Awesome answer. Thank you. You have me convinced. You made me think back to the day when my sgt took our slings away for some reason and trying to get your plate filled with food and a drink with ur rifle in hand was impossible...

My favourite part of a sling (in CQB) is switching to my side arm. =D
In skirmishes, sometimes I'll run a shotgun and pistol, just so I can keep dropping my shotgun to grab my pistol.
It's kind of awkward to gingerly set your gun on the ground so you can draw your side arm.

It's also caught my gun from dropping on more than one occasion. If you trip and fling your hands out to stop yourself, your gun will either go flying if you don't have a sling, or it'll just go crashing down with you (and hopefully you'll be able to slow your fall)

But yeah, aside from holding your gun when you get tired, it's a lot of fun to switch to your sidearm.

wellllll its not tooo hard to use your sidearm while still holding your rifle.... just hold your rifle like you normally do and then drop your trigger hand down to ur sidearm and hold your rifle across your body... very easy to do

BUT doesnt matter i plan on getting a sling

Psh, have you ever felt like a badass trying to grasp your rifle awkwardly in one hand, and trying to line up your follow up pistol shots with your other?
The reason I play dress up and blow so much money on toys is so I can LARP as a bad ass spec ops action hero! ;)

But on a more serious/off topic note, I don't see that as a viable alternative to a sling for serious use of a sidearm. Plus I'm getting funny images of someone holding their gun to their chest butt-down-barrel-up, then dropping it butt-first, and having the gun fire when it hits the ground. They'd get a BB up the nose. Even better if the butt lands on their toes. =D

On a more serious/on topic note, a sling will usually be more helpful than hurtful. It's there to catch your gun if it leaves your hands fast (either voluntarily as you switch to sidearm or give your arms a break, or involuntarily as you do a faceplant). If you get a one point sling (which I absolutely love on my MP5s/P90s - an M4 is almost too tall for a shorter guy like me), it's VERY easy to switch shoulders, and is more manouverable going through windows and stuff. The downside is that it doesn't hold your gun as snuggly to your body as a multi-point sling when you're walking/running around.
You can also get slings that detach easily (generally with a buckle), so if you need to get your gun off fast, you just release the buckle (or buckles if it's a multi point sling), and you don't have to go through the extra motion of bringing the sling over your head.

Finally, you can get into integrating the sling into your gear. Some plate carriers come with a one point sling built into it. I personally like to run a small vest in CQB, and have been experimenting with running a 1 point sling through the D loops on my vest and behind my neck, instead of putting my head through the sling, to put the weight on the vest instead of having it rub around the shoulder straps. Other people do cool things like run a one point sling attached to their stock/back of the receiver, and another attachment point with a buckle on their barrel. When they need to let the gun hang for long periods of time, they'll buckle the barrel to its partner that is attached somewhere on the vest.

So you can get creative with your slings. In general, a lot of the creativity just causes more problems (for example, since I don't run that sling as a loop around my neck, it can't rotate, meaning I have to let my gun hang a bit lower since it requires slack to bring it to my shoulder, instead of just being able to rotate the sling up to my shoulder), but it's up to you how you want to do it.

I understand what your saying.. and like i said i plan on getting a 1 point.. but when you hold ur rifle in your off hand to shoot your pistol the muzzle is pointing down, not up like you mentioned..http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/198/pb150756.jpg/ Ive got a pic of it in my album if you wanna take a look.. dont feel like signing up for a stupid image hosting site just to post a pic in a topic

You're posing with the half-face mesh, but no eye-pro? :)

(Edit: New product idea: ANSI 87.1-rated scleral contact lenses.)

I'd recommend the Magpul MS3 (replica) for switching between single and two point. When I'm in play I use the single point mode, and when I am out of play I switch to two point so that it's out of the way of my legs.

no eye pro cuz it just arrived today in the mail

You know what a sling is really good for? Holding your rifle, so you don't have to. Proper, accurate use of a pistol requires 2 hands.

Lots of good info in here.

Thanks for the read. As a new player it will be the basis for my equipment selection.

Great thread for newbies like me! Thanks to all.:D

Awesome write-up, thanks :)

Great resource, thanks a bunch!

Salut
En effet, j'ai un ami qui veux s'inscrire sur airsoftcanada mais chaque fois ça:

"Registration denied, this forum runs an active policy of not allowing spammers. Please contact us via the "Contact Us" page link if you believe this is in error"

On a envoyé la message privé au admin, mais il y a toujours silence...

Quoi faire?????

Petit réponse, ce sera bien gentil)))

Go to http://www.airsoftcanada.com/forumdisplay.php?f=203

The "newbie" forum will have other threads asking about Age Verification and registration problems.