Sling on a HD 870?

[baz152]

no real need for a sling in home defense.

I've seen people say they use one because it prevents a BG from taking the weapon from you, but an HD situation should never go that far.

That gun in the OP looks like the dude just threw a bunch of random **** on their for a picture - I seriously doubt he shoots or keeps it that way.

A HD situation should never happen period but they do, so guess what HD situations do go that far. Should a single person be clearing their property on their own... not the best idea, but you should be prepared to. If you have children they probably do not sleep in your room or even on the same floor so you better be able to move your way to them as best as possible. I am not saying that anyone should clear their entire house but you live there so you better know the angles.

Every long gun should have a sling on it. A single point sling will not get caught on anything except you (what it is suppose to do). That sling will always keep your weapon close at hand and allow you to use both of your hands if needed. Also if you run a PG shotgun then a sling will let you better control the weapon by pushing it away from you. This allows you to have a legal SG with a shorter signature which is still fairly controllable.

Put a single point sling on it with a GG&G rear loop.

[inbox485]

A HD situation should never happen period but they do, so guess what HD situations do go that far. Should a single person be clearing their property on their own... not the best idea, but you should be prepared to. If you have children they probably do not sleep in your room or even on the same floor so you better be able to move your way to them as best as possible. I am not saying that anyone should clear their entire house but you live there so you better know the angles.

Every long gun should have a sling on it. A single point sling will not get caught on anything except you (what it is suppose to do). That sling will always keep your weapon close at hand and allow you to use both of your hands if needed. Also if you run a PG shotgun then a sling will let you better control the weapon by pushing it away from you. This allows you to have a legal SG with a shorter signature which is still fairly controllable.

Put a single point sling on it with a GG&G rear loop.

1) I'd love to see you clear tight corners in a house with a shotgun shouldered. Taking my house as just one of many examples there are corners that make that impossible.

2) I'm no uber ninja, but I'm decent with a shotgun. I'm also good enough with a short staff that I'd be 100x better off using a shotgun as a weapon (go figure) than be wrapped up in a sling in a hand to hand fight.

[baz152]

1) I'd love to see you clear tight corners in a house with a shotgun shouldered. Taking my house as just one of many examples there are corners that make that impossible.

2) I'm no uber ninja, but I'm decent with a shotgun. I'm also good enough with a short staff that I'd be 100x better off using a shotgun as a weapon (go figure) than be wrapped up in a sling in a hand to hand fight.

A SG would not be my first choice for a HD firearm but that is an entirely different topic, but if that is all that you had you better learn to work with it. A single point sling would help you with clearing tight corners by suspending the SG under your arm. Other than that, the military and Law Enforcement have been clearing buildings with long guns including SG's for quite some time and they have it pretty well figured out.

As far as needing to be a ninja, a sling accomplishes several things, not only does it keep the weapon close at hand allowing you to free your hands for other things when need be but it also makes weapon take aways by an aggressor far more difficult. A sling (as long as it is worn) will prevent all gun takeaways that I know of. I have never once been tangled up in a single point sling, I could see that with two and three point slings but that was clearly not what I was talking about. Keep in mind that if you are so close to an attacker where you can not point your weapon at them then they will have their hands on your weapon too.

[Jimmy Deuce]

If it is HD only no sling needed. If you are moving, walking, running , and our hiking. I think a 2 point is good.

[j.primo]

Those are in case a criminal breaks into your house while you are asleep and find your gun before you wake up. In that case, when the lights go on, he will die laughing at the site of your HD weapon!!!

^^

great tactic

[sniper5]

It ain't a high speed/low drag tacticool set up, but neither am I. I didn't play cops and robbers as a kid and I don't want to now. But it's comfortable, it works, it's the same shotgun I change barrels on and go to the range with to shoot trap and skeet with and I'm totally at home with it. It's a 20 gauge Mossberg 500 with 2 3/4" #3 buck loads.

The sling is a pull one side to loosen, pull the other to tighten design and is handy if I want my hands free. I go to "African" carry and just drop whatever is in hand to get back into action. The rest of the time I keep the sling "parade ground" tight against the gun. The flashlight is 240 lumens and set to strobe. And I am able to practice fairly often in an indoor range with the lights off if no one is there. Gives the term "flash-bang" a whole new meaning.

[-hanko]

The point of this rant was to comment about some of the things being tossed around in this thread. Some of you guys here need to put down the gun rags and seek training. Watching Youtube videos, reading SWAT magazine articles and reading blogs that talk you through things like room clearing drills, operating in low light and continuity of fire are no substitute for proper training. What you heard or read, or watched doesn't matter once that fight starts. It is what you know, that muscle memory that is going to keep you alive and keep you in the fight. Assumptions, guesses and day dreaming about how it might go down isn't going to do you a damn bit of good God forbid your find yourself defending yourself and your family. Some of you here need to start taking this stuff serious and start seeking out some training before you find yourself in over your head for real.

CDMJ, many thanks for your dose of reality.

-hanko

[inbox485]

Come on man, use your head. I have cleared buildings with a 20'' M16, while wearing body armor. It can be done with an 18.5'' shotgun at 3:30AM. It is all about training. SWAT teams all over the country employ shotguns and clear structures with them everyday. OK so you don't want to use a sling I get that, but now in your attempt to convince everyone else that your way is the right way you are posting this? Seriously you can't clear corners with a shotgun now? Really inbox?

You're reading too much into one man's opinion.

I'm not saying it can't be done. I am saying there are corners that would be physically impossible to clear without either leading with the barrel or tucking under your arm (which is difficult to do with a sling). When there physically isn't the space to turn around a corner with a shouldered long gun without leading with the barrel it isn't a "training" issue. So yes, I can clear most corners just fine with a sling. There are some corners that I would want to tuck the shotgun under where the sling would get in the way. I'm not saying my way is the only way or even that it is right for everybody. I see rather limited benefit to slings for HD, and for me in my house, I have reasons not to mess with one. I have a nice 2 to 1 point point convertible bungee sling, and I happily use it at the range, just not at home. I've mentioned my reasons before but I'll recap:

- the sling get tangled on the bed rack I keep it in at night
- the sling makes it take longer to get the shotgun up and ready from my bed rack even if it doesn't get tangled
- the sling makes it all but impossible to use an under arm tuck position which is necessary if I want to clear certain corners in my house
- if I ended up in a hand to hand struggle, I would personally value being being able to use a shotgun as a blunt weapon over the retention aspect of having a sling

If none of those apply to you then the conclusion obviously wouldn't apply either. If you disagree with any of those reasons, I'd be happy to read all about it.