01-07-2019, 11:35 AM
Ah cool, another prospective slinger!
The staff sling did not necessarily replace the hand-sling. Staff-slings are exactly what you want if you are throwing rocks about ~300-500 grams in weight. Ordinary slings using projectiles anywhere from ~30-150 grams can reach or exceed 40 m/s, which I don't believe would be possible with a staff-sling with heavy projectiles about the size of an orange or larger, so the hand-sling likely has a range advantage over the staff-sling.
It is true that there were less slingers in the Later Roman periods, and I believe this likely has to do with a dimishing pool of experienced slingers to recruit from. Ordinary shepherds may be proficient sling-users, but they do not make for excellent battlefield slingers. Skilled slingers could probably hurl projectiles to about ~60-70 m/s, which is a large improvement over the usual 40-50 m/s that could be achieved by lesser slingers. You likely could, however, hire shepherds in siege contexts, where the advantage of having a long-ish range combined with the utter cheapness of rock or clay projectiles would be advantageous for an attacking force. I believe that this was done on multiple ocassions within the High/late medieval period.
Edit: And for the purpose of propelling Incendiaries, Slings and staff-slings reign supreme! (With the general exclusion of catapults or trebuchets)
The staff sling did not necessarily replace the hand-sling. Staff-slings are exactly what you want if you are throwing rocks about ~300-500 grams in weight. Ordinary slings using projectiles anywhere from ~30-150 grams can reach or exceed 40 m/s, which I don't believe would be possible with a staff-sling with heavy projectiles about the size of an orange or larger, so the hand-sling likely has a range advantage over the staff-sling.
It is true that there were less slingers in the Later Roman periods, and I believe this likely has to do with a dimishing pool of experienced slingers to recruit from. Ordinary shepherds may be proficient sling-users, but they do not make for excellent battlefield slingers. Skilled slingers could probably hurl projectiles to about ~60-70 m/s, which is a large improvement over the usual 40-50 m/s that could be achieved by lesser slingers. You likely could, however, hire shepherds in siege contexts, where the advantage of having a long-ish range combined with the utter cheapness of rock or clay projectiles would be advantageous for an attacking force. I believe that this was done on multiple ocassions within the High/late medieval period.
Edit: And for the purpose of propelling Incendiaries, Slings and staff-slings reign supreme! (With the general exclusion of catapults or trebuchets)
