You make an interesting point, and it seems plausible. Though I might point out that when deployed en masse, accuracy is (within sensible boundaries) less important than speed. You didn't need to train a slinger to be able to kill a running wolf if he's got a standing division for a target. I mean, if you've got a thousand soldiers all slinging at a block of another thousand soldiers, an error of plus or minus a couple of feet at range just means you hit the guy's buddies. Same with early musketry. Get enough soldiers together all shooting in the same direction at the same time, and they don't need to be crack shots; somebody's going to hit something through sheer saturation.

BadDogtheBastard, you've got an impressive amount of gear there! It looks like a modern dart is just a piece of wire with a plastic cone on the back. I like the look your wooden dart though. It looks almost exactly like a cattail head. Maybe I can... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Though I bet I'd have to do harvest them soon, before they ripen and the seeds all loosen up. It would be amusing to stuff a ripe cattail head into a blowgun and launch it, having it disintegrate in a burst of fluff at the other end.