Slingers

[geala]

IIRC the sling was one of the very few native weapons armoured Conquistadors were wary of; even through a helmet, a head hit was wont to cause all kinds of unpleasantness up to and including death. (Concussion sucks.)
And that was with stone shot.

Put this way, if an arrow is a spear-thrust delivered at long range then the sling bullet is a mace blow.

As far as I know from the sources the sling was the Indian weapon most feared by the Spanish. But death or blindness were only reported when no helmet was worn or unarmoured parts were hit. I always took the reports or the Conquistadores as proof for the limited performance of slings against armour. Same for Xenophon, often presented as the witness of supreme power although his diction indicate an often less than lethal performance.