My first thought was to look for some sort of lever or slide tap
he would need to pull to release the rifle from its carry position in
order to press out and engage targets. The next couple of photos
showed the user pressing out on target but no illustration of how
he extended the sling.
My takeaway from seeing these product photos was twofold.
First, I really liked how compact and secure the rifle looked in the
high mounted position regarding getting in and out of vehicles
or formations. Secondly, I feared the reason I wasn’t seeing a
traditional pull tab was because the sling was made from bouncy
bungy cord material that would “yo-yo” the weapon up and down
during movement. Curious to know more, I reached out to the
contact info on the company website, www.ReadyTacticalSlings.
com and inquired about the product. Less than an hour later, I was
contacted directly by the owner, Chad Spriggs.
Through a few emails and phone conversations, I learned
several interested points about the Ready Tactical Sling (RTS) and
its intended use. According to Spriggs, the sling was designed to
be fully ambidextrous and ride elevated out of the way of other
gear such as chest rig pouches, radios or other items that may
hinder a snap presentation of a long gun onto target.
There are in fact, no toggles to lengthen the sling, but instead
a very heavy-duty elastic material woven into the webbing of the
sling to give it a firm resistance when pressing out onto target.
What this is intended to do is prevent the weapon from bouncing
up and down during movement and to give the shooter a firm off
hand shooting platform. The challenge in design was being able to
keep the sling fast on target and allow a full range of motion by
the user with and without the weapon being deployed.
What I did not pick up on by looking at photos was the
concept of how the sling works to relieve fatigue of carrying a
rifle or shotgun as well. With normal slings, the pressure is either
across the neck or digging down into the top of the shoulder. The
Ready Tactical Sling employs what seemed to be a shoulder cuff
style retention harness to distribute the weapons weight equally
across large muscle groups rather than digging into small, thin
tendons in the shoulder and clavicle area. Anyone who has ever
stood post, marched or searched an area for hours carrying a rifle
would greatly appreciate the design. Eager to learn more about
the product, Spriggs stated he would send a couple for review.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Less than two weeks after our initial conversation, a package from
Ready Tactical Slings arrived at my office. Inside were two slings,
each equipped with quick disconnect (QD) mounts to quickly plug
into my AR15 rifles and get to work. The construction of the slings
was top notch with heavy duty stitching and what appeared to
be military grade plastic quick release buckles for easy on / off
access. I was pleased to see just how versatile the sling was
according to the instructions. The overall design not only allowed
for a traditional two-point sling with the retention of a 3 point
harness, it could also be run as a very capable one point sling for
chest and low pistol carry of an AR / AK pistol or submachine gun,
such as an HK MP5.
After laying the sling out and seeing how it mounted onto the
body, I slipped my right shoulder into the loop, clipped it closed and
snugged the tension via the buckle. The shorter section of the sling
held my AR15 stock close to my shoulder in a high ready position
as the longer portion ran over my back, under my support arm to
the opposite end of my rifle towards the muzzle. As I completely
READY TACTICAL SLING
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