this post was submitted on 31 May 2025
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The reason is logistics (as usually the reason for most things military related). You can fit a hell of a lot more conventionally shaped grenades in a crate than you can with stick grenades. Even on a person, conventional grenades weigh less, are less cumbersome, and you can carry more compared to stick grenades. Stick grenades really only have their ease of throwing over a conventional grenade
I wonder if anyone in the military has used a sling to launch a grenade.
You'd want a longer fuse though...
According to wikipedia, the International Brigades used slings to hurl grenades during the Spanish American War. I've heard tell of Ethiopian troops using slings to launch grenades, but can't find a source.
And I know people have launched molotovs from slings, which are larger and more unwieldy, unless we're talking about the German example above with a handle.
Grenades are mostly used at closer and more hectic ranges, so it's often much faster to just throw it instead of having to prepare some sort of implement to increase range.
There have been instances of things being used, like slings, slingshots and even devices similar to those things you use to throw tennis balls for dogs. But at the end of the day, the increased range is rarely worth the extra time needed. You would only get an advantage as an opening attack from a longer distance. And for that we already have under-barrel grenade launchers that can reach ten times further than thrown ones, or mortars that could be a hundred times further away from the target.
I feel like the ultimate 'stick' you can attach to a grenade these days is a drone. But yeah, agreed in general
Oh yeah, that is by far the best device in which they're used these days. Although that has little to do with grenades per se, since they can use all kinds of different explosive devices. And it still suffers from the main concern with hand grenades: Time to prepare. It's a lot faster and cheaper to throw one 20-30m than it is to take out, power up and send a drone that distance.
Hand grenades, sure. There's a reason we have grenade launchers though. They can fire several hundred meters. With that said, is there really a need for a sling? I could see gorilla forces making good use of them, as they'd be silent, cheap, portable, and a lot easier to hide. Conventional forces have no need though because either you're close enough for a hand grenade (there are different types, some are thrown further and some not), or you have grenade launchers available to hit the further away.
Gorillas got grenades guys.
Or a cistera 😀
Dungeon Crawler Carl Style
They used slingshots during WW1, it wasn't great
How much damage would a trebuchet grenade do?
a trebuchet could throw 300 grenades up to 300 meters
Sling staff to launch grenades?
just grab a dog ball throwing stick
I was going to mention those at first, but who hasn't had a throw go wild with one of them?
Just connect the pin to the sling so it slides out as you launch it. It has the small side effect of maybe getting stuck, but hey, nothing is perfect.
It’s easier to pack and ship cylinders than it is to ship oblong spheroids.
You only look at the complexity of the shapes and ignore the total volume used
That's probably partly why the new modular grenade is a cylinder, but that's worse for a frag grenade.