Gun Slinging!

[Fred Fuller]

This thread was prompted by a PM I received from another member today. He had some questions about slings for shotguns, prompted by my mentioning that I used a GI 'silent sling' in quick detachable swivels on my shotgun. Been a few months since we have flagellated this deceased equine, so here goes.

The 'silent sling' is just the plain old 50-odd inches long, 1 1/4" wide black nylon webbing sling with two black-painted metal buckles, issued for the M16/M4 etc. These are what some folks refer to as 'carrying straps' and not slings,BTW, far as I'm concerned they are all slings. The Army calls them 'silent' because they don't have all the extra hardware (and therefore the rattles) the GI slings for the M14, M1 etc. had.

Biggest advantage to the GI sling is that they are cheap, and they work OK for the purpose. If you have a surplus store nearby, you should be able to get all you want for a few dollars each. A lot of mailorder places offer them for sale too, SARCO lists them for $2.75, even Bushmaster only charges $5 for them new.

http://www.sarcoinc.com/slings.html
http://www.bushmaster.com/shopping/slings/12624561.asp

If you get one of these make sure it's genuine GI, the webbing is rough textured and helps the strap hold where it's slung. Lots of commercial grade nylon slings have webbing so slick you can't keep it slung, the GI version can still be a pain but no way as bad as the commercial copies.

The one I'm using on my 870P is a couple of feet longer than the original, a friend from one of those unmentionable places gave it to me a couple of years ago. Same webbing and same buckles as the silent sling, the only difference is that it's 24" longer or so. It gives you enough room to put the sling behind your neck and weakside shoulder and have it come out under the weakside arm. You can let the gun hang in front of you on the rear swivel in front of your strongside shoulder if you need to let it go and don't want to lose it. And it takes a load off your arms if you just have to lug the shotgun around for hours and still have it readily available. It works better if you let the weak side elbow slip inside the sling as you mount the gun.

I think it works better with the swivel attachments on the left side of the gun (for a right handed shooter) but it works OK with swivel studs on the bottom. All you pistol grip fans will discover one more reason I don't like them, after the grip digs a hole in your ribs for a while with the gun slung this way. Swivel bases on the left side of the gun make it more bearable in this case especially.

You can do the same thing with a bit more security using _two_ standard length silent slings buckled together end over end, overlapping to have a doubled sling with two buckles a couple of feet apart in the middle and a single thickness at each end, to buckle onto the weapon. I've heard this called a "37 sling" after the place it originated, which was another one of those places I'm not sure I can talk about.

Once this is assembly is set up and adjusted to fit, it is best to tape all the buckles or mark and sew the slings together so the assembly stays in place and nothing slips. This one carries with the head and weak side arm through the loop in the middle of the setup. The gun hangs on the strong side shoulder and you should set it up with enough slack at the butt and muzzle to allow the gun to be mounted while still slung. Costs a few dollars to put together, and works as well when properly adjusted as any $30-50 three point sling IMHO.

Speaking of commercial slings, be warned about the ones that combine ammo storage with the sling. The weight of all those shells swinging around make the gun difficult to keep on target.

If you want a full blown 'team' type sling, I think the one Kyle Lamb makes is about the best out there. I noticed this evening that Remington supplies it with their new MCS military shotgun, so Big Green seems to like it too. I don't use 'team' slings on anything myself, after a fling with a couple of models. I don't care for 'em much in the first place and don't need 'em in the second place (never was a kicker & shooter before, never wanted to be and am too old & broke down to be one now anyway).

http://www.vikingtactics.com/ForSale/vtac_sling.htm
http://www.remingtonmilitary.com/pdf/MCSspecs.pdf

If anyone else has any tips tricks or favorites for gun slinging, please chime in...

lpl/nc

Obligatory dead horse warning: we've done this...

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=102841&highlight=sling
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=90613&highlight=sling
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=76227&highlight=sling
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=40157&highlight=sling

 

[Gordon]

After trying all venues for a CQB SHOT gun sling I have come to the following ANSWER! It lets you transition shoulder to shoulder, pie a room, transition to side arm by dropping shotgun and lets you 'clip' in and out in a second, you don't even have to remove the sling from your body! It is a MOUT single point sling clipped onto a side sling eye mounted BETWEEN stock and reciever GG&G single point plate. No sling behind shooting hand or interfering with support hand is like being Born Again (almost!)!!!! Only down side I can see is inability to 'sling up' like a target shooter for support. Who needs this on a shotgun? Also you can't hang the gun on your back.

 

[sm]

Lee

Great Post !!

 

[proven]

thanks for the links, lee. i've been looking for something simple in the sling dept., so i think i'll go with the 'silent sling'. however, being that sarco has 3 for 7 bucks, i may just try the '37 sling' version and see how i like it.

 

[Dave McCracken]

Good post, Lee. A couple generalized points.....

Having just one sling is like golfing the Masters with only a putter.

Since most of my shotgunning these days is civilian style, I use a variety of old style slings. These include the Cobra style, GI issue, and synthetic as well as leather materials. Most of my shotguns have QD studs.

The "Serious" 870 set up for deer has a dedicated GI sling of old fashioned cotton webbing. It's set to work for African carry, a little loose for American style but usable.

When setting up a sling of any kind, get it right while wearing clothing suitable for the activity. A sling on your deer gun should be tried out at home while wearing the clothes, including coat and gloves, you wear in the woods.

Serious stuff, over your LBV and/or armor.

And those of us who do not use know already should learn the use of a "Hasty Sling". It tightens up groups shot from field positions without a rest immensely. It might just save your life as well as improve your recovery rate.

To use the Hasty Sling, shove your forward elbow inside the sling as you mount and move your elbow down until the sling tightens up. You may need to use your forward hand to grip the front end of the sling too. This stops some of the wobbling.

HTH....

 

[TrapperReady]

A sling on your deer gun should be tried out at home while wearing the clothes, including coat and gloves, you wear in the woods.

Can't emphasize this enough. This year, I spent a couple days hunting in a non-rifle zone and decided to use my Winchester Defender -- the dedicated HD shotgun around here. I looked at a few options, robbed a sling from a rifle and attached it. Worked beautifully... until I put on all my stuff. Even fully extended, it was a few inches short.

Now, the great thing about slings is that you can McGyver the heck out of them to make things work exactly how you want. I ended up using an old web sling, but didn't have swivels that were right for it. Judicious application of 550 cord, zip-ties and electrical tape resulted in a sling that not only held the shotgun exactly how I wanted, but made no noise whatsoever.
I
t's never a bad idea to have some longer zip ties (or you can link a couple together), so that you can wrap completely around a buttstock. By combining them with 550 cord, you can put the sling "swivel" anywhere you want. A little bit of tape to keep things from shifting around, and it's all good.

If you want "pretty" that's not going to do it. However it will be functional.

 

[proven]

what's the difference between african style carry and american??

 

[Hammerhead]

African vs American

Hello,
African carry is muzzle down on the off side. It sounds slow, but with your support hand on the forearm, you can actually get the gun into firing position very quickly. For me, it is much faster than...

American carry is muzzle up on the strong side. This is the classic GI carry that you see in the movies. Advantage here is that you won't stick the muzzle into the ground if you kneel. (It's a simple matter to tilt the gun as you kneel if you carry African style, but it is easy to forget too.) I have never been able to come up with a quick way to present from American carry, it always seems to be a bit of a scramble, with the gun swinging around, half under control.

Also, the muzzle is up and open to the sky in American carry, and seems to get caught on branches more. With African, it seems that most of the gun is behind your body. Can you tell that I prefer African?

Hope this was clear.

Regards,
Rick

 

[Hammerhead]

Permanently attached vs removeable

(Is is bad form to post twice a row? )

Hello,
I don't like to attach a sling to a pump shotgun when I think I might actually use it. A sling on a auto is one thing, but I think if I tried to put a sling on a pump, I would end up grabbing the sling and the forearm together, and giving myself a friction burn when I tried to rip the sling off the magazine cap.

I carry a simple sling, basically a wide leather loop to slip over the grip and a slip knot loop on the other end, that I use when I am coming out of the woods, or carrying something. When the gun is loaded, the sling is in my pocket. Like Clint Eastwood said, "Man's got to know his limitations!"

Regards,
Hammerhead