this post was submitted on 31 May 2025
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Ah, then why not throw them with a sling? All the extra leverage with none of the extra weight, and it's more or less silent. Imagine a barrage of grenades coming in from 200 yards at 60mph.
You could even give it some sort of rocket propulsion.
That sounds complex. Just put some gunpowder at the rear end of the grenade, and stuff it in a small tube. You could make this small enough to stuff the tube under the barrel of your gun, or big enough that it can function as a small artillery piece.
I've seen slings used to throw things. Either ropes attached to the projectile, or pouches on ropes designed to release the projectile.
I've also seen those slings not throw the "grenade" 200 yards away, but straight up in the air, or wrapping around branches or arms or flying backwards...
Slings require just enough skill that they would probably be more lethal to friend than foe.
They've got the M203 grenade launcher that attaches to their rifle, effective to 382 yards. They've got the M224 mortar that can be operated in a handheld configuration, and is effective from 70 to ~3812 yards.
I do historical reenactment, so I figured I'd learn the sling because it's awesome.
Turns out it's really really hard. After maybe 50 or 60 hours of practice, I could reliably hit the side of a house. Before that, it was indeed pretty much a crapshoot whether it even went forward.
If I throw something I can pretty reliably hit a person sized target. With a sling, forget about it.
Just use a drone to drop it two kilometres away instead
Because you have to learn to use a sling and if you're not good you're much more likely to blow yourself up.
You could probably come up with a more idiot friendly version though some kind of fabric sock where you just launch the whole thing
What if we made a tube to launch the grande, and powered it by a small amount of propellant?
That's why you practice with rocks. Like what slings originally did.
So which existing training should we cut to make time for sling practice?
Do we really need them to be able to read?
Most boringly because most western armies are probably going to use an airplane or tank in that situation. Significantly less risky to have the squishy people hide behind something strong while a machine does the dangerous work from a distance, if you can manage that.
Grenade is more for close distances, like "just over that ridge" or "in the next room".
this is the guy i want on my team for the post apocalypse