Tip of the SPEAR

The Modern Rifle

In every book I write, though I’m entertaining you in a science-fiction setting, I’m also trying to impart something practical and real. You’ll read something fictionalized from my experience, as well as things from my study of (in no particular order of precedence); philosophy, history, problem-solving, tactical procedures, and always, the practical day-to-day stuff warriors care about, whether you came of age in the GWOT or you’re a space commando.

So, in that vein, let’s hit something basic.

Your rifle sling.

In the same way that a pistol without a proper holster is little more than a paperweight, a fighting rifle without a sling attached is like a racing car with square wheels. And because of what we do with a fighting rifle, that sling needs to be of the two-point variety; one point of attachment on the handguard somewhere forward of the non-firing hand, the second point of attachment somewhere on the buttstock and rear of the firing hand.

We’re not talking about the pathetic excuses for slings that are really little more than carrying straps. Because for any gunfighter, past-present-or-future, the sling on a fighting rifle must do a minimum of three things:

Allow for the clean transition from a malfunctioned rifle to the pistol.

Allow at least one point of quick detach for safe removal of the weapon.

Allow stabilization of a sight picture from any firing position.

Let’s look at these three requirements of a rifle sling through the bucket visor of our favorite warriors from LEGIONNAIRE.

Scenario: A kankari-wielding donk is dead-set on parting your hair through your bucket. You deftly level your N-16 (or if you’re Dark Ops, a K-17) and press the trigger, only to hear the “click” of an empty charge chain. The cause of the malfunction? A charge cell produced by the House of Reason’s lowest bidder contract system.

That’s a bad day, leej.

But it’s all good, because every leej is trained that if there’s a malfunction of the big gun, without thinking, you automatically transition to the life saver; the hand blaster on your waist. You do, and you win the fight.

Because only a two-point sling allows you to smoothly move the dead rifle aside and let it hang—where it will stay—clear of your center line to allow that unimpeded and perfect draw of the pistol.

In contrast, the conventional Republic Army issues one-point slings to their poor troopers; little more than a loop that hangs around the neck and attaches to the rifle buttstock. So when a Repub has to let go of his rifle, it always, always, hangs dead center of his body to interfere with everything he does (not to mention, smacks into his un-armored groin like a whale tail slapping the ocean.) But particularly, that single-point sling prevents our basic friend from getting an effective two-handed grip on his hand blaster (if they even have a pistol—they rarely do.) With a little bit of training, that doesn’t happen with a two-point sling.

Next scenario: Our Legion platoon is on the “X” when we take a casualty. A leej is gravely wounded, down and out of the fight. He’s on his own until we overwhelmingly destroy the enemy. Of course, we do. We return to our wounded teammate to find one of his autotourniquets has fired, and he’s got enough holes in him everywhere else that he could strain pasta. It’s time to get him lifted to the orbiting cruiser and into a Navy medcomp.

You ever try to disentangle a hot and primed N-16 from the limp body of a wounded leej in full armor? To complicate matters further, he’s wrapped in another hundred pounds of battle rattle, including breaching tools, energrenades, and fractured charge cells leaking plasma. Only a basic would try to download that rifle while it’s still on the casualty. It’s the sure way to have an accidental discharge and ruin all of doc’s work to save this kelhorn, or more likely, create another wounded leej for doc to treat.

With a proper two-point sling, it’s not an issue. Hit the quick-detach button, release the sling, and peel that hot N-16 off the casualty, easily and safely, and pass it to another leej to download in a safe manner.

This last scenario illustrating why a two-point sling is essential equipment is the simplest to understand: A proper two-point sling can easily be tightened with the non-firing hand to increase tension of the weapon to the body, producing a decrease in the “wobble” of the sight picture, and do so in any firing position from prone to standing, thereby increasing the potential that you’re hitting what you’re shooting at.

These three basic scenarios to describe why a two-point sling is preferred have become accepted as so foundational to the act of fighting with a rifle, they’re no longer debatable. Nor will these principles be changed for professional gunfighters in any far flung and imagined future.

Because we’ve learned.

Anyway, as it applies to our mundane present, if you have a fighting rifle, you need a two-point sling on it. There are great options currently available—tailed slings and closed-loop slings of many brands—so perfect to the task that not even the Legion has been able to improve on them very much.

Ask any Dark Operator. If you want a professional result, use the tools a professional uses.

Doc Spears