How To Use a Rifle Sling. Info Please.

[fightingquaker13]

Ok. this is going to sound like a very basic question, and I'm a little embarassed to ask. But, as I tell my students, "You should never be embarassed to ask for help, you should be embarassed if you don't". So, here goes. I have owned and shot rifles for most of my life. Sadly, for me, the sling is just a tool to carry them. I need to buy a new one for my AR and the one on my .270 is getting a bit long in the tooth. So:
A) What kind of sling do I want? And please, lets confine it to basic models, not tacticool gizmos. No offense, but the majority of the time its just going to be used to lug the rifle around, nothing more.
B) How do you properlly deploy  a sling to increase acuracy for shooting off hand?

Question B is my main concern. I feel that I have been given incomplete instruction here. I doubt I am alone. Any help in this regard would be appreciated by me and probably others.
Thanks guys
FQ13

[philw]

http://tinyurl.com/33zvglj   


the Simple Sling System looks ok   I will leave it for the experts though


i just wanted to post the link hehe

[2HOW]

I suggest you check into the apple seed program . Here is a link that may help   http://www.rifleshootermag.com/shooting_tips/sling_0612/

[Solus]

Here is a link that shows a few pictures and some instructions.

http://carnival.saysuncle.com/001086.html

[tombogan03884]

Here's a WWII training video on using the sling. It is aimed at the M1 Garand but is no differant than what we were taught with the M16

http://www.archive.org/details/Rifle_Marksmanship_with_M1_Rifle_Part_1

[Sponsor]

[Snake45]

B) How do you properlly deploy  a sling to increase acuracy for shooting off hand?

Question B is my main concern.
FQ13

A sling can really help in prone, sitting, and kneeling positions. But in offhand/standing, not so much, because there's really no solid structure that the sling can work with, or in tension against, however you prefer to think of it.

You appear to be asking about use of a primarily carrying sling/strap. Lotsa guys will snake their arm through there in an arrangement called "hasty sling." This SEEMS to offer some solidness/stability, but in my own testing, it doesn't really. No real difference shooting offhand with or without the "hasty sling." It seems to be mostly a psychological thing. If you think or feel like it improves your shooting to shoot hasty sling, then by all means go for it, as it certainly doesn't seem to HURT anything.

Run your own experiments and see how it works for YOU. Get a .22 rifle and try shooting it offhand at, say, 25 yards--that's plenty of range to prove whatever there is to be proved here. Try it both with and without hasty sling. Your results might differ from mine.

[langloisandy]

FQ,

Come on over to my pages at www.shottist.com check out the Ching Sling. (and if you want to borrow one, just ask!)

Andy

[Snake45]

Just went to the link provided by Solus and read the following:

I must add that a sling is of no use, other than psychological, when shooting from the standing or offhand position. You must have something to support your elbow for the sling to work its magic. Using a sling from the Standing or Offhand positions is akin to having a rifle rest held in your left hand two inches off the shooting bench. The rest itself is steady, but of little use when it is not supported by something.

A variant of these techniques is called the hasty sling. It can be used whenever you don’t have time to loop up properly. One merely inserts their arm through the gap between the sling & the rifle, wraps their hand around the sling as described above & grasps the rifle. It’s not as steady as a proper sling position & it too does no good when firing from the standing position, but from Kneeling, Squatting, Sitting, Prone or an improvised rest it will help your aim a little.

Glad to know that it's not just me. 

[fightingquaker13]

Thats kind of why I posted. I got a bit of training in ROtc, but it didn't seem to help much for off hand. I thought they just didn't teach us right or I missed something (both are possible). If on the other hand, there is little there there, I feel like less of an idiot . I will definately watch the reccomended videos. Thanks guys.
FQ13

[r_w]

That is like asking for the best holster, or asking which oil on a car forum 

Hard to argue w/ Col. Cooper (or Andy) about a ching sling.  Easy to install on a railed AR, takes a little work on a bolt gun.

I make my own out of rock climber's tubular webbing and tri-glides.