Throwback Thursday: The Quick Draw from Sling Carry

Here is a lesson still relevant today from the “connoisseur of close combat” Lt. Col. Rex Applegate on how to get a rifle or carbine into action quickly from our April 1945 issue. When not going on commando raids or writing for Rifleman during the war, Lt. Col. Applegate was instructing Office of Strategic Services agents in close combat and gunfighting.

From the April 1945 issue of American Rifleman
“Quick Draw” from the Sling Carry for Soldiers … and Hunters
By Lt. Col. Rex Applegate

Many times a soldier or hunter has been unable to get a shot at a target of opportunity because he was unable to get his weapon into action in time from the sling-carry position on his shoulder.

The method shown here is a simple, easily learned sling carry for use in combat and hunting. It has the following advantages:

(1) The muzzle of the piece is down, consequently rain, snow, and other types of foreign matter are prevented from entering the bore.
(2) The muzzle of the piece does not stick above shoulder and it is easier for the carrier to make his way through dense undergrowth without having the rifle barrel catch on branches, etc.
(3) The rifle carried in this manner conforms to the shape of the body and can be carried with more comfort than in the usual sling-carry position.
(4) After a short period of practice the average individual can take a slung weapon from this position and bring it into action for a shot faster and more accurately than the ordinary man can draw a pistol or revolver from his holster and fire it.
(5) It provides on alternate to the customary sling-carrying position when the shoulder tires.