They’re busy twisting knobs and dicking with their rangefinders. Ample opportunity to let game wander off, even if a sling is not being used as a shooting aid.
Aahh so many ways to transport a rifle....so many ways to screw up in the presence of game. So we miss an opportunity,blame the gear instead of ourselves and how we used it,and ignore the fact that we were not thinking 2 steps ahead and simply
were not ready. I call it "buck fever".
So we blame the gear instead of ourselves.We learn this stuff by (guess how?)...screwing up.Or in practice or varmint hunting,or just making mistakes.
Friends and I used slings for years...for shooting piles of woodchucks,at the range,on big game. Detachable sling swivels are a wonderful invention. If still hunting,we removed them and stuck them in the pack,or looped them through our belts.They never cost us a shot because we used them all the time and knew when to use them,and when not to.
Other things we used as field rests included rolled up jackets, tree limbs, binoculars,rocks, logs,a handful of little saplings,hats,packs and pack frames.
The primary purpose of the sling was not to carry the rifle.Their purpose was/is as a shooting aid,and secondarily to transport if you need both hands to climb, drag a deer,get into a tree stand.Among others, I owe my biggest Maine whitetail to the use of a sling to help steady a long off hand shot.
If the rifle is over your shoulder in game country, you're a boob; and if you miss an opportunity because your rifle was slung over your shoulder, blame yourself, not the sling. Even with the sling on the rifle, you carry the rifle in your hands if there is any possibility of encountering game.
This stuff is not hard but it takes a little common sense and maybe some pracice.
