Why You Need a Sling on a Home-Defense Rifle
Rob PincusDescription
Does a home-defense rifle or shotgun need a rifle sling? Rob Pincus believes any long gun that will potentially be used in the chaotic environment of personal defense absolutely should have a sling.
Whether for a law-enforcement officer wielding a patrol rifle, or anyone in the military who carries a rifle on patrol and keeps it close to the body when not actually shooting and holding it in their hands, a rifle sling is an essential piece of self-defense gear. And it’s similar for a home-defense scenario.
Home-Defense Rifle
Rob has a CMMG AR-15-type rifle set up for home defense and stored in a Tactical Walls quick-access shelf storage unit. It’s clear that once he has the rifle in his hands, it is somewhat cumbersome and it keeps at least one hand occupied all the time. Unless you are grabbing the long gun and using it immediately, you want to keep the gun as controlled as possible without having to keep two hands on it.
Often you will need to hold the rifle with one hand while performing tasks with the other, for example holding a child, opening doors, using a cell phone to call 911,or checking an alarm camera.
Single-Point Rifle Sling
Though it requires a little more effort to position, being able to quickly and easily put a single-point sling on the long gun puts you in position to be able to perform any of the other tasks you may need a free hand for during a home-defense situation.
Be sure to leave your strong hand free or occupy it with something you can easily drop, such as a flashlight, so you can quickly use the strong hand to bring the long gun up and into action.
If you don’t already have one, add a rifle sling to your self-defense tools and accessories.
A lot of people ask about whether or not their home defense rifle or shotgun needs a sling. And I think you absolutely should put a sling on any rifle or a long gun at all that you're gonna be potentially using in a chaotic environment for personal defense. Whether it's a patrol rifle if you're in law enforcement, obviously military rifle, you're out on patrol using the rifle on your body a lot when you're not actually shooting, you're not actually holding it in your hands. And the same thing could happen inside of a home defense scenario. So I've got this AR-15 type rifle, the CMMG rifle set up for home defense in a quick-access area.
And what you see immediately is that, once I have this gun in my hands, it's kinda cumbersome, and I obviously have at least one hand occupied all the time. If I didn't need to pull the gun down and use it right away, maybe I needed to pick up my infant child, maybe I needed to open some doors. I wanna call 911. I wanna check an alarm camera, something like that. Or as I'm moving through the house, opening doors and things like that, I wanna make sure that this is as controlled as possible, without necessarily having to keep two hands on it.
So being able to very quickly and easily throw the sling on, even this single-point sling, which requires a little bit more positioning than a simple carry strap would be, a two-point sling. I now am in a position where, I can leave this gun here, I can pick up my child, I can grab the medical kit. I might grab the flashlight, I might have my child in my arms in this side. And normally we'd think about having the flashlight in our weak hand, but in this case, I wanna hold the child on my weak hand, I'm using the flashlight as we move around. If I needed to drop that and pick up the rifle and actually use it, I obviously could do that as well.
So the idea of having the rifle ready, but not in your hands, possibly not even in either hand is the idea of having that sling. Obviously it really doesn't take up much space, and I don't have to use it. If I wanted to, if I needed to, if I was in a situation where I had to grab the rifle and immediately pull it out of my staging area and bring it into the fight, I could very easily bring it into fight and the sling's really not gonna cause much problem. I've heard a few people talk about reasons you wouldn't want a sling on a long gun. Entanglements, things like that.
Usually they're talking about the carry straps, two-position for transitions from one side to the other. Things like, someone trying to grab your rifle and it making it harder for you to be able to use the rifle to defend yourself as a combative implement. But I really think, especially with a single-point sling, you should have one on your rifle or your shotgun when you stage it for home defense.
Not sure if it's ever been mentioned in other discussion's or videos (I'm sure it has, I just have seen it yet)... but what he said at the end instantly brought this to mind as why it would be a huge positive to us a sling on a home defense rifle... it makes it harder to have your gun taken and/or used against you in a struggle... I know someone will say "but it could then also used against you to choke you"... to that I would say case in point where having a QD on one end would be most beneficial (on a two-point sling)...
I personally do not believe, nor do I use a long gun as a home defense weapon. I have several hand guns placed where I can easily get to them for home defense, As for a sling I use them strictly for carrying while hunting. while in the military the sling was always a nuisance except for carrying the weapon. I was comfortable using a sling during range practice or target shooting.