It has been said that a sling is like a holster for your rifle. I think that’s a pretty accurate statement, given that we sometimes need a sling for various reasons, which we’ll get into shortly. But is Blue Force Gear’s sling a practical implement to use on our AK-47 platform? Read on, because I’m going to break it down for our readers.
Uses for a Sling
Before we look at the nitty-gritty of the Blue Force Gear AK-47 sling, we’ll go over some of the practical uses for slings on long guns. Most people think of it as a way to carry the long gun, but slings can offer so much more in the way of uses than that. A sling on a long gun makes it a complete system, to the extent that I consider a rifle, carbine, or shotgun without a sling to be incomplete.
Carry The Firearm
A sling allows us to carry our firearm in a hands-free manner, which frees up our hands to do other things. Maybe we need to carry other items, such as dragging a game animal out of the woods after a successful hunt. Perhaps we need to negotiate some sort of obstacle. In general, the sling functions like a holster in this manner.
Weapons Retention
If a bad actor attempts to disarm you of your weapon, having the weapon strapped to your body can prevent a gun grab. With the weapon strapped to your body, you’ll be coming along with it if the bad guy grabs it, and he will not be very happy with the results.
Weapons Transitions
Sometimes it’s necessary to transition from our long gun to a handgun. Perhaps we’ve experienced a stoppage or malfunction, or we just ran out of ammunition. Whatever the cause, transitioning to a secondary weapon is often the fastest way to conclude the hostile engagement at close range. Having the weapon slung across our body allows us to drop it and draw the pistol to engage miscreants. Without that sling present, we’d have to drop the weapon onto the deck, which is not at all acceptable. Leaving a live weapon behind is just not in the cards.
Stabilizing The Long Gun
A quality sling on a long gun helps stabilize the weapon, which helps us to be able to better make long shots. Being able to go into the Hasty Sling position helps us in the standing, kneeling, sitting, and prone positions, in that it can keep our weapon steadier on target.
Because of its flexibility and the speed at which it can be easily adjusted, the Blue Force Gear sling really lends itself well to adjusting the tension fast. That’s important when speed is of the essence, and fast shots need to be made. Speed equals survival.
I have a good bit of experience with lesser slings. As a uniformed officer, we regularly had to practice and qualify with rifles on the range and we extensively used slings in all positions. While simple, those slings required some maneuvering to set up, which would not usually be available during a crisis situation. Buckles had to constantly be adjusted to get the length of the sling correct.
Blue Force Gear Standard AK Sling
The issued slings that equip most AK’s are rather basic, and that’s putting it politely. For most, it’s a length of cloth with the crudest of attachment hardware. Adjustments are not usually convenient or expedient. In fact, “crude” is the term that best describes most of these contraptions.
Hear the good news: There is a far more efficient, high-quality alternative! Blue Force Gear’s Standard AK Sling was designed from start to finish to be the best possible sling for the AK. They started with their Vickers sling and made it perfectly suited to the AK platform.
Blue Force Gear makes a litany of products, including slings, chest rigs, ammo pouches, utility pouches, pouches of all sorts, belts, medical gear (including trauma kits), and wire loops for mounting their slings. Their gear is no-nonsense and utilitarian.
Mounting Hardware
Blue Force Gear uses the Molded Universal Wire Loop to attach to the front-end sling attachment. It attaches right to the handguard retainer. The cable is made from nylon-coated, aircraft-grade stainless steel. Just thread it through the eyelet where slings attach, loop the base through it, and then thread the sling through the base of the loop. It actually sounds more complicated than it is.
The Universal Wire Loop (UWL) deserves a moment of special mention. It’s a slick, ingenious device that’s both simple and fast into action, in addition to being extremely secure. These can also be used for other sling setups and I’m sure readers will come up with additional uses for this device.
I used an underfolder AK for this project, and it has a sling swivel attached to the pivot point at the rear of the receiver. The end of the sling is passed through that swivel and then run through the tri-glide buckles. It’s so simple, even I had no issues doing it (which means you can easily do it too!). Trust me, I’m a mechanical imbecile, and this is not a hard process. There’s a video on the Blue Force Gear website that clearly shows the sling mounting process.
Sling Construction
This sling is 1.25 inches wide and made from dyed CORDURA webbing that is very sturdy. The length is 45 to 55 inches. Happily, I can report that Blue Force makes their slings in the USA. It’s available in assorted colors.
The stitching is very heavy-duty, and I can’t imagine it ever letting go.
The sling will fit the AK-47, AK-74, and other AKM platforms. In fact, I can’t imagine that there’s not an AK that this one won’t fit.
Adjustability — The Pull Tab
There’s a pull tab that consists of a short piece of webbing that is a different color than the main sling color, making it stand out. This little tab is the key to the success of this sling, as it controls a crucial buckle on the sling.
Here’s how it operates:
- Push the tab forward to tighten the sling.
- Pull the tab to the rear to loosen the sling.
That’s it. Period.
When you don the rifle, it takes a second to loosen or adjust the sling to perfectly fit you. If you have a coat on, or even if you are wearing body armor or other load-bearing gear, it takes but a second to perfectly fit the sling. When you look at how the adjustment works, it hits you that the construction is so simple. And it’s stupid-simple to operate. With the rifle raised and pointed at the target, if you grab the tab and tighten the sling up, it helps stabilize the rifle.
When using it in CQB environments, I recommend wearing the sling in a loose, cross-body fashion in the event the rifle needs to be dropped for a weapon transition.
Parting Shots
I’ve never used a simpler AK sling in my life, nor one that is as versatile as this one. It just doesn’t get any easier or faster to operate than this Blue Force Gear Standard AK Sling. The durability of the sling seems to match that of the AK itself, and it’s made in the USA by American workers. Personally, I’ll never look for another AK sling, this one is at the pinnacle of slings for that platform.
At the time of writing, this one is available for $57.95. In my book, that’s a very fair price for a piece of gear of this caliber. If you have an AK, you absolutely need one.
