I have been giving some additional thought to the use of slings on “home defense” long guns. For those here that keep a long gun ready for defensive purposes, have any of you chosen to omit the sling?
I have one on my 870 a simple strap nothing fancy but you also take into the snag factor i scoup mine up along the for end and allows me to still run the gun with the sling trapped
that said on a home gun not much use unless you have to snatch up the kids or go hands on… or the possibility of transitions
i feel there is no wrong or right on this its a personal thing
Sounds like you’ve thought about it a bit - good on you.
The AR in the bedroom is the only one I have a single point sling on; the rest all have Vicker’s two point slings. I’m not a big fan of single point slings, but in the anticipated application I’m not going to be running 100 yards with it hanging on me. It’s more for in event that I need to transition or free my hands for another reason.
The kids are all gone, so I’m no longer worried about gathering up the chicks…unless the grand kids happen to be here.
So you are saying if you hear a bump in the night and you feel compelled to grab your carbine you are going to sling into it - correct? Do you think that you will actually have a sidearm to transition to? (Yes, I’m going to be asking lots of questions like this. ;))
I keep my sling on, but only because it’s a PITA to remove and I don’t care to keep screwing with it all the time. It doesn’t really get in the way, and I train to just put the sling on when I pick up the rifle anyways so it’s not just dangling there.
If I had more then one AR the HD rifle would not have a sling.
Interesting. Have you considered the QD attachments and just keeping the sling beside the carbine?
If it’s a bump in the night I may only have one gun on me, but yes I’ll still sling it. There still may be a reason I need both hands free and I would rather not set it down. That said, more times than not I would rather have a pistol unless I’m going to one of the out buildings. I live out in the sticks and don’t have any concerns about over penetration, but I do need both hands to open most of the buildings other than our house.
I’m probably strange in that I sleep with my pants and some slip on leather outdoor shoes bedside. No need to walk through broken glass bare foot.(something I don’t think many think about)
Old habit from living in crap hole countries where you may need to leave where you are in the middle of the night unexpectedly.
Expected response time from law enforcement is 20 minutes if they can find the address on the first try and they are in the north end of the county. We’ve been here two years and haven’t had anyone find our house their first time without us going out to the main road and guiding them in; if they are in the south part of the county it’s 60 minutes best case scenario. The GPS address in both Garmin and Magellan for our house is off by about 1/2 mile.
So, I’m thinking about some different scenarios.
One is a true “bump in the night”… i.e. holy shit, what was that? up and out of bed grabbing a weapon.
The above scenario is different from the “honey I think I heard a noise out in the barn” scenario. Obviously you have a smidge more time in scenario #2… scenario #1 is pretty much pure reaction.
Yes?
Agreed, they are separate scenarios with different reaction times.
I may just turn the 60lb chow and 85lb boxer/pit lose to go “play” and follow them up with a shopvac.:eek:
the sling stays on the HD carbine, but i don’t sling up for bumps in the night. call me dated, but i still want the option of a butt-stroke.
That minute or two makes a huge difference, IMO.
I am considering the carbine as a viable “reaction weapon” (not trying to steal Magpul Dynamics’ thunder here ;)) much like a pistol. In this compressed timeframe it may not make sense to sling up. With a minute or two you can easily don a warbelt and a carbine.
Just gaming through some scenarios here. Ultimately you want to be calling 911 and making sure that the family is safe.
Do you think that dangling sling could be a liability? Can you not butt-stroke (or maybe more appropriately muzzle-strike) while wearing a sling?
(As I said before I will be asking loots of questions… nothing personal, don’t get defensive… just trying to sort some ideas out.)
Interesting you mention the war belt. That is what sits next to my carbine for the trips to the barn in the middle of the night; it’s more convenient and I can wear it with sweat pants. I agree with you on all accounts, especially minutes count, but it doesn’t take minutes to slide into a sling. I hate the term, but I’ll use it anyway; muscle memory. If you always train your transitions using a sling I would say sling up. If you train your transitions without a sling don’t sling up. It’s probably a flaw in my training plan, but I don’t think I’ve ever done a transition drill without a sling because all of my weapons have slings.
Roger that - let’s talk some more.
Is it realistic to train for transitions if you are grabbing a long gun… as Joe Civilian in a home defense scenario?
Personally I’m not comfortable with a dangling sling. The one on my HD gun is a simple sling made with 1" tubular webbing a fastex buckle and HK clip that slides on the sling rather than being fixed to the sling. It’s connected on the end plate.
Is it a probable scenario that you will have to do a transition in an HD scenario? IMHO it’s doubtful that a person will have to perform a transition in a HD environment, but, the time to figure it out isn’t when you need to do it. Like a good Boy Scout “Be Prepared”.
I can only speak to my area, but the biggest threat out here is a redneck meth head looking to score something easy to pawn. There isn’t much in the way of home invasions with multiple BGs or zombies; but I would rather train for the motivated violent offender and run into the redneck meth head than train for the redneck meth head and run into the motivated violent offender.
I don’t mean to say “will your primary fail and you need to transition”… I mean to say “will you even have a secondary weapon?”…
Gotcha, I misunderstood.
I think it’s a personal decision. Me, I would say it’s highly likely. It’s a standard I’ve trained to for a lot of years.
no, i cant butt-stoke, or even really muzzle-strike, while slung with this sling… holds the weapon too close to my body. i’ve got it adjusted to allow shoulder transitions and not much else.
it’s an a-typical sling design, which keeps it pretty out of the way when un-slung… but its certainly possible that it could get entangled or become a retention liability- and i may address that, now that we’re having this conversation. but while i want the ability to go blunt-weapon, i still also want the ability to sling up and grab kids or otherwise use my hands if a situation ever created the need.