Crossbow Sling - Custom

It's one thing to have and operate a rifle or crossbow. But sooner or later your arms are gonna tire real quick from the shear weight of it.

Probably in use from the late middle ages they make the burden of carriage a lot easier by speading the load out.
Patrolling and moving all take on a new meaning with a properly slung weapon, bringing a weapon up from passive to agressive can take many by suprise.

An ordinary sling will do the job ok like this one:



With a military sling aka a tactical sling, you will be able to use it for stowage via the back-slung method as well as the patrol and ready position.
Crucially, having a sling fitted makes it almost impossible for an attacker to disarm you by pulling the weapon away.



When it comes to a Crossbow however, slings are usually an afterthought in the minds of the makers, which means you have to get a bit ingenious when it comes to fitting one.

Now when it comes to slings you can use one off a normal bag and just clip it on.
This is ok for just carrying it about behind you but if you are humping a BOB this may mean it's very difficult.
To have a sling that is fully effective you ideally need it to 'sit' running down either the left or right side of your weapon.
This photo illustrates what I mean. The sling will anchor itself to the side lugs nicely and result in the weapon remaining fairly upright.
This mean the weapon doesn't invert itself like a weapon slung off bottom swivels would. Some air-rifles have this type fitted.

From my forces days I managed to aquire a spare rifle sling for my L85 A1.
It lay unused for five years in a draw until today!

Firstly the challenge was to make up some anchor points for my sling both front and rear.
For the front I opted for an existing bag sling attachment piece. Cutting the rest away left me with the attacher and its swivel.
I taped up a segment of the foot stirrup and clipped the attachment and swivel on there.



The rear attachment was more tricky. I couldn't use the remaining bag sling attachment piece as the plastic was too big to gain purchase.
So, using an existing air-rifle rear-swivel for a sling I unscrewed it and then screwed it into the convenient hole at the rear.
Perfect. It sit's akin to a military anchor point and will mean the sling 'sits' along the side.



Being an advanced sling means assembling it is a pain in the ass, especially after 5 years out of practice.

But having brainstormed for a minute I started:



At the end you may notice may hand giving the thumbs up sign for the spreader. Incorporating this into the sling gives comfort. More on this later.
I actually screw it twice on this video, as some eagle eyed military dudes might notice.
The quick-release clip is on the wrong side (it's supposed to sit on the outside not the inside) but I changed it round afterwards. This isn't major though.
Also I went through the 'jaw' of the clip rather than the swivel gap and this is not really necessary. The swivel gap is best. This is important, as, though you'll get a bit more anchorage, you'll stress the 'jaw' too much and it will part (unless you use a strong plastic 'jaw' clip).

But as long as when you do pinch the quick release you get something along the lines of this:



In laymans terms it automatically free's up slack so you can do stuff.

Here's a final clip of the quick-release mech in action:



You're on the right track now. Basically you keep the sling in the clipped up position for rest and ordinary movement, but when you want to shoot you pinch the quick release and bring the bow up to the shoulder to fire.
It also allows you to fire from either shoulder as well.
You can also manually free up / take in slack using the method at the start of the clip too

IF you get the configuration wrong, you may end up dropping your weapon when you activate the quick release catch!

Choosing to use this as my sling of choice means the crossbow now has (arguably) one of the worlds most advanced slings fitted!
It's probably the only crossbow of it's kind fitted with one but there you go!

A nice touch some lads in the forces do is to add a 'spreader' to the sling so it doesn't rub too much. I've just used the a spreader from an existing civvy one:



Now if you want one of these slings for your xbow you can buy L85 (aka SA 80) slings online from military surplus stores. Incidentally, according a source they fit M4 carbines as well.
They cost about $25 each.

[edit on 12-10-2008 by WatchRider]

[edit on 12-10-2008 by WatchRider]

[edit on 12-10-2008 by WatchRider]

[edit on 12-10-2008 by WatchRider]

Slight disagreement with your very good article, I like the sling set up, its ideal for transporting your PDW when its not needed, BUT with all due respect the ONLY place your PDW should be if you are patroling or bugging out is in your hands. Slings are designed for transporting PDWs only in none tactical scenarios, if you look at footage of professional soldiers on patrol they never have slings fitted as they make soldiers lazy and get in the way of just about everything when the weapon is needed.

Saying that I will probably make a similar set up for my Trident using your design as an excellent point to start from.

Trust me man, these slings are anything but.
Professional soldiers use these very slings.
For the routine and mundane they are a boon.
As I'm sure you know, doing a long CFT march, 2 hr sentry, or a military excercise in the back of beyond means a sling, or very tired arms.
I think spec ops doing room clearances / hostage rescue and the like probably don't have a sling fitted for all that.
But in a conventional fight slings definately have a place.

Here's a militia dude doing his thing and showing the ways...

uk.youtube.com...

How about this method to make a sling that uses quick-release buckles and can be used to store a huge length of paracord or other rope..





link to wilderness wiki page

reply to post by citizen smith


Bluddy-blimey heck. So simple but genius..I love that.Looks cool as well.
25m of paracord taking up valuable space in the BOB too.

(Runs off excited to make one.)

Edit.. I can feel a guitar strap version coming too.

[edit on 17-10-2008 by AGENT_T]

Originally posted by AGENT_T
I can feel a guitar strap version coming too.

A survival guitar???

this I gotta see!

Originally posted by citizen smith
How about this method to make a sling that uses quick-release buckles and can be used to store a huge length of paracord or other rope..

link to wilderness wiki page

For a simple shoulder sling that'd be cool and would work to a degree

You could easy make a decent tactical trouser belt out of that sling concept ?

reply to post by Northern Raider


I'm sure theres a vid here in the survival forums that demonstrates just that....if i remember correctly the man has all his harnesses and straps made out of miles of para coord arranged in this fashion (not really miles but you know what i mean!).

If yer like really cool stuff made from paracord you will enjoy this website

thelanyardzone.com...