Fred Fuller
Moderator Emeritus
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
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