AR Sponsor
Posted: 3/13/2003 3:17:27 AM EDT
|
Over the past few months, a lot of AR enthusiasts have gotten Israeli slings from a supplier in Israel. The concensus among those who have wanted them was that they're cool, and are pieces being used by folks who actually are using the AR for serious business. Like many others, I went ahead and ordered out three of the units from the Israeli supplier, and also got a sling from Northridge International www.northridgeinc.com. The Northridge unit is apparently actual IDF surplus. It's tan canvas, 1 1/2 inches wide, with metal buckles, and can be had either with metal snaps at the end, or cloth type loops. The unit coming from Israel is much sexier looking. A full 2 inches wide, it's green nylon type material, with plastic furniture, and all kinds of gee gaws; like a sewn on pocket for earplugs, and a snap assembly that lets you extend the sling by about 5 iinches simply by releasing the snap. It comes with plastic snap ends, but also with pieces of para cord for tying on if you want to go that way. My choice? The plain jane unit from Northridge. The commercial Israeli unit is just too much of a good thing. First of all, it's really too wide, and the nylon material is too slippery to stay on your shoulder. You're constantly having to reposition it. While it looks ok on a full rifle, it visually overpowers a carbine or M4 type piece, and yes that's important to me  Also, there's just too much "stuff" on it. I really don't need a pocket for ear plugs or sleeves over the end snaps, and in fact have cut both the snaps and sleeves off of mine; and simply attached with paracord loopsI'll keep the wide one ones on my full sized rifles, but an order is going out to Northridge, for a couple more of the plain janes, to go on my M4gery, and Galil. |
|
Good post. There are a lot of people coming to the market place and claiming to have the "real" and or "authenic" IDF stuff. Its hard to tell them apart. And I wonder which ones are really just made in someone's garage. Just for the sake of comparison, where'd you get your slings? |
|
[url]www.israelmilitary.com[/url] is where the fancy slings came from. Don't get me wrong; they're well made, and apparently at least some IDF personnel are using them, or ones very like them; based on the pics I've seen. It's just that I don't care for the extreme width, and the material is too slippery for my taste. You sometimes have to do something else w/your hands, other than keep the rifle secure omn your shoulder. The Northridge slings are listed as Galil slings, and can be found on their website in the AK parts section. I originally did order the one I got for my Galil, but I've switched it over to the XM177E2 forgery I've had for a long time, and it works just fine on that one. For the moment, the wide sling is on the Galil, with the other two on an M4gery and the M16A1 clone. I'll probably get two more of the Northridge jobs and mount them on the Galil and the M4gery; leaving the wide piece on the full size AR rifle. As I said in the original post the wide Israeli job is just too much, both visually, and in bulk, for a short barrel piece like the M4gery. Since I am in the middle of building up an M16A2 clone, I expect I'll put one of the wide jobbies on it, and stash the third one in the "spare sling" box.[:D] |
AR Sponsor