Could go the DIY route. During an exhaustive search for a sling for my SPR, I came across a sling kit from the online store Strapworks.com:
strapworks.com The kit was
almost what I was looking for, but lacked the sewn in QD sling swivels I wanted. Looking around on their site, I realized that I could piece together my own kit fairly cheaply from the huge selection of hardware and material that they stock.
While the 2 point design I came up with works well for my intended uses, I realize that everyone has their own requirements in mind for rifle slings. This tutorial should serve more as a generic example of what can be made, rather than a set of strict instructions. With the hardware they stock, the amount of confgurations one could come up with is nearly limitless. Us your imagination, have a ball, etc.
Materials needed for the project:
- 1" Flat Nylon Webbing (2 feet)
Flat Nylon Webbing 1 Inch
- 1.5" Flat Nylon Webbing (5 feet)
Flat Nylon Webbing 1-1/2 Inch
- 1.5" to 1" Plastic Reducer (x2)
Acetyl Plastic Reducing Loops
- 1.5" Wide Mouth Slider (x1)
Plastic Slides
- 1" or 1.25" QD Swivel (x2) (Sourced from local Gun Store)
- Speedy Stitcher Sewing Awl (also from Strapworks.com)
https://www.strapworks.com/Sewing_Awl_p/awl.htm
- Clothes Pins or Clips for holding strap prior to sewing
- Lighter for fusing cut edges to prevent fraying
- Sharp knife or scissors
To get started, you'll need to make two adapter pieces or "Connectagazoinks" to adapt the 1" QD slings to the wider 1.5" nylon strap. I use the 1" nylon strap and plastic reducers for this. Each one foot section of 1" nylon web gets folded over with a QD swivel and plastic reducer at either end, leaving 3 layers of strap in the center:
The 3 layers then get sewn up with the Speedy Stitcher. This is a time consuming process, but not overly difficult. The point of the needle is razor sharp, expect to be impaled upon it a few times before the project is done:
When it's done, it should look something like this. The first time I did this, I made two of these that I ended up cutting apart and doing over because they looked like they were done by a 5 year old (Minus the macaroni and glitter) All part of the learning process.... I did actually try to get my 5 year old son to sew one up for comparison, but my better (and evidently more "frowny faced" concerning child labor) half stepped in and shut the whole show down...
After making two of those, you should have a pile of stuff like this:
The 1.5" strap gets sewn on to the wide end of the reducer like this. I keep the folded over side on the outside edge of the sling to make a smoother surface on the inside for carrying:
After sewing:
Moving on to the back end of the sling, you'll want to install the 1.5" Wide Mouth Slider and second Connectagazoink assembly like so:
The end of the strap gets fed back through the slider, around the center post:
The folded over for sewing. I like to leave a bit of a gap (about 1/2")between the folded strap and the center post, as it seems to allow the slider to move a bit more freely: