bent-stick said:
In the wrong hands they're deadly to so make sure you have good visibility, your first few throws could go pretty well anywhere.
I practice with bean bags but someone suggested potatos. Spuds may be better because bean bags deform and don't really prepare you for how hard and far a stone will go.
That is very true, when I started with the sling one shot went vertically upwards and when it came down it hit me on the very top of my head
. I'm very glad i wasn't using real stones, because it was winter i was using lumps of frozen soil.
Alas I didn't have enough room to practice so never got very good with it
, you do need a lot of space and time to get good with them. one tip if you don't have very much space try making a very short sling about 1ft or so. There a lot easier to handle, of corse they don't have the range.