Well, having had a chance to test out my sling in the local "everything I can think of" chamber (a lonely racquetball court in the basement of my office building), I can say that it works almost completely! Unfortunately, I don't think the owners of said chamber would be too keen on me slinging rocks or lead weights around the place, so I had to use a light foam ball. I was able to get good release with it, it consistently went in a generally forward direction and it had a reasonable amount of force. It was certainly going much faster than I could throw it.
Until I get a chance to test it with something heavy like a rock or a golf ball, I won't know how well it works with the ammunition it was designed for, unfortunately. I have high hopes, though. I'm thinking about trying to head out to an empty field near my apartment to see if I can just throw a bunch of rocks. I'd really like to set up a backstop and some kind of soft, reactive target, if I had my druthers. Maybe some plywood with a pumpkin on a bale of hay in front of it. That way I could gauge accuracy, force and not have to go running all over the world trying to find wayward golf balls. I might see if I could set up something like this at my parents' house out in the wilderness. I'll keep you all informed.
Golf balls would be an easily obtained, consistent form of ammo for the defense of zombies. Also maybe ball bearings in a balloon? Kill on zombie and have the rest falling down around him? Call it the "Swarm Stopper." Okay I've reached my geek quota for the day.
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I'm thinking I might be able to buy a sack of used golf balls somewhere for pretty cheap, and they do have a good weight to them. I was also thinking about drilling one out and filling it with hot glue to see if that would bump up the density a bit.
ReplyDeleteBall bearing in a reasonable size wouldn't be bad, but they'd be expensive. Unfortunately, I don't think anything I throw is going to have enough velocity to make much use of the shotgun effect. I'm anticipating that monolithic ammo will be my best bet. It may even be worth my while to go to a landscaping store and just buy a big bag of rocks.
I was thinking more of a single impact, and then a slipping or tripping hazard, provided a hard surface. perhaps the cartoon classic, marbles, would be cheaper? I was thinking of something with enough weight and also round for slipping and tripping.
ReplyDeleteThat makes sense. Maybe marbles in a glass jar so breaking would be assured on impact? I've also heard that you can pull the pin on a grenade, stick it in a glass jar, then throw it with a sling. The jar breaks on impact and the spoon releases, allowing for a really long throw of the grenade without worrying about it going off before you want it to. You know, if you have a grenade.
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