Sling Position

Dave IRL · Post by **Dave IRL** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 6:39 pm

I've always really shot with the sling coming around the back of my hand in prone, above the bone in the wrist. However, I've noticed more and more that the vast majority seem to have the sling coming around the wrist lower on the arm. Are there specific advantages to this that I'm just not taking advantage of at the moment? My scores aren't fantastic, so I'm not about to claim that I have it figured out or anything close, which is why I'd like to know this stuff. Thanks,
Dave

KennyB · Post by **KennyB** » Mon Apr 25, 2011 4:33 am

My experience is that, with the sling above the wrist the weight of the rifle is towards the front of the support hand (the soft fleshy part) rather than on the heel of the hand/base of the thumb (the bony part).

So this gets quite painful quite quickly:

But this is more comfortable for longer:

I found that I ended up with the sling lower on my upper arm and I also changed handstop to one where I could move the attachment point away from the forend - which reduced the pressure on the front of the hand where it was being squashed between the sling and the stock.

Dave IRL · Post by **Dave IRL** » Mon Apr 25, 2011 4:39 am

Thanks Kenny, illustrates it nicely. Will give it a try this week. Do you not find it quite painful running over the bone of the wrist though? I prefer a pretty tight sling.

KennyB · Post by **KennyB** » Mon Apr 25, 2011 4:53 am

I don't find it painful - but if you notice, I've heavily modified my sling so that there is only one thickness that crosses the wrist, making it more flexible.
Also the sling can rotate slightly (like the "swing" type slings) which takes the twist out of the sling and allows the pressure to be distributes more evenly across the wrist.
Previously I was finding that there was more pressure on the top edge of the sling due to the rigidity of the double thickness and twisting - which did cause pain.

Globesmasher17 · Post by **Globesmasher17** » Mon Apr 25, 2011 9:58 am

Thanks Kenny.
I was (I should say "am") currently experiencing the same sort of issue Dave is, but it is not too bad.

I quite like your idea of the sling mod - I have a Kurt Thune sling which looks identical to yours Kenny so I think I will make some similar mods on mine to match yours. Bearing in mind your comments on the sling thickness giving pain and discomfort on the wrist due to thick inflexibility ... I will give this a shot.

I found I already have had to make some adjustments on the original sling since the buckle sat right on the back of my hand ..... why manufacture a sling that does that??!!

So, I moved the buckle which helped, slid the sling lower down to just below the wrist, but there is still significant pressure .... possibly due to the lack of sling flexibility like you mentioned.

I'll give your "mod" a try.
Thanks for posting the pics and submitting the solicited advice.

Cheers

Dave IRL · Post by **Dave IRL** » Mon Apr 25, 2011 4:10 pm

Spent a while dry-firing tonight with the sling pulled low on the wrist. Does feel very nice. The discomfort which set in wasn't as dramatic as before, nor did it reduce my confidence in the shots the way the other sling position did, and the recovery time afterwards was drastically reduced. Only finished fifteen minutes and already the hand feels like nothing ever happened. :) Cheers Kenny! Will get a chance to live fire with it on wednesday evening so that will highlight whether it introduces any problems alongside the ones it solves. Should hopefully be okay though. Feels good. Provided the hold and consistency is as good now, we're sorted!

KennyB · Post by **KennyB** » Mon Apr 25, 2011 5:34 pm

Globesmasher17 wrote: I quite like your idea of the sling mod - I have a Kurt Thune sling which looks identical to yours Kenny so I think I will make some similar mods on mine to match yours.

Hi Globesmasher,
I would suggest that before you completely butcher your sling, see if you can devise a way of achieving the single thickness over the wrist without cutting the long length.
You may also need a couple of extra Interscrews (Chicago screws) as you only get 4 with the Thune sling.

Also, check out the Centra/MEC sling : http://www.edinkillie.co.uk/ecatalog/ce ... ml?cPath=9

Dave IRL wrote:Feels good. Provided the hold and consistency is as good now, we're sorted!

Hi Dave, glad it's working for you.

Globesmasher17 · Post by **Globesmasher17** » Mon Apr 25, 2011 9:43 pm

KennyB wrote:
Hi Globesmasher,
I would suggest that before you completely butcher your sling, see if you can devise a way of achieving the single thickness over the wrist without cutting the long length.
You may also need a couple of extra Interscrews (Chicago screws) as you only get 4 with the Thune sling.

Also, check out the Centra/MEC sling : http://www.edinkillie.co.uk/ecatalog/ce ... ml?cPath=9

Too late!!! ................. :D

The "butchering" was my project for the day (got a day off).

I went out to Home Depot and picked up a fist full of little Chicago screws and started hacking. It worked out OK - it looks like yours now and the buckle is nice and clear of arm, wrist and hand to boot. I just have to go and try and shoot with it now!!!

As far as Centra and MEC go - I need to stop hemorrhaging cash/money in this sport - my wife is going to kill me ...... and MEC already has a lot of my money as it is!

Hopefully it goes well.

Dave IRL · Post by **Dave IRL** » Wed Apr 27, 2011 5:21 pm

Got to live fire tonight. Results were good, comfort dramatically increased. Don't think I'll be going back. :)

Globesmasher17 · Post by **Globesmasher17** » Tue May 03, 2011 9:34 am

Thanks Kenny.

Got to finally live fire last night.
Shot the same old scores as usual - average, but that is OK.
The "KEY" was the increased comfort and the hand "endurance" that also followed/resulted.

Big improvement.
Many thanks.
Cheers.

Dave IRL · Post by **Dave IRL** » Tue May 03, 2011 12:41 pm

Wait until you get into a match scenario now. I found my endurance and consistency across the entire match was greatly improved and it won me a nice medal on sunday.