I'm Chris Sizelove, and this is the M249 Vickers SAW Sling. It's a fantastic piece of equipment that's absolutely optimal for SAWs, Mark 48s, and other smaller machine guns—or the M240 if that's your thing. Before I get into mounting, sizing, and the technical expertise on getting this sling on a machine gun so you can use it optimally, I'll cover the high points of the sling itself.

Starting off, what makes this really purpose-built for a machine gun is the working end of the sling, where the Vickers sliding tab is located. All of this is Nomex material, which means it's not going to melt. The fronts of machine guns tend to get extremely hot when you're pumping a lot of rounds through them, so if your sling comes into contact with that barrel and it's just nylon webbing, it'll melt. The front of this sling, the working end, is all Nomex, so it won't burn or melt even if it touches a barrel that's glowing red hot. Additionally, the triglides, the adjuster tab, and the actual adjuster buckle are metal, so they also won’t melt or burn.

Coming back to the padded part: since we figure you're going to put this on an M249, Mark 48, Mark 46, or similar machine gun, we’ve included a three-inch pad in the back. Then the tail of the sling is all webbing, with two triglides for adjustability. That’s the overarching view of what’s going on with the M249 SAW Sling. When you buy one, you just get the sling, but that’s not the entire problem set—we still have to mount it to the gun. So we have some specific mount hardware that will optimally mount this sling to a machine gun.

Yes, you can use 550 cord, tape, snap hooks, and things like that, but that’s not optimal. I’ll talk about why. I have the sling, and I also have an M249 machine gun here so we can go through some particulars when it comes to mounting hardware options. Blue Force Gear has the Belt-Fed Loop (BFL), which is absolutely optimal probably for the back of the gun (and maybe for the front—we’ll discuss that). We also have the 3.25" and 6.25" Universal Wire Loops. These would also be great for this purpose. Can you use HK snap hooks, zip ties, 550 cord, and duct tape? Technically yes, but it’s not optimal. Also, when it comes to metal snap hooks, most are steel, and these sling mounting points are aluminum. When steel and aluminum interact aggressively, the steel always wins. If I had a dollar for every SAW I’ve seen in the wild with the rear sling hole completely blown out from a snap link or snap hook, I’d be a wealthy guy.

The Belt-Fed Loop, and if you’re interested in its particulars, please see the Belt-Fed Loop product video, is what I’m going to use here in the rear of the gun. To install it, I’m just going to remove the tail end of the sling out of those triglides, put the webbing through the slot in the BFL, run it back through the triglides just like any other rifle sling mounting hardware, then route that steel cable through the rear hole in the buttstock. I’ll get it back through the slot and trap it underneath that little teardrop. So the BFL is mounted, and we’re good there.

In the front of the gun, we could use another BFL, but just for illustrative purposes, I’m going to use the 3.25" Universal Wire Loop. Most SAWs, Mark 48s, and other machine guns give you something up there to attach a sling, sometimes a little steel ring, sometimes just a hole in the heat shield. Since there’s a hole here, no problem. I’ll take the steel cable (coated in nylon), squish it through, and girth hitch it. Now I have a real clean sling mount in the front of the gun. To mount my sling to the Universal Wire Loop, I get a little slack outside the triglide, put the Nomex webbing through, run it back through the triglide, and now it’s mounted front and rear in a way that won’t damage the gun or melt.

We also have the 6.25" Universal Wire Loop, which is just a bigger version. This could be useful because the SAW also has a giant hole up front, so you could run the 6.25" Loop through that as well, girth hitch it, and create a sling mount. Or you might want to mount your sling behind your tactical light, for example. You can run a wire loop through rail slots and girth hitch it too. These Universal Wire Loops are optimal because any hole or slot can become a sturdy sling mount. They won’t melt, and they won’t damage the gun like steel snap hooks or carabiners can.

This situation is why Nomex is so critical: when employing the machine gun and it’s getting extremely hot, the sling might come in contact with the barrel. If it’s Nomex, that’s no issue. It won’t melt or catch fire. The sling is good to go. But you still want to size the sling to both the gun and the person.

Right now, the gun is hanging too low. The Vickers Sling is adjustable, so I pull the tab to adjust it all the way in, but it's still low. To size it appropriately, step one is to pull the adjuster tab to the middle or top third of your working space. This ensures you have plenty of adjustment. Then I go to the back of the sling and pull out a bunch of slack, making it sit a little higher and tighter. If I wind up with extra webbing in the back, I can fold it over and secure it with tape, or if it’s my personal sling (not a community one), I can cut and whip the end. Unlike the M240 sling pad, the M249 sling pad isn’t adjustable—it’s fixed. So you can’t slide the pad around to manage the excess. You’ll have to fold and tape it.

Once it’s sized correctly, the gun should ride higher. I advocate carrying machine guns in this manner, maybe even a couple of inches higher. It allows me to control the gun, move freely, and if I need to employ the gun quickly, I can grab it immediately. With the sling sized properly, I can also hold the gun, fix malfunctions, load, fire, and reduce stoppages from standing or kneeling if I have to. If you sling a machine gun in the same way you sling an M4, you usually can’t do this. It’s a critical capability for a machine gunner to be able to load, fire, and reduce stoppages without having to lay down in the prone every time. It’s suboptimal to say, “Hold on everyone, let me take this off, lay down, and work on it.” If you know how to install, size, and employ the sling correctly, you can do all of that from the standing or kneeling position, possibly even off a barricade. That’s why it’s so important to mount and size the sling correctly—and to understand its optimal employment on your machine gun.