I get asked about slings from time to time and the big question is 2 point or single point. It’s an easy choice for me, 2 point all the way. The single point has some advantages, it holds the gun right where it needs to be to shoot and doesn’t hang too low when transitioning to pistol. The single point is also makes it pretty easy to transfer the gun to your non-dominate shoulder to shoot around cover. Outside of that there’s not much else it does well.
I decided to run the 2 point in 2006. I was at a master breacher course that was put on by a crazy dude that had us doing mechanical breaching on a pro timer. It was good times and put emphasis on getting in quickly, however some equipment issues quickly came to light! One of them was the single point sling. When slinging a ram or sledge hammer around, busting open doors and through block walls and such the rifle was all kinds of in the way. Then, add in jumping out of a van and climbing an 8 foot chain link fence to get to the structure, once again the rifle was in a bad place and making life suck. I thought to myself, there has to be a better way and of course there was, a 2 point adjustable sling.
The 2 point adjustable holds the gun closer to the body when the rifle is not in your hands and pushing the rifle to your back is awesome when you need to do some work like climbing, mechanical breaching, medical stuff, etc. There are several good 2 point adjustable slings out there to choose from. How you mount the sling on the rifle matters. I highly recommend attaching the sling to the longest points on the rifle you can. This keeps the gun tight to the body when pulled tight and stowed. I also believe in setting up the sling for 2 adjustments, loose and tight; I call them operational mode and storage mode.
In operational mode the sling should be loose enough for you to get the rifle into your shooter’s box/work space and also loose enough to keep the muzzle at 12 o’clock when moving at high ready. In operational mode the sling should not be so loose that the rifle hangs too low when transitioning to pistol.
In storage mode the the sling should hold the rifle nice and tight to your body up front or on your back, but still loos enough that you can shoot the rifle from storage mode. The 2 point adjustable slings can also be used for stability in long range shooting not so much with the single point. Swimming the support arm out of the sling makes it nice and easy to transition the rifle to your non-dominate shoulder for shooting around cover.
Long story short if you put a sling on your rifle I think it needs to do more than just hold the gun when you are not shooting.
– Frank Proctor
Frank Proctor has served over 18 years in the military, the last 11 of those in US Army Special Forces. During his multiple combat tours in Afghanistan & Iraq he had the privilege to serve with and learn from many seasoned veteran Special Forces Operators so their combined years of knowledge and experience has helped him to become a better operator & instructor. While serving as an instructor at the Special Forces Advanced Urban Combat Course he was drawn to competitive shooting. He has since earned the USPSA Grand Master ranking in the Limited Division and Master ranking in the IDPA Stock Service Pistol division. He learned a great deal from shooting in competition and this has helped him to become to become a better tactical shooter. Frank is one of the few individuals able to bring the experiences of U.S. Army Special Forces, Competitive Shooting, and veteran Instructor to every class.
All this experience combines to make Frank Proctor a well-rounded shooter and instructor capable of helping you to achieve your goal of becoming a better shooter.
Gunfighter Moment is a weekly feature brought to you by Alias Training & Security Services. Each week Alias brings us a different Trainer and in turn they offer some words of wisdom.
I used to love 1 point slings but watched a show with Larry Vickers who advocated a 2 point. Then saw Kyle Lambs slings so I was sold. This makes me glad because transitioning to the left is kind of crap sandwichey when I do it with a 2 point and sometimes regret not going with 1 point.
Frank, I know of some local swat teams with 20th group at their urban complex but I am unsure of exactly what they train on. I would be very interested to know if there is areas or newer techniques that you would advocate for swat teams. I would hate to go train somewhere and waste time trying to figure out what we do differently give up a lot of training time.
Hence convertible slings like the Magpul MS3 or the Emdom gunslinger sling.
Excellent points.
However, the S&S Precision Sling Clip gives you all the inherent advantages of the single point sling with the ability to have 2 point connectivity in about a second.
While I am not a breacher, the Sling Clip significantly aides my climbing ability.
I’ve been using the Sling Clip since its introduction.
One points are great when you’re standing a static post, or in the act of transitioning shoulders while shooting. Everything else a sling does is done in a superior manner by the two point adjustable. There are a plethora of techniques that negate much of the single point’s advantage while shooting.