Hunting with a sling

[Zcsdkr]

Elk hunting this year was a real success as my buddy and I both filled our tags. But one thing that now leaves a bitter taste in my mouth was how awkward and horrible having a pack and a rifle sling on my shoulder wss. I feel like there must be a better way than what I was doing. How do you guys approach this?

[hunterhawk]

Strap it to your pack... or buy a new pack that has a spot already on it for a gun.. i bow hunt so never had this problem because i havent shot one yet :-) but my buddy has and we just strapped are bows to our packs.. plenty of straps on packs to figure this out.. if yours doesnt might be time for a new pack

[Irving]

Are you talking pre-kill, or post kill, or both? For post kill, seems like a pack is the easy answer.

[Zcsdkr]

I mean pre kill... hiking around in rough terrain. You want to have it ready to shoot but not flopping around and falling off the shoulder.

[Irving]

I have a silent stalker sling that grips my shoulder or pack strap pretty well, but it still falls off if I walk through heavy brush or something. All the other hunters with more experience will probably have better advice when they get in here.

[Zcsdkr]

Well I’m glad I’m not the only one who has had their rifle fall off their shoulder going through brush. Hearing of just one other having this makes me feel so much better. My buddy seems to be immune to this issue and kinda looked at me like I was an alien when I asked.

[Irving]

I break my front sight about every other year. One year, just after I had replaced my front sight, my rifle slid off around my shoulder while I was trying to maneuver across some questionable terrain and the rifle swung around at speed and smashed the front sight right onto a rock.

[BigBear]

In my limited experience, if you walk with the loose sling it slides off the shoulder a lot, especially when jumping over downed trees, etc. The best thing we've done is use a tight sling with a quick release pull strap or even a backpack that has a rifle holder with a quick release pull.

[Irving]

Alternatively, you can tweak your technique to more closely match some of the more trashy hunters I see and just hunt from your truck.

[DFBrews]

Hiked many a mile in and out of black timber. I carry my m77 7mm ~7 lbs in the crook of my off hand. If you hold it close to the body little fatigue. If your arm gets tired stop take 5 and glass. They can see better than you can.