Balance mod project

[Samhain]

That's a fair point about crossbows. But, to me slings and bows share a similar atavistic quality that crossbows just don't. Perhaps I am wrong, I suspect the same is true for many others. Though, if the human mind was somehow wired to greatly close the gap between the gap in learning curves between slings and bows, bows may still hold the edge in popularity for other reasons. I myself would likely be a sling man. I certainly tried and will likely do so again.

My understanding on spinning sling stones though was that the oblong ones spun with the axis along the direction of flight. I don't know how this was accomplished, if it is 100% reliable information, or if other sling stones spun as well.

But, not all arrows are fletched to spin. I've seen Native American arrows in a museum with what looked to me to be an attempt at helical fletching while plenty of modern arrows have straight. A properly tuned arrow should fly pretty straight regardless. I have no idea what was more common on ancient battlefields. But, I shared the same conclusion as you that sling stones should not penetrate as well as arrows.