Know what helps when hunting the treacherous terrains of the backcountry? Your hands. Now you have use of both of them thanks to the Mystery Ranch Hands-Free Rifle Sling.
Spend any time hunting the backcountry and you’ll soon discover one of the most unmanageable pieces of equipment is your rifle. Sporting a traditional two-point sling, the thing just doesn’t want to stay on your shoulder without holding it taught with your mitts. Not good, when you might need two hands to scramble a scree slope without splitting your head. Sure, you could sling it across your chest, but that system isn’t exactly known for its expediency—a big strikeout, give a trophy buck or bull can appear at any time.
Hunters themselves, the folks at Mystery Ranch get the drawbacks of traditional slings present in the field, which is why they aimed at improving the age-old technology. Thus was born the Hands-Free Rifle Sling. Not reinventing the wheel by any means, Mystery Ranch tweaked the familiar design just enough to make it intuitive and innovative in the same breath. So, how does this all shake out?
The second rendition of the design utilizes an ambidextrous, magnetic sternum strap that attaches to most pack systems via the pack’s shoulder strap. The Hand-Free Rifle Sling still rests on the shoulder like traditional examples, only the sternum strap supports the firearm freeing up your hands. A waistband rifle stock dock then supports the weight of the rifle, so it’s not just dangling in thin air. Finally, silicon backing kept the firearm in place, reducing any slippage from the shoulder.
While the Mystery Ranch Hands-Free Rifle Sling does plenty to secure a long gun, it also keeps it at hand at a moment’s notice. The magnetic locking system breaks free in an instant, allowing hunters to take advantage of an opportunity, the moment it presents itself. It appears the best of both worlds. It’s a secure system that frees up your hands in challenging terrain, be it alpine summits or willowy river bottoms. Yet won’t hamper a shot when it wanders out of the dark timber. The MSRP on the Hands-Free Rifle Sling is $99.
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I have to disagree completely with this review. I love Mystery Ranch and have a ton of their stuff but this sling, namely the waistband rifle stock dock is terrible. I’m a western hunter that chases elk and muleys. The rifle comes loose if you’re doing anything other than walking easily on flat ground. If you’re climbing or descending and taking large steps the rifle falls out of the dock and on many occasions the rifle has swung around to the front. This happens even if you hold the stock against your side, while in the dock, which arguably negates the whole thing. This thing is so bad, I threw it away rather than pawning it off on a buddy. Unfortunately, this review in my opinion is just an effort to earn money off the affiliate link to Optics Planet instead of giving a thorough and honest review.