After using the rifle to watch the eclipse, I was left with a nagging sense of incompletion: the rifle still didn’t have a sling. Here I was feeding my family with a garden, building rain barrels, canning vegetables; and yet–my arsenal still required attention. I mean, how am I going to fend off zombies/raiders post-apocalypse?
And a ridiculous premise necessitates a ridiculous decision. Therefore I opted for no mere sling, but one with an integrated bandolier! That’s right–I’ll need to maximize ammo capacity, or everything I’ve learned from video games is wrong.
Surprisingly, there wasn’t much in the way of rifle sling bandolier options, at least not one meant for actual rifle cartridges. The majority seemed to be catering to 12 gauges, which admittedly does make more sense. It’s a lot more likely that one would be firing a lot of shotgun rounds rather than .30-06s. The latter would generally indicate the user was just a really bad hunter.
But perseverance paid off and I found what I was looking for. A company named “Big Daddy Holsters” (WTF?) manufactured what I needed, and right here in the US…which seems appropriate. The Remington 700 is about the most American modern rifle there is, and the .30-06 is undisputedly the most American rifle cartridge ever created, so it would seem a bit of an injustice to outfit it with Chinese parts, regardless of anyone’s political stance on outsourced manufacturing.
Fully loaded, it now carries 28 rounds, which is 7 magazine’s worth. I opted for 150-grain rounds, mostly because that’s what I had on hand, and partly because if I’ll be fending off humans/desiccated animated husks of humans, larger rounds wouldn’t be necessary.
I’m now incrementally more ready for the end of times.
–Simon