Paracord!

Last night I was checking out some websites about slings and I came across a zombie survival wishlist on amazon that I couldn't avoid. I had to check it out and one of the things listed was a type of flashlight. I clicked on it and it took me to a survival blog. The guy writing the blog was talking about his zombie survival shotgun and one thing that stood out was his sling. It was completely made out of paracord, just like those "survival" bracelets that have become popular. I was intrigued and so I headed on over to see my good friend Google and did a search. After a few YouTube videos I was convinced that I needed to make one for my shotgun. I went through the pros and cons of having one and decided that it was both cool and functional on many levels.

The only materials I needed were 100' of black 550 paracord. This isn't something you can just run down to Walmart and pick up. Luckily for me there is an awesome army surplus store in Orem. Adelyn and I headed on down and grabbed a pack of paracord and some sling swivels that would fit my shotgun. They were on sale and dirt cheap. With all my supplies in hand, I was ready to start weaving. This is definitely knitting for men. The pattern that I used is called the Cobra Knot and is very popular when making those survival paracord bracelets. The nice thing about the cobra is that it can be doubled and tripled to get a thicker and wider sling. The wider the sling the more weight distribution there is. So I decided to make a double or "King Cobra" pattern. It took around 2 hours to finish it but I am very pleased with how it came out. I did cut my cord too short on the second time weaving, so the last little bit is thinner than the rest, but this is purely cosmetic because the second layer just adds size and not strength. Plus the thin part is on the end that attaches to the stock which does not come in contact with my body.

After finishing, I had some extra paracord and so I decided to watch a few more YouTube videos and make a few more things. I ended up making a survival bracelet, a key chain thingy, and a monkey fist with a handle. It was pretty fun and it didn't cost a lot. Definitely going to do some more stuff with paracord now that I know what I am doing. I think I am going to make one for my AR-15 once it gets finished, whenever that is. That one will probably be either adjustable or based around the Magpul MS2 sling (a combo one and two point sling). Plus I think I will try my hand at doing two colors of paracord at once.

All in all, it was fun to try something new and have it be useful. I did find some people online that sell paracord slings and I made mine for less than half the price that they were asking. I would recommend this to anyone, it isn't hard at all. Just check out YouTube to learn how to weave it and go get some paracord.