre-gunpowder weapons and your presentation is impressive!! Congratulations!

Thankyou for adding speed and energy. A very interesting video.

That was great to watch; I've been playing Rome Total War 1 so hearing about Balearic Slingers made me unreasonably excited haha

Being a lover of history I discovered the sling as a kidlet and developed a little bit of skill with it. Years later when mineral prospecting in northern BC I lived in the bush in an old cabin associated with a small abandoned gold mine. You can't run to the store for chicken parts living ten miles from the nearest gravel topped logging road. My sling supplied a lot of the protein in my rice and dried beans diet. Carefully picked creek pebbles led many sage hens to my wood fuelled oven and or frying pan via my sling. Also called fool hems they often failed to flee the scene if my first cast missed. The sling becomes a very real weapon in the hands of an experienced pelter. I saw a collection lead sling bullets used by Greek pelters and knowing the kind of velocity a good pelter could create, it was easy to see that serious damage could be done at surprising distances by experienced pelters. the pelters, armed with slings, bows, or javelins ran along side Alexanders companion calvary and were important in their ability to harass and confuse enemy mounted troops, both slowing and breaking cohesion in enemy calvary counter attacks. I've seen a couple of bronze helmets with deep dents made by sling bullets that would have seriously wounded the skull inside those helmets. Some of the lead projectiles had little messages in the bullet moulds saying "take that" or little insults. It was a cheap and reasonably effective short range weapon used not only shepherds . Those shepherds having lots of time for practice could become Very accurate. I was only medium good and still managed to supply my protein requirements when living in the bush. I really missed store bought toilet paper. :( For that kind of hunting I preferred the sling over the bow but it required a LOT of practice to develop dependable accuracy. Have no doubt, that in capable hands the sling was not a toy.

I honestly found Your talk here being genuinely interesting!

Amazing video. When I was a child (40-45 years ago) my brother made us some slings. I used that thing for many hours, but I didn't use stones anywhere close to that size. Unfortunately, using a sling is quite boring, so I didn't exactly master it. However, looking back at those months with the sling were fond memories. And yes, anyone who has any experience with a sling quickly realizes how powerful they actually are!

I enjoyed your video. I just subscribed. I enjoyed this as much as a documentary. Very factual. Good use of videography. A surprsingly great video. Well done

The fact they were used for thousands of years is testament to their efficacy.

Shot from four squads (fives) in platoons (twenties), sling shots (or arrows or flintlock musketry) provide fully automatic shot. When shot and reloaded by ranks, platoons maintain constant shot either by ranks (volleys) or by files (left to right or right to left, as commanded) against the enemy. Hence, "well-regulated" is defined as disciplined drill in formations.