How to Set-Up A Modern Tactical Sling

A sling is more than just a strap that attaches the gun to your body. At least modern slings are more than just straps that attach guns to bodies.

The modern two-point sling can be an extremely efficient piece of gear…as long as it’s set up correctly.

Yep, even slings need a little attention. If your only goal is to use the sling as a strap to carry the gun, then just do what you want.

However, if you want to maximize the potential of your sling, rifle, and entire setup, you’ve come to the right place. Keep reading as we help you setup your tactical sling to work best for you!

What’s a Modern Tactical Sling?

It’s wise to start by ensuring we are all on the same playing field. What do I mean by a modern sling?

Do I mean a 3-point? Sure, if it was 1999, we’d be talking three points. But since it’s 2024 and we aren’t running G3s, it’s not a 3-point.

What about a single point? Hmm, single points are the definition of a carry strap. They might excel in some niche use cases but are more lanyard than sling.

That leaves us with the modern tactical 2-point sling. The sling has become a staple of modern rifles since about 2012 or so. It was around longer than that, but the Marine Corps adoption of the Vickers sling in 2012 demented its legacy.

These slings are characterized by two points of attachment and quick-adjust designs. They feature sliders that drastically adjust their size from loosey goose to hands-free instantly. These slings make it easy to carry all types of weapons.

While they are mostly associated with the AR platform, they work well on subguns, shotguns, battle rifles, and even hunting rifles. They do it all, and they do it well.

Who Makes a Good Tactical Sling?

Oh boy, we live in a golden age of modern tactical slings. They are everywhere, and it seems like anyone with a decent sewing machine can make one. With that in mind, I have three suggestions to get you slung up.

These are my favorites, and there might be a bit of bias, but I guarantee these three are great slings and will serve you well.

Blue Force Gear Vickers Sling

The Vickers Sling is the first modern tactical two-point to see mass appeal and delivery. It’s a well-made, super-adjustable sling. Blue Force Gear makes these in enough colors and configurations to make your head spin.

This includes padded configurations, thinner one-inch configs, and more. A tabbed slider sits at the sling’s core, allowing you to easily adjust the sling on the fly. Grip and push to loosen, grip and pull to tighten.

I’ve had mine for 14 years, and it still rocks and rolls like an absolute champ. It’s a worthwhile investment in your rifle.

Arbor Arms USA Dual Adjust Weapon Sling

Arbor Arms makes one of the premier tactical two-point slings with the Dual Adjust Weapon Sling. This sling’s name comes from the advanced slider at the front. It combines the benefits of a closed-loop slider sling and a cam sling.

The closed loop slider sling advantage is the ability to adjust the sling on the fly to quickly tighten up or run it loose. Meanwhile, the cam slider benefits allow you to overtighten the sling to create a hands-free design.

Arbor Arms uses a straight filament webbing, so it doesn’t stiffen even after years of dust, moisture, and general exposure to the elements.

The Dual Adjust Weapon sling comes in various configurations. These include metal and polymer loop options, a precision rifle option, and the ability to add a pad if you don’t find it comfy enough.

Pew Pew Tactical’s Padded Tactical Sling

Did you know that Pew Pew Tactical released a sling through the magic of collaboration? Flatline Fiber Company and Tri-Star Trading collaborated to bring you our sling, a padded, tactical two-point of the minimalist variety.

It’s a 1-inch-thick sling. This makes it lighter and smaller than most tactical two points. I like 1-inch slings on my subguns and lightweight intermediate-caliber rifles. These slings are made from nylon webbing and 500D Cordura wrapped around neoprene. This makes it tough for its size.

The padded part gives you plenty of support and comfort when worn for the long haul. Up front, we have a tabbed slider for rapid adjustments and an easy-to-use design.

It’s a lightweight, straightforward sling that’s tough and easy to use.

Why Proper Setup of Your Sling Matters

A properly set up sling allows you to maximize the sling’s potential, which is as clear as mud. As a person who likes specifics, let’s get specific.

First, the purpose of our sling is to help us carry our firearm. When a sling is properly set, it offers additional support and comfort. It keeps the rifle or shotgun from hanging too low or uncomfortably tight. When correctly set up, it carries your rifle comfortably, allowing it to be ready quickly.

Second, when you’ve adjusted the sling properly, the quick adjustment device works as efficiently as possible. The sling can sit properly tight to the body for hands-free use without swinging or drooping and just getting in the way. It’s maneuverable and easy to use when run loose and ready to fire.

Finally, when properly tensioned, the sling can be used as a shooting aid. Using slings to create tension is nothing new. When you tension and adjust the sling properly, you can use that tension to stabilize the shooting platform.

More tension means more stability, and stability brings accuracy. It’s not enough to make a terrible shot a good shot, but it’s enough to help when your heart’s racing, sweat’s pouring in your eyes, and things are just working against you.

How to Mount a Sling to a Rifle

First, let’s attach the sling to the rifle. We’ll start up front because, well, why not?

If you’re right-handed, the sling will mount to the left side of the gun, and vice versa for left-handers. There are some different positions up front we can use with different advantages.

The sling and rifle have some single-point benefits if we stick closer to the receiver. Namely, they’re easy to use in and out of vehicles—or at least easier. The downside is a little less support, and the sling is a bit awkward to adjust via a slider or cam. The front portion of the rifle can also bounce and twist around due to less support.

The other option is to mount the sling right behind your support hand. Grab the gun, assume a good shooting stance, and note the M-LOK or rail position that sits behind your hand. That’s where you’ll mount the sling.

In this position, the sling offers great support and makes reaching the cam or slider easy. The downside is that the muzzle and barrel portions have less maneuverability in vehicles or seated positions in general.

The third option is going all the way to the front of the handguard. This offers you a ton of support upfront and excellent stability. You can get great sling tension in this position. When you assume a firing position, you can feel the tension.

There is a little less mobility all around, and directing the gun in vehicles and buildings in a nontactical manner can be a hassle. Even moving the gun between your legs is difficult, and it often requires you to unsling.

I prefer the second method because I’m not tooling around with my AR in my Honda.

Next, we gotta focus on the rear sling position. Much like the front sling position, we have options.In fact, the options start to get repetitive.

We can attach the sling to the stock, which is the far position, or to near the castle nut, which is the near position.

In the near position, we get more maneuverability overall but less support. The stock can bounce around a bit, and using sling tension becomes a hassle. However, moving in tight environments becomes easier.

In the far position, we are attaching the sling to the stock. If you are a right-handed shooter, the sling will be mounted over the top of the stock and on the left side. Again, it is vice versa for left-handers.

We go over and around the stock to create a little more tension and support, but the primary reason is the ability to swap shoulders and shoot in odd positions. In this position, we get a little extra room to move with the sling without it applying a choke hold to our necks.

With your sling mounted, it’s time to start sizing it up.

Sizing Your Sling Up

We are all different sizes, right? I’m 6’5″ and 280 pounds, so it makes zero sense that a sling that fits me would fit my petite wife. Slings, like shirts and pants, have to be sized appropriately.

Consider adding a plate carrier, chest rig, or warming layers when sizing your sling. These all add size to the shooter, so they should be worn when adjusting the sling to fit.

With a modern tactical two-point, we want to run the quick-adjust portion as loose as possible — run it wide open! It should remain in this loose position as we make adjustments. With the sling wide open, toss it on.

We need to observe the fit. We want the stock to sit right over the nipple, below the shoulder pocket. If the stock sits high, then the sling needs to be loosened. If it sits low, then it needs to be tightened.

When we make adjustments, we don’t touch the quick adjustment tab. We want to start by using the adjustments at the rear of the sling first. Adjust slack and triglides to get it just right.

Optimistically, you can make all your adjustments at the rear. However, if you run out of adjustments, you must adjust the front triglides and straps. We are still leaving the quick adjust strap alone.

We use the rear straps because any adjustment upfront can limit our slider’s total movement. Still, if you have to mess with the front adjustment, you’ll have to deal with it.

Once the stock sits over the nipple and under the shoulder pocket, it gets into a shooting position. If getting the gun into the shoulder pocket is difficult, you might need to loosen the sling a bit. You should feel tension, which leads to stability.

But it’s tight!

That’s the point: it should be a little tight, even with the adjustment tab fully loosened. When you tighten the tab, the sling should fully support the weapon. It shouldn’t be able to move at all.

If you climb, crouch, or jump over a fence, your rifle shouldn’t hang low and banging around. When tightened to the max, the sling should be truly hands-free.

Flip over your neck like a necklace if your sling is too tight to maneuver. You’ll lose tension but gain mobility. Most of the time, this won’t be an issue, but having a matching tactic works.

Final Thoughts

As always, you must try it out once your sling is adjusted correctly. It’s time to run and gun. Make sure it’s properly adjusted, tight, and easy to use. You might need to make some slight adjustments when lead meets steel.

Plus, we all need to touch grass on occasion.

How do you run your sling? Do you do something different? Share your wisdom with us below! For a full rundown of our favorite slings, check out the Best Rifle Slings (AR-15, AK-47, & More).