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My hunting sling with a few perks

Otero51

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Nov 4, 2012
110
3
45
Oregon
So I've been eyeing many of rifle sling choices available out there with their plethora of cool nick-knacks and have busting my head trying to decide which one would better suit my needs. For sure I wanted an arm loop and a quick adjust buckle to help with unsupported shooting. But then I also wanted a bungee cord (you know just because... plus it would probably help with the rifle weight). There are several nice options out there that provide different combinations of these features but just not exactly how I wanted them. Since the main use for the sling would be hunting it needed to be compact (short) enough for proper "sling" carry in the field (without much webbing hanging off). I wanted the quick adjust for tightening my arm position to the stock (in combination with the arm loop). And then the bungee had to be on the barrel end of the rifle instead of the buttstock (again mainly because most of the time I'd be carrying the rifle barrel-up). So I said heck, let me take what I like from what's available out there and see if I can make me a sling... and this is my humble shot at it:



Here you can see the arm loop and quick adjust.




To maintain the length of the sling short the arm loop pull tongue has a g-hook that connects to the upper part of the sling. This prevents it from closing down (and adding length)


Here's a view from the inside (back) of the sling


While making the bungee pieces I started thinking whether I wanted it to be permanent. What if later I need a stronger bungee or didn't want a bungee at all? So instead of sewing the bungee and the quick adjust webbing together I decided to make the bungee detachable by using 2 more g-hooks. Here you can see a picture of the sling detached from the hook. At first I was concerned it would be too easy to detach the bungee from the g-hook, but the thickness of the webbing proved good enough to prevent that (plus I sew the loops a bit tight too to help a bit).


I actually ended up making another bungee with thicker webbing and more strings (stiffer bungee). I also plan to make a third one but instead of a bungee use a neoprene pad (let's see how that goes).
(rear view picture with bungee fully disconnected)


What would I have liked to make different? First I wish I would have been able to use the same width of webbing all across the sling. 1.5" would have been ideal but finding spring-loaded cam buckles of that side was pretty hard (found only one place that sold them and it required a minimum order of 50$ which I wasn't willing to make). The other thing would have been using matching colors of webbing. That's what you get for ordering online where not all tans are made equal. Finally I wished my sewing skills were a bit better. Hopefully this thing won't brake down on me on the first run.
(front view with bungeees )


 
So I finally tested it this past weekend and can say I'm pretty happy with how it worked. I did find a couple of things I need to address. One is reducing the length of the sling so that the quick adjust doesn't bottom out before it achieves good tension. This was more pronounced when shooting offhand (I should be able to fix this by reducing the length of the 2" loop). Second, I'll need to remember to connect the sling to the closest swivel stud or remove it if using the farthest stud (learned the hard way how much it hurts when it recoils into the palm of your hand).
 
Not sure what you mean by spring loaded cam buckles. Have you tried Jontay? You can buy any number of parts you need. The each price is probably double of the 50+ price. With small parts I don't mind paying $2.50 for a $1.30 part when all I need is a couple of them. Do you mind me asking what you are sewing with?? I just completed a couple of prototypes that I had a local canvas shop sew. A drunk one eyed monkey could have done a better job!! I ended up sewing them by hand. I am not happy with what I did either.
 
I used my wife's little cheap sewing machine (she gave me a crash course on how to set it up) and heavy thread from Joanns (was a bit more expensive but gives you peace of mind).
Coats Outdoor 200Yd Buff at Joann.com
For this kind of material though, a more heavy-duty sewing machine would have come in handy (I've been hunting through the Goodwill stores around to see if I can snatch a used one). There were times where I literally had to give the machine a push so the needle could pass through.
These are the buckles I'm referring to:
BK205/112- Lowy Enterprises, Inc.
These guys were the only ones that seemed to carry 1.5" wide buckles, but sadly they require a minimum order size. May work for you if you're planning to make multiple slings.
 
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Thanks! I'd say around 48 dollars including shipping and enough material for 2 slings. You can easily make it for substantially less if you get your dimensions right and try to keep the purchase from one vendor to save on shipping. I had drawn a mock-up of how I wanted it to function but didn't thought well how to best make my online orders (shipping really bit me bad).