Slings Were Lethal

[Virgil H]

I often see sling bullets come up for sale and I think Forum may have a couple right now. I have often wondered just how effective they were as weapons. It turns out they were far more lethal than I had ever imagined. This was originally in National Geographic, but that article is behind a paywall. I found a Daily Mail article that reports on it. I thought a sling bullet might give you a good bruise or really hurt you if it hit certain places. But, they were almost as lethal as a bullet fired from a gun. Also, the Romans had "whistling" bullets that served to scare the enemy with the sound. Interesting stuff.

Roman sling bullets used against Scottish tribes 2,000 years ago were as deadly as a .44 Magnum: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4541318/
Virgil

[Altamura]

In fact there are some more articles about slings in antiquity :
https://www.academia.edu/176644/New_Experimental_Data_on_the_Distance_of_Sling_Projectiles_2009_
http://slinging.org/forum/yabbfiles/Attachments/history_of_the_Sling.pdf
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1168&context=nebanthro
http://elbdisliker.at.ua/Unsorteeeeeeed/Slings_in_the_Ancient_Near_East_with_Ref.pdf
https://www.academia.edu/434639/New_Data_on_the_Use_of_the_Sling_as_a_Warlike_Weapon_in_Thrace_4th_1st_century_BC_https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259429077_Kelly_A_2012_The_Cretan_Slinger_at_War_a_weighty_exchange_Annual_of_the_British_School_of_Athens_273-311

Regards

Altamura

[Joe Sermarini]

Here is one I just added that shows signs of an extremely hard impact....

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/catalog/roman-and-greek-coins.asp?vpar=3125

[Virgil H]

Altamura, those are fascinating articles. Thanks for posting. Joe, that bullet that shows impact is very cool, as well.

Virgil