David must have had shared his talents to defeat Goliath with a sling to Jayvee Baylon, a Filipino slingshot expert who hails from Binan, Laguna.
Baylon is a master-level sharpshooter as seen in his videos, with his incredible accuracy in using the sling to hit any target, even as far as 50 mm with ease. He can also catapult 9.5 mm steel balls into the air at the speed of 200 to 300 fps or 12 000 kph.
“Practice lang ng practice,” he would always tell during his interviews.
Not only is Baylon a genius with slingshots, he also collects this kind of weapon acquired from across the globe. He has at least 250 collections to date and makes his own designs at his shop called Radtech Slingshots.
History says that tirador is an ancient weapon which origin is lost in antiquity. But the earliest known types of slingshots were invented in Russia and was called “Rogatka.”
Commercial versions were then made available in the 1940s. They were considered merely as toys but Baylon hopes his hobby will become officially a sport in the future.
Photo credit: SCREENGRAB
