The Staff Sling or Fustibalus is a fearsome primitive weapon that is capable of hurling fist sized stones with surprising accuracy.

First a few construction Tips:

1. Staff should be at least 1.5 inches in diameter at the base. Any thinner and the staff could snap when shooting heavy stones.

2. There is an optimal length for the staff. For me, it is around 50 inches. Making the staff longer seems to slow down the cast.

3. The release hook of the staff should be made as clean and smooth as possible.

4. Cutting 2 guide grooves into the staff will makes each shoot more consistent.

5. The sling itself is just a 29 inch short sling with a bowline loop on each end.

Under wilderness conditions, the weapon takes 15 minutes to construct and will reliably function for tens of thousands of shots.


Now onto Ammo:

1. Unlike the hand sling, the staff sling do not impart a bullet-like spin to the stone. Thus, I found spherical stones to be more accurate than football shaped stones which tends to tumble in flight.

2. Stone weight has a huge impact on range, I can cast 5 oz stones out to 120 yards, massive, 16 oz, fist sized stones can be hurled out to around 70 yards. The sweet spot seems to be 10 oz stones which can be casted to around 100 yards.

3. Like the hand sling, ammo consistency is key to repeatable accuracy. Be sure to select stones that are closely matching in shape, weight, and texture.



After a few months of practice, I have some observations to share on slinging techniques:


1. The staff's length constrains the angle of fire to a narrow band. Thus, it is nearly impossible to hit a very close target that is within 15 feet of you.

2. The staff sling is slow to re-load and clumsy to carry around. However, the two handed staff also allows an untrained person to cast huge stones all day long without risk of injury.

4. The staff sling seems inherently less accurate than the hand sling. This is due to 2 reasons. First, the staff sling's mechanical release mechanism has significantly more variability than the instinctive release mechanism of the hand sling. During a cast, the staff sling's release loop will slide and creep along the hook before releasing.

5. Secondly, unlike the hand sling, it's much harder to balance a stone in the staff sling's pouch, there is always a small variance, just a few degrees from shot to shot. This variance affects the trajectory of each stone thus greatly reducing accuracy. With a hand sling, I can shoot small coffee cans consistently at 20 yards. With the staff sling, I get consistent hits only on torso sized targets at 20 yards, and man sized targets at 25 yards.

3. Paradoxically, the staff sling is incredibly easy to learn. When shooting this weapon, most aspects of the shot, such as the power, the direction, and the release is controlled mechanically by the staff itself. The slinger needs to only focus on consistently getting the staff sling to reach a critical speed. Once that speed is reached, the weapon fires automatically. This makes the staff sling much easier to learn when compared to the hand sling. After just 2 weeks of daily practice, I could consistently hit torso size targets at 20 yards. At 90 yards, I could consistently land fist size stones within 30 feet of my point of aim.



Now no one knows when the Staff sling was first invented, it could have been as early as the Stone Age. However we do know that it was used as a frontline military weapon in Western Europe for well over a thousand years. It served in the final decades of the western roman empire as a cost effective way to turn infantry into missile troops. In the dark ages, the staff sling was used as a specialized anti-armor weapon. By the high Middle Ages, the staff sling was re-purposed yet again into a weapon used in seiges and in naval warfare, where it was used to hurl incindiary munitions at enemy ships. During the gun power age, the staff sling's took on it's final evolution where it was used to launch explosive blackpowder grenades. In the late 17th century, the staff sling was finally replaced in Europe by hand mortars .

Overall I found the staff sling to be a fascinating primitive weapon. It's simple to construct, easy to maintain, very quick to learn, and a blast to shoot. Anyways, thanks a bunch for watching, if you like this video and want to see more, please subscribe to my channel. Thanks, bye!