New from RE:MF Tactical - The Adaptable Solutions Sling (An article on sling design)

[CKinnerley]

A.S.S.

Preface: This isactually an article I wrote up on another forum back at the start of February, so one or two of you may have perhaps seen it already. Since then however it's had another solid proof read with a few minor grammar/language changes and a lot of formatting work to transpose it in to the correct BB code for this forum to display. Hope you all enjoy the read.

When did this all start?

The basic firearm sling has been with us for hundreds of years now. It us unknown when exactly the first fighting man tied a length of rope around his firearm (or indeed crossbow) in order to ease carrying of said weapon, but dedicated sling mounting points first began to appear on muzzle loading smoothbores in the late 17th century. Historically however, many of the first slings produced for the military forces of that era almost exactly mirror the slings still being issued to some troops today in terms of design, and similar materials were still being used even up until the period following the cessation of WWII. The basic carrying strap that has been standard issue with the M16 for alot of US forces until quite recently can trace design roots backwell over 100 years. Certainly in the cold war era of the M14, G3 and SLR the various issued slings were positively archaic in both design and construction.

So essentially, what we can see as we look at the overall time line of sling design and fabrication is that very little has actually changed. Synthetic materials started to come in around the 1960s and a few military issued slings such as the L85 3-point design indicated some small signs of progress in the 80s, but those old, simple carry straps are still being issued to many personnel around the world to thisday. The USMC has just recently replaced the issued AR-15 family strap/3-point with the Blue Force Gear Vickers Combat Applications Sling (BFG VCAS) and the tactical gear industry has only seriously begun to come up with any really new ideas in roughly the last 4-5years or so.

Also a little snippet of interest, as according to the United States Ordnance Manual of 1861; "the rifle sling should be made ofrusset (brown) leather" and the width dimension called for was 1¼ inches. Exactly the same width as the recently released Magpul MS3.

What's the original problem?

To start with, I believe that to understand the necessity for really pushing the design of slings beyond that of the systems currently available on today's market, we need to understand the limitations of some the basic sling types that have been in circulation for the last decade or so.

First off, the 3-pointdesign. This has seen fairly extensive issue to military forces over the past couple of decades and has served many people well, but let's look at some of the advantages and dis-advantages of the 3-point here on an L85A2.



+ Plenty of scope for adjustment, whether the user is short or tall, broad or skinny, lightly loaded or heavily armoured, the sling can almost always be adjusted for a good fit.
+ Allows the user to totally take their hands off the weapon in order to perform other tasks, while automatically keeping the muzzle out of the dirt in the standing and kneeling positions.
+ Puts the weaponin a comfortable position for extended carrying during patrols, much like a 2-point.
+ Quick Release (QR) buckles give the ability to very quickly transition in to more of a 1-point configuration when a contact occurs.

- Comparatively heavy and complex, there's a lot of material and components in theconstruction of a 3-point.
- The cross strap required to allow the transition between the two modes is a severe hindrance to operation of the weapon's controls. In this instance, the bolt release, fire selector and magazine catch are all partially covered by the webbing. Potentially highly dangerous in the real world, a noticeable obstruction in airsoft.
- One handed operation of the transition system can be awkward when going back into the supported mode.
- Although the 1-point mode is a step forward in terms of ease of manipulation vs. a 2-point sling, all the extra webbing makes shoulder transitions fairly difficult, if not impossible (dependant largely on weapon type).

Moving forward a bit wecome upon the 1-point sling. A modern, minimal design that's more likely to be seen in use with law enforcement, special forces, private security and as a personal purchase choice for troops. Here's a simple example of such a design which incorporates sections of bungee material attached to a 10.5" AR-15.



+ Again, plenty of scope for length adjustment, even on a variant with the elasticated portions.
+ Lightweight and simplistic, comparatively few materials and components required for construction.
+ All weapon controls are entirely free from any obstructions.
+ When correctly adjusted, the butt of the weapon will hang only slightly below the operator's shoulder, making it quick and easy to go from a slung position in to a full and proper shooting stance simply by raising the muzzle end of the weapon.
+ Primary to reaction-side shoulder transitions are made easy when firing in almost any stance, even without the aid of equipment such as the Ambidextrous Sling Attachment Plate (ASAP) or Echo93 sling plates (though these often are extremely beneficial).

- The user is limited in their ability to perform other tasks with their hands or traverse difficult obstacles encountered in their environment, since the weapon will hang directly in front of the body when not physically held and can become an obstacle in itself.
- Following on from the previous point, when not in physical control of the primary weapon and under stress it is quite easy to end up with either a flash hider/barrel full of dirt and sand, or worse a broken suppressor and/or mis-aligned barrel, due to impact occurring with the muzzle end against the ground or some other low level object.
- The user must fully support the weapon with both hands in order to adopt a comfortable patrol position when transiting long distances, this is more fatiguing on the arm muscles compared to a 2 or 3-point setup.
- Standard 1-points are ideally suited for short duration, high speed firefights in close quarters, but cannot be adapted in to any configurations or sling types other than the one they are fixed in to at manufacture.

How do we move forward from here?

A fair few of you outthere will have no doubt noticed that I have not included the basic 2-point sling in the above analysis, so let me lay down a basic framework for my ideas that led to the creation of the Adaptable Solutions Sling.

A couple of months back I was looking at my loadout and trying to decide on things I'd like to improve. Amongst various other updates, I felt that a change to my weapon sling was due, since I had been almost exclusively utilising my PTS MS2 at every single skirmish I'd attended for the previous couple of years. I loved the versatility of the design, the ability to switch shoulders and modes so quickly, but it proved to be quite uncomfortable and really bit in to the back of my shoulder; by the end of a skirmish day this would end up getting quite uncomfortable indeed. To this end, I began searching the usual online gear retailers to see if there might be something better out there, but after some time doing so I'd come up rather stumped. So, I posted up a thread onanother forum to ask for some advice from some of my fellow airsofters who might have experience in this area.

The most useful items of information emerge from said discussion thread were with regards to building bespoke solutions using a combination of currently existing slings and other commonly available materials/hardware. Initially this seemed like a very interesting option, but at the time I wasn't sure if I'd have the ability or know-how to put such a sling together, so I decided to pick up the Emdom-MM 'Gunslinger' in Multicam and see how I got along with it since it appeared (on the surface) tofulfill my criteria quite nicely.

Quality wise I was very much impressed by the Emdom effort. It incorporates a lot of good ideas and works brilliantly in the 2-point mode, very much like a dedicated quick-adjust 2-point such as the VCAS, one of the 'Viking Tactics' slings or the Sheriff of Baghdad 'B-Sling'. Unfortunately however, it fell down in the 1-point mode, which is the setup I would mostly be using for airsofting. The sling was simply too long, there was too much webbing built in to it and without any bungee or velcro loops to roll up loose strap,s it always left the weapon hanging far too low down.

This chain of events led me to break out the scissors, a box of matches and a thread unpicker and really go to town on the Gunslinger. I chopped down various sections of the adjustment systems, re-tested the sling and found that it was quite possible to produce marked improvements without losing any functionality, needing to purchase extra materials or do an sewing. Over the course of 4 days I gradually chopped out various strips of webbing and pieces of hardware until I was pretty much left with the sling that you see in the top picture, but using HK snap hooks instead of the Magpul hardware.

By this point I had made a fair amount of progress towards achieving my end goal. I had a sling which did give me the basic functionality of the Magpul offerings with a greatly increased comfort factor. I wasn't entirely happy quite yet however because the HK snaps were a lot slower to connect and disconnect compared to the hooks on my PTS MS2, so I decided to have another read of my old thread to look over the content again and a very interesting picture posted up caught my eye. Which you can see here:



As many of you will no doubt recognise, this is Mr Travis Haley, he's talking about the body's interaction with a carbine when firing in one of his Pantaeo instructional videos. With regards to the sling he's using, what you'll immediately notice is that it is not a straight-up MS3. The portion going over his shoulder seems to be borrowed from the Viking Tactics Padded Sling, given the row of stitching down the middle of the pad. I would suggest this to be a very good option for use in creation of your own sling, because it generally comes in around 10-15 USD cheaper than the BFG Padded VCAS but with almost exactly the same features. The Emdom option in Multicam will cost around the same as the Viking Tactics, but the solid colour options from Emdom come in around 6 dollars less than the VTAC sling in solid colours.

As for the other components of Mr Haley's sling, you can see that the key portion linking the rest of the sling to the weapon itself comes directly from a black MS3, as does the secondary paraclip. The section of webbing in the tan colour looks to me like it has been taken from an MS2 due to the amount of light reflecting from it's surface. The material used in the production of the MS2 gives off a lot more shine than the far duller, matt webbing used onthe MS3. It would also seem a strange decision to break apart two different MS3s in different colours when just one would have done the job. With that said however, the width of the tan material seems to be in keeping with the width of the MS3, so I can't be 100% certain either way on this point.

Regardless of the exact component selection Travis went with, I believe that the fact he's not entirely using the sling (which he will have no doubt have helped to design at Magpul) says a great deal. In general, I would say it reinforces the point that others have made before with regards the issues that the Magpul slings have. On the other hand, it should be noted that he has stuck with the Magpul interpretation of the quick length adjustment section and while I don't doubt he has his reasons for doing so, I find this somewhat surprising for reasons that I shall elaborate on later.

Why should I consider buying 2 slings if 1 will do the job?

In order to answer this question we need to look a bit more in-depth at the issues present in the current crop of high end sling designs. Firstly, I mentioned earlier that I hadn't included 2-point slings in the opening section of this article and the reason for this is simple. When I'm skirmishing in an airsoft game, I find the ability to switch shoulders very quickly absolutely essential, and for me, having to take extra steps to move or adjust my sling inorder to make that switch is not acceptable. 2-point sling systems, even the latests designs with quick adjustment, do not give the shooter that quick-transition ability.

Now this is an individual thing, so if the general concepts of a 1-point aren't for you, then I would recommend you look elsewhere than the A.S.S. for a sling to suit your needs. If you do like that quick transition ability however, then please do read on.

As a demonstration of the differences between these quick adjust 2-points slings and a 1-point, I suggest taking a look at the following videos. First up is Larry Vickers promoting his Combat Applications Sling:

http://youtu.be/W6SbrDh6_Oo?t=11s

Next up we have Chris Costa using an MS2 while instructing a carbine class:

http://youtu.be/LJQTpTljLz8?t=54s

From the point of cessation of firing in one shoulder to commencement of firing in the opposite shoulder, you're looking at around 1 second (or less) with the MS2 and around 6 seconds with the VCAS; and that's being generous to the VCAS. You've also got to factor in the increased likelihood of somehow making a mistake during the transition while using the 2-point setup. If you don't take your time when it comes to grabbing that quick adjust buckle or taking one of your arms out the loop, you will undoubtedly end up tangled and have to spend even longer correcting the issue unless you spend many hours practicing. Also, when the 2-point is mounted at the root of the buffer tube on the AR you will end up with a section of the webbing obstructing the fire selector and the bolt catch once you've successfully transitioned to the reaction side. Something that can certainly be a real hindrance in airsoft and a massive problem in the live fire world.

So now we understand the problems that the user might face if he were to choose to run a 2-point sling, let's look at some of the issues with the adaptable slings that are currently on the market. Firstly,the MS2.



This image is a close in view of my old PTS sling and I have two points to highlight from this.

First and foremost, as mentioned earlier, the width simply isn't sufficient. If you're fielding a particularly light, all-polymer rifle with a short barrel and few accessories then this may well do the job for you, but for many people running 14.5"+ carbines or rifles with metal receivers and rail systems, optics and various electronic devices, 1" webbing simply doesn't distribute the weight well enough and will cause noticeable pain across the neck/shoulder area as you come towards the end of a day's skirmishing.

Secondly is the issue with this particular material and it's interaction with velcro. The way in which the threads are weaved does make for a soft feel, but it also catches quite badly on hook velcro, a material found commonly all over various kinds of tactical kit and equipment. The camera didn't actually pick up a lot of the really tiny strands that are protruding from the webbing, so the true extent of the damage is actually quite a bit worse than it would appear from looking at that particular picture.

Next up, the adjustment systems.



I'm hoping other people had more luck with these than I ever have, because I found them both to be awkward and unreliable. The fixed length adjustment (in this case the plastic tri-glide) would always end up about 4 inches away from where I'd set it by the end of a skirmish day, purely due to the weight of the weapon. When it came to trying to use the quick length adjustment I also encountered a lot of difficulty. Unless I could fully tension this section of the sling in just the right way the loop simply wouldn't move when pulled, it would jam at an angle or cause the webbing to bunch and stick; the majority of the time I'd end up sitting there for a minute having to manually feed the strap through the metal hardware. Hardly 'quick'.

On the positive sidehowever, the MS2 does give:

• Smooth, fast and unhindered shoulder transitions
• A very quick disconnect from your weapon
• Fast transition from1 to 2-point modes
• All the advantages related to speed and control associated with a 1-point sling, when configured in that mode
• These are thefeatures that we would want to retain in the A.S.S.

Now let's take alook at the Gunslinger in it's default form to identify some of the issues with that design.




1. This portion of the sling links directly to the weapon when you're setup in the 1-point mode, but it's simply far too long. The fastex buckle was included in order to allow a quick release from the weapon in an emergency, but this can be achieved in other ways using better designed hardware. There's also far too much webbing hanging down from the buckle which further exacerbates the issue with the rifle being slung too low down when the Gunslinger is used as a 1-point.
2. When utilised in the default configuration intended by the manufacturer, this metal D-ring facilitates the use of the Gunslinger in the 1-point mode by allowing attachment of the free end and sits directly against the body. This can create an uncomfortable pressure point when the torso is not covered by a chest rig or armour carrier, and causes an interference with mission critical equipment when the torso is covered. The problem here is that the ring does not act as a link in the 'chain' of the sling as seen with the D-ring in the Magpul designs, it is sewn on to an unbroken length of webbing.
3. The fixed length adjustment section. As we've seen with other areas of this sling, there's simply too much material here and even though the excess is controlled (since it loops back inside itself) and is secured by the bungee loop, this creates another problem. Routing the webbing in such a manner simply doesn't create enough friction for this portion of the sling to stay in the position the user sets. As a load is placed on to the sling, the oval slide will end up moving from it's intended place.
4. This is the quick length adjustment section of the sling, here as before we've got too much webbing used, again contributing to the previously mentioned issues with regards the 1-point mode.
5. The plastic 'tension-loc' buckle that is used to allow quick adjustment of section 4 on the Gunslinger is good and stays solidly in place, but the Z-pull attached to this buckle is a problem area. To my mind a V-pull (i.e. just one strip of webbing instead of the current two) would have been a much better idea, as the Z design will flap around quite noticeably when the sling is in use, rather than staying neatly positioned against the main body of the system.

This isn't to say that Emdom and the owner of the 'Military Morons' (hence MM) gear review website threw this product together with no thought, far from it. The Gunslinger does give us these advantages:

• An adaptable type sling design (combines 1 and 2-points) which is available in far more colour and camouflage pattern options than than the Magpul offerings.
• A wide shoulder strap constructed from supple yet robust 1.8" seatbelt webbing for much improved pressure distribution.
• Mil-spec materials throughout, including all the webbing, 420D cordura in the areas where the 1" material transits to/from the 1.8", ghillitex metal and plastic hardware for IR reductionand #69 high strength thread used in all stitching.
• No worries about any hook velcro on the other parts of your gear interfering with your sling.
• A quick adjust system that is consistent and simple to operate with just one hand but will remain in the position the user leaves it in during operations.

Can we get all the good stuff in to one sling without any of the bad?

Simple answer: Yes, and doing so does not require any knowledge or past experience of tactical gear modification. In order to make my particular version of the A.S.S. all that is required are the following items:

• Emdom-MM Gunslinger in your colour/pattern of choice
• PTS or Magpul Industries MS2 in your colour of choice
• A good pair of scissors or sharp knife
• Box of matches or cigarette lighter
• Thread unpicking tool (optional but useful)

The vast majority of the creation process simply involves chopping down the Gunslinger and doing away with a lot of the unnecessary material. In fact for those on a budget the Gunslinger itself can be improved significantly without having to purchase any extra hardware beyond the QD/HK/MASH hook that you'd need regardless. I'll cover that slightly later on however, first let's look in detail at the features of the A.S.S. itself. I've broken the sling downin to 2 sections for analysis, as pictured below.



Section 1



The beauty of using the Magpul product as part of the A.S.S. is that no permanent modification needs to be made to your MS2 (or 3) sling, you simply thread the primary length of webbing back through the various components and you'll be left with with the strap itself, the alligator clip. and the rear weapon connector pictured here which is an integrated unit.

In order to adapt the Magpul rear connector portion on to the Gunslinger, simply deconstruct the Gunslinger's original rear connector section to freethe ITW 1" oval slide, unpick and then cut the section of webbing that protrudes from the cordura transit area (only through 1 strap of course, the one that will sit away from the torso, and cut as close to the cordura as possible) and remove the fastex buckle and D-ring. Ensure you spend 4-5 second with a lighter or match flame held near to the end of any webbing you cut, this will just melt the loose ends of the nylon, preventing fraying and dramatically increasing the life of your sling.

Now you can thread the 1" oval on to the strap you are left with, through the D-ring on the Magpul segment (making a small fold at the lowest point) and back through the oval slide. Although this method of securing the connector may look unreliable at first glance, by threading the 1" webbing back through the oval slide you have actually created a joint which is not only simple, but self-tensions and gets stronger as you put weight on to the sling. Hence why I decided to employ this system at 3 different points on the A.S.S.

The MS2 hardware allows for both quick and easy attachment to a variety of receiver plate and buttstock mounting points, as well as quick detachment from the weapon whenever the user so desires. The extra section of 1" webbing from the MS2 (to which the Dynamics patch is affixed) also ensures that shoulder transitions are made easy by allowing the metal D-ring to hang down slightly from the weapon, creating a 'valley' in the hanging material within which the buttstock of the weapon can transit without interference.

The change of the metal D-ring to a link between the Gunslinger shoulder strap and the connection hardware, where previously it was sewn in part-way along the webbing, also provides various enhancements. The metal will no longer be pressing against the user's torso when the weapon is hung, attachment of the alligator clip is made simpler by removing the webbing that previously covered most of the ring, and the length adjustment section of the sling will sit in-line with the rest when the weapon is held in the firing position, where before it was twisted at 90°.

Section 2



The primary objectives of the modifications to the length adjustment sections of the Gunslinger were to make alterations which would result in a sling better suited to use in the 1-point mode; this required fairly extensive removal of material.

The first task was to unpick the stitching in the end of the fixed length adjustment section. As always, be sure to check twice then cut once, slice away excess and then feed the strap back through the 1" ovalslide in the exact same manner used in section 1. This alleviates problems with both the length of the Gunslinger and the tendency for this section of the adjustment system to move on it's own during use.

Next job was to look at the quick length adjustment section of the Emdom sling. No unpicking of thread necessary here, but again you'll need to take note of how the system goes together, feed the webbing right through to pretty much maximum adjustment, test, adjust again then cut and loop the 1" oval back in place, installing the Alligator clip from the MS2 as you do so. Now we have entirely remedied the issue with regards to the Gunslinger placing the weapon too low in the 1-point mode, and have a faster, more intuitive method of transitioning between the 1 and 2 point configurations using the all the Magpul hardware instead of HK snaps or MASH hooks.

Taking control of therogue Z-pull is also a simple matter. Using the factory made loop of 1" webbing that you previously took from the rear weapon connector portion of the Gunslinger, you can simply use a thin pair of pliers to pull the Z-pull inside said loop, which will entirely eliminate any issues with loose webbing while still retaining the quick adjust feature. This is particularly useful, as a sling that fits you perfectly while wearing just a shirt isn't going to fit as well once you don a plate carrier or other rigthat has bulk to it.



So there we have it. The initial complaint with the MS2 was comfort, that's now been sorted and a few other problems have been solved along the way. So how does the A.S.S. get along when you actually try and attach it to your airsoft armoury?

Weapons Compatibility

First thing to point out is that the content of the section is very much subjective to avariety of factors. Even within one family of weapons there can be many hundreds of potential combinations of sling mounting points & solutions. With this in mind, I've tried to do my best to pick out a few of the more commonly utilised systems currently in use out there.

Starting off with themodernised AR-15, in 1 and 2-point configurations. Not a problem for the A.S.S.






Next up, AKM. The sling has to be reversed here due to the width of the front sling mount, but a cheap and simple paracord loop will fix this no problem (this of course applies to almost any weapon type you can think of). As with the AR family, there are of course many types of AK out there with a wide variety of sling mounts.



G36 family. The great advantage with these weapons is that they feature a sling mountright at the base of the stock, which is absolutely ideal for a 1-point. Unfortunately the QD clip on the MS2 doesn't quite fit through, but again, a couple of inches of commonly available paracord remedies this, as well as saving your weapon from getting scratched if it's made of metal with paint, rather than polymer.



Legacy 7.62 NATO battle rifles such as the FAL are fine too. In this instance I've used an adapter piece designed for an M16 full stock, but this purely an optional addition to make the sling setup more comfortable for me.



Optionsand Alternative Configurations

One particularly useful feature of the modified Gunslinger is that it retains a fundamental function of it's base model; the ability to easily customise the hardware to the end user's preference.

For example, those whomay already own a Magpul PTS (as opposed to the Magpul Industries) MS2 can use the hardware from their current sling just as easily. As with the real world original, no permanent modifications need be made to the PTS sling in order to remove the alligator clip and the rear weapon connecting section. In fact, the PTS QD hook is built in such a manner as to allow full, 360 degree rotation where the Magpul Industries hook is not.



For those who would rather not have to purchase 2 slings in order to combine them, the complete functionality (on a base level) of the A.S.S. can be achieved by simply using 2 HK snap hooks. Some speed is sacrificed, but the financial cost is substantially lessened.



As another alternative that only requires a single HK snap, the level of modification to the Gunslinger can be toned down by leaving the original D-ring and rear weapon connection in place. In this setup the snap hook is mounted to the adjustable end of the sling and the actual webbing of the rear weapon connection is itself threaded through a suitable sling plate or other mounting point on the weapon.

HK Snap hooks can generally be picked up fairly inexpensively online, or for those with more expensive tastes who want to utilise the very latest gear, the MS3 paraclips can be incorporated in to the trimmed down Emdom sling just as easily as the MS2 hardware.

In Conclusion

I hope you have all enjoyed coming on this little learning experience with me, and I certainly do hope you have found it at least somewhat informative.

I do look forward toseeing whether others will decide to make an A.S.S. for themselves.


Post text: The Gen 2 A.S.S. is currently under development here at my secret laboratory (in my parents' house) so keep an eye on this thread for info on that in the coming weeks.

[CKinnerley]

Re: New from RE:MF Tactical - The Adaptable Solutions Sling (An article on sling des

Bit of an update to the thread while I'm working on putting together the Gen 2 A.S.S. here.

I've been doing a bit more searching around lately and when I was looking at a few videos from Hardpoint Equipment on YT I noticed a link through to some more media by Ares Armo(u)r which demonstrate their Huskey Amentum slider sling, and I think it's actually a very good option for anyone out there who wants a sling which fulfils the criteria that I had when I put together the original A.S.S. Those criteria primarily consisting of the following:

• Adaptable/1-to-2 point configuration to maximise versatility
• Increased comfort through the addition of padding and wider materials across the neck/shoulder area
• Simple and effective quick adjustment system
• Various options of colours and camouflage patterns

To enable you to use the Huskey Amentum as an adaptable sling you simply need the addition of one of these Viking Tactics QD point tri-glides:





A demonstration of which you can view here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_sfy...outu.be&t=3m7s

If you're interested in picking one of these up then they're available from retailers of operational use tactical gear over in the U.S. as are the VTAC Tri-glides to make the conversion.

The only real dis-advantage I can see there being to this sling is the fact that the front attachment point has to be a QD button, unlike the MS2 or MS3 hardware you can't just latch it on to any old sling hook. That said however, an awful lot of RIS designs now do integrate QD attachment points, as do some gas blocks, and it's also really easy to get a rail mounted QD point that'll go up the front of any weapon you have that features even a tiny section of 20mm up the front of its' handguard (which is the vast majority these days). So when you really look at it, considering the price saving vs. buying yourself two sling as I have, it's not really too much of an issue.

Overall, an option well worth considering for those who would rather save a bit of cash to get essentially the same functionality as an A.S.S. style hybrid and aren't bothered about the necessity of the QD point.