on slings

TRX
19-11-2013
I have a rifle that I might want to carry on a two or three day hike. To do that, I figured I needed a sling. So I went off looking at slings, and as so often happens, wandered off into the Land of Confusion.

First off, what is now called a sling is what used to be called a "shooting sling"; often a three-strap arrangement designed to stabilize the rifle for shooting, as opposed to carrying. What I knew as a "sling" is now a "carry strap."

All that would be fine, except no two manufacturers seem to agree which is which, and they may sell apparently-identical products as one or the other.

I was wondering where I should put the sling swivels. If there are any instructions at all, they are like "decide where the swivel needs to go, then dri..." Well, the "where" is what I'm trying to find out...

The rifle I'm working with is a sporterized SMLE. I could duplicate its sling, er, strap mounts... but I haven't figured out whether the factory setup was optimized for carrying the rifle or for shooting it; the British rifleman's manual shows wrapping an arm through the sling to steady the rifle, but you can do that with any sort of strap.

I haven't even found anything about how long the sling has to be; most pictures show the strap rigged tightly, but it looks like you'd want the sling to arch over your shoulder so the rifle is hanging, as opposed to a shorter strap, which would pinch the barrel against your shoulder.

I can figure it out eventually, and the ugly stock won't be damaged by a few trial-fit holes, but it's strange that there's so little information on mounting and rigging a sling. As many soldiers and hunters who have dragging a heavy rifle around for weeks or months, you'd expect they'd all have definite and loud opinions on the matter.