The present invention is to a gun sling for rifles and shotguns that is comfortable and easy to use. The sling can be used to carry a gun in the ordinary manner, over one shoulder, or “backpack-style” over two shoulders. When carried over two shoulders, the sling of the present invention intuitively adjusts more easily for better user comfort.
Numerous prior art gun slings have been developed for comfortable use over one shoulder. U.S. Pat. No. Des. 266,180 to Dickinson et al. discloses a sling that is adjustable in length and has a padded portion for engaging a shoulder at a top end thereof. These designs usually suffer from cumbersome length adjustment when configuring the sling due to the different bulkiness of various outerwear items. Additionally, since all the weight of the gun is supported by one shoulder, users must either constantly move the gun from one shoulder to the other or suffer fatigue on one shoulder.
Numerous other prior art gun slings have been developed for comfortable use over two shoulders. U.S. Pat. No. 2,715,989 to Sjodin et al. discloses a shoulder harness for carrying a rifle over both shoulders. The unit suffers from placement of the adjustment buckles at the shoulder and a lack of padding, both of which can make the harness uncomfortable in use. Additionally, the stock-embracing strap can interfere with the gun operation and the harness is not meant to be used comfortably over a single shoulder when the gun is transported shorter distances.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,595,451 to Branby discloses a gun sling that can be used over one or both shoulders by use of a sliding member. However, because the sling must be able to pass through the sliding member, it cannot employ any padding at the shoulder position, leading to discomfort during extended use. The dual function of the sling is not readily apparent or intuitive to new users.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,817,835 to Tarr, Jr. discloses a gun sling that can be used over one or both shoulders by use of a long strap that is split longitudinally. The design of the length adjustment mechanism is non-intuitive and does not allow separate adjustment of each strap and again, this design does not employ any padding at the shoulder position, leading to discomfort during extended use.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,558 to Martinez. discloses a gun sling that can be used over one or both shoulders by use of a primary strap and an auxiliary strap. The design of the length adjustment mechanism does not allow quick adjustment of the primary strap and the auxiliary strap is limited to a few pre-set positions. This design positions the gun to one side of the user and does not employ any padding at the shoulder position of the auxiliary strap, leading to discomfort during extended use. The dual function of the sling is not readily apparent or intuitive to new users.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,810,219 to Rosenfeld discloses a gun sling that uses a loop attached to a rifle at two spaced-apart points to allow carrying of the rifle in a backpack position. The design of the length adjustment mechanism does not allow separate adjustment of each strap and again, this design does not employ any padding at the shoulder position, leading to discomfort during extended use. Again, the dual function of the sling is not readily apparent or intuitive to new users.
The present invention provides a gun sling that can be used over one or both shoulders by use of a pair of padded straps. Each strap is separately adjustable by a sliding clip at a point below the padded shoulder portion for quick and easy operation by the user. The padded portion of each strap can include a fastening means to allow the padded shoulder portions of the gun sling to be attached to each other to facilitate storage and use over one shoulder.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a gun sling that can provide comfortable use for transporting a gun over either one or both shoulders.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a gun sling that is easily and quickly adjusted by a user when worn over both shoulders.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a gun sling that can quickly adjust for use over either one or both shoulders.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a gun sling for use over either one or both shoulders that is inexpensive to produce.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a gun sling for use over either one or both shoulders that is intuitive for users to operate.
A basic embodiment of the present invention as deployed in a position for use over two shoulders is illustrated in
In a preferred embodiment, each padded portion includes one side of an attachment means 16 to enable the padded portions 14, 15 of each strap 12, 13 to be joined together to form the embodiment of the present invention used for carrying a gun on a single shoulder, as illustrated in
Below the padded portion 14, 15 of each strap 12, 13, a sliding clip 18 is included for adjusting the length of each strap 12, 13 individually. The clips 18 are preferably positioned just below the padded portion 14, 15 for easy access by the user when worn backpack-style.
To minimize cost of the present invention, it may be desirable to use many “off-the-shelf”components, such as a standard single-strap padded rifle slings. Since the upper portion of the straps do not need to be separately adjustable, it may be desirable to have both straps 32, 33 of two standard slings go through the upper sling swivel 36 and a single clip or clamp 37, as illustrated in
Another way that standard, single-strap, padded rifle slings can be used in the present invention is to modify the sling swivel 56 to accommodate two straps 52, 53.
A Y-strap 70, as illustrated in
In use, the present invention will be intuitive to use since most users will already be familiar with the operation of standard, single-strap, padded rifle slings. When used in the backpack position, the unit will be adjustable in a manner identical to a backpack (i.e., adjustable straps via sliding clips or clamps just below a padded portion) such that users will intuitively loosen one side to ease removal (i.e., first side released) and attach the unit in the reverse order such that the second strap is already loose to ease slipping it over the second shoulder.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/431,302 that was filed Dec. 6, 2002.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2715989 | Sjodin et al. | Aug 1955 | A |
3595451 | Branby | Jul 1971 | A |
4254901 | McIntosh | Mar 1981 | A |
D266180 | Dickinson et al. | Sep 1982 | S |
4463885 | Ball et al. | Aug 1984 | A |
4768689 | Davis | Sep 1988 | A |
4817835 | Tarr, Jr. | Apr 1989 | A |
5282558 | Martinez | Feb 1994 | A |
5433360 | Rock | Jul 1995 | A |
5564729 | Gomez et al. | Oct 1996 | A |
5615811 | Bell et al. | Apr 1997 | A |
5802756 | Hightower | Sep 1998 | A |
5806742 | Mott et al. | Sep 1998 | A |
5810219 | Rosenfield | Sep 1998 | A |
5881487 | Chalker | Mar 1999 | A |
5915939 | French | Jun 1999 | A |
6006974 | Varney et al. | Dec 1999 | A |
6068167 | Hopson | May 2000 | A |
6138881 | Paul et al. | Oct 2000 | A |
6168060 | Mayers | Jan 2001 | B1 |
6647656 | Mazzagetti | Nov 2003 | B2 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20040178236 A1 | Sep 2004 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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60431302 | Dec 2002 | US |