Hello! Ao I'm new to smoothbores, I come from the cap and ball flask world and I recently bought a beautiful lance gauldin powder horn off track of the wolf for my first horn. I was gonna go with elk strap but they were out. So I bought a regular style sling with d rings instead and the d rings have leather strap attached to them. I love how the sling feels it's quite comfortable but I notice when I take it off if I'm not careful the d rings smack and clack against the horn. I know horns have lasted hundreds of years over heavy use but I don't want to crack my new horn. My question for you is is this an issue you've run into? Or a non problem? Is the horn way stronger than I'm giving it credit for haha.
Here's my latest "best" solution. I have a jute strap that's about 2" wide with a canvas back and a deerskin edging. The strap ends in brass "D" rings. I then tie the horn onto the "D" rings with 3/8" x 12" buckskin straps that make it easy to fine tune the length. I keep a 3-hole block & patchknife on the horn strap.
The strap on my hunting bag is 1-1/2" jute and rides under the horn strap - the leather edging helping to trap it and keep all in place. The "D" rings are also handy for attaching the measure and keeping a length of tick stuffed in for wiping the pan.
For many years I relied on a 1/2" leather strap for the horn. That works pretty well, too. ::