Advanced Marksmanship Need help with sling for improvised positions

[alpine44]

For the upcoming Mason Dixon Sniper Series match I am looking for a sling that could provide a little more stability in improvised positions (barricades, sitting, prone without bipod, etc.).

I have use the traditional military sling before but I find it relatively slow to adjust with the frogs. Also, the long loop is really too short for my support arm (elbow angle is around 90 degrees).

I have tried a Vickers 2-point in the "hasty sling" mode, which is better than nothing but I hope to find something that can also be used as a support arm loop sling.

Any suggestions from the experts?

 

[alpine44]

Nothing?

Did I miss the public service announcement that Zombies only die when shot from a bipod?

Seriously, there got to be someone out there that uses a sling without a coat.

 

[Rob01]

Either the TIS or TAB slings will work. I really like the TIS quick cuff.

Also no real need for a sling on a barricade. Just wasting time using it. Push rifle into barricade for stability and hold hand on forend into barricade. Use your knee to rest elbow or rear of rifle for sitting and kneeling barricade. Also if using a Harris bipod the flat bottom is very stable when set on a barricade.

 

[Ronin1973]

Take a look here. Watch the video on stability. You be the judge.
http://www.snipershide.com/shooting...9-rifles-only-ftw-sling-update-new-video.html

 

[Rob01]

It would depend on the rifle as well. A skinny, rounder forend, as in the video, will move more than a wider and/or flat bottomed forend on a majority of match rifles with Manners/McMillan styled stocks or a lot of chassis with their flat bottoms.

 

[alpine44]

Either the TIS or TAB slings will work. I really like the TIS quick cuff.

Also no real need for a sling on a barricade. Just wasting time using it. Push rifle into barricade for stability and hold hand on forend into barricade. Use your knee to rest elbow or rear of rifle for sitting and kneeling barricade. Also if using a Harris bipod the flat bottom is very stable when set on a barricade.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will look into these slings.

Did not plan to use the sling on a barricade, just wanted to indicate with the positions that this is not a belly bench rest event.

Pushing the hand against barricade, cradling the handguard between thumb and finger and supporting strong elbow on strong knee/leg is very stable for me. I try to avoid the handguard touching anything hard but maybe I am too paranoid about this.

I would like to try a bipod on the barricade as shown in the videos of the NSSF. Big question is whether I can still fit the bipod on the handguard with a sling swivel in the correct place. My arms are pretty long and even with an extra length carbon tube there is not much space left up front. I may just leave the bipod at home since I am more of a pack shooter anyway and we have to carry all gear around for the day.

BTW: Rifle is a new home built AR15 with 18" barrel, rifle gas, and 16" Lancer carbon handguard. Shoots around .75 MOA at 100 and a little less than 2 MOA at 600 with ammo that still has room for improvement (ES/SD is not that great). My other problem at 600 was that the huge, black High Power bullseyes suck for scope reticles. I'll bring a white center dot next time to see what was caused by the rifle and what by aiming error.

 

[Sterling Shooter]

For the upcoming Mason Dixon Sniper Series match I am looking for a sling that could provide a little more stability in improvised positions (barricades, sitting, prone without bipod, etc.).

I have use the traditional military sling before but I find it relatively slow to adjust with the frogs. Also, the long loop is really too short for my support arm (elbow angle is around 90 degrees).

I have tried a Vickers 2-point in the "hasty sling" mode, which is better than nothing but I hope to find something that can also be used as a support arm loop sling.

Any suggestions from the experts?

M1 web sling, use hasty or with loop.

 

[Sterling Shooter]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will look into these slings.

Did not plan to use the sling on a barricade, just wanted to indicate with the positions that this is not a belly bench rest event.

Pushing the hand against barricade, cradling the handguard between thumb and finger and supporting strong elbow on strong knee/leg is very stable for me. I try to avoid the handguard touching anything hard but maybe I am too paranoid about this.

I would like to try a bipod on the barricade as shown in the videos of the NSSF. Big question is whether I can still fit the bipod on the handguard with a sling swivel in the correct place. My arms are pretty long and even with an extra length carbon tube there is not much space left up front. I may just leave the bipod at home since I am more of a pack shooter anyway and we have to carry all gear around for the day.

BTW: Rifle is a new home built AR15 with 18" barrel, rifle gas, and 16" Lancer carbon handguard. Shoots around .75 MOA at 100 and a little less than 2 MOA at 600 with ammo that still has room for improvement (ES/SD is not that great). My other problem at 600 was that the huge, black High Power bullseyes suck for scope reticles. I'll bring a white center dot next time to see what was caused by the rifle and what by aiming error.

Your notion that the 600 yard target is not appropriate for scope shooting is a mindset. Remember, your eye wants to naturally center and balance things. The bulls eye target allows for you to do what's natural. Two MOA is a perfect score on the target, which is possible with irons without too much difficulty so you might want to shoot for 1 MOA as a goal with scope. A high ES will thwart results as it will make the target effectively smaller. Hand loading with a focus on doing the sorts of things to get ES down will help you to hold elevation and thus when you don't get the wind just right there may not be a consequence.

Somewhat off topic, you may want to get a HP Score Book. You can use it with the 600 yard target, assuming pit service, for better diagnosis of error when you plot both calls and shots. It will help you keep track of zeros for conditions and see trends too. Most of all, it will help you see the cause of shooter error produced by inconsistent perspective of aim, not countering correctly for wind and weather conditions, and/or inconsistent control of rifle.

 

[Ronin1973]

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[Strykervet]

Cheap and worth a try, and if you don't like it then it'll make a great "SDM" type sling for an AR.

You start with a buckle or two and a nylon silent sling, though a cotton M14 sling works fine too (and allows for easier to apply and read markings using a sharpie). You use an M14 keeper, which comes with the M14 sling but not the silent AR sling. You can attach the sling however you want to the rifle, but I like the push button QD swivels.

With the cotton M14 sling, you can mark each of your shooting positions and make fast changes using the locking M14 keeper. Nice. Also doubles as a standard loop shooting sling and hasty sling. It's cheap enough to at least try if you don't like the leather slings, because that's what I generally prefer (they get better with age and don't be afraid to mark 'em up). Note not all military leather slings are the same, some dates are better than others --a 1985 model with a certain code is I think the best later model to get your hands on. Otherwise look to Turner, etc.

BTW, we used these to great effect at the early SDM school here at Ft. Lewis using 14.5" rifles with both A2 and collapsible stocks to a range of 600m with both irons and ACOG. I still keep a couple around today, one on my M4. There may be better for a lot more money, but this does work. It isn't high speed looking, but like I said, if you don't like it then use it for something else or as a backup.

 

[boonewsm]

I've got a ftw sling on my dta and it's an awesome piece of equipment for me. It's quick to adjust and really versatile. You can really get locked down on postional shooting. I had a magpul ms3 it was quick to adjust but not nearly as good as the ftw in my opinion. What works for me might not work for you. But I'd highly recommend the ftw sling.