Made A Muzzleloader Gun Sling For A Friend

[dhaverstick]

I made my good friend, Brian Peterson, a lock cover a couple of weeks ago and he asked me if I could make him a gun sling to go with it. This is for his elk hunt in mid-September and I just can't say no to my buddy! Below is the finished product.

This sling is made from thin oil-tanned cowhide that I doubled up and then laced with deer hide. Everything was sewn by hand using artificial sinew. I made it in two pieces so he could adjust the length if needed and I wanted to used something unique to hold the two pieces together. At first I tried buttons carved out of deer antler but I could see that the stress would be too high at the button sew-on point and the thread would fail eventually. So I thought for a while and came up with antler hooks instead. The stress would be more evenly distributed and the connection between the two pieces would be better.

Brian was happy with his sling and he said it fit very nicely. Can't wait to eat some fresh elk meat now!

Darren