Title says it all. I am wanting to bring my 870 in with me to some ultra thick areas this year and I am trying to figure out how to get it into the tree with me. There are no studs on it to mount a sling. Any ideas?

Is it wood ? If so add a sling

I always tie my rope around the grip of the rifle or shotgun. I've never tied my rope to a sling.

Buy u a screw on cap w/ Sling mounts and drill you a pilot hole for a stud in stock. $20 and you question is answered...safely.

I used a sling for years on my 11-87 with no studs. I bought a sling that slips over the barrel and slips over the stock. It had slip knots on each end and worked great.

Your only other alternative would be to tie your pull rope to the trigger guard which I wouldn't recommend. Whatever you do, make sure it is UNLOADED when pulling it up.

Put something like a condom ( seriously) over the barrel and securely tie a pull up rope through the trigger guard and around the pistol grip of your unloaded 870. Pull it up barrel down.

Why would you need a sling to pull your weapon up a tree?

I've always used a rope with two carabiners for my rifles. Put it through the thumb loop. Thanks for the suggestions

Been bringing mine up like this for about 30 years with ZERO issues.

Incidentally, that was on my new 20ga 870 turkey gun.

I tie a loop around barrel and a loop around stock with the barrel pointing toward ground. No need for sling and the gun isn't pointing at you. Not sure how to post a picture but I can text you a picture of how I do it. It's simple. I keep a pull rope on my stands that I can stick my gun in and it never touches the ground.

Mine looks a lot like n2trys setup. Easy and safe

It's just more safe to pull a gun up horizontally than vertical. I guess if you want to worry with tiring a slipknot around the stock thats your call, but unless you plug the barrel in some way, this isn't the optimum option.

What are you talking about? A weapon pointing down seems safer to me. That's 3 overhand knots(very complicated). If you throw your weapon out of your stand, you might get something in the barrel.

I tote my guns up and down with me. Never know what you may need to shoot goin up or down. To me it's safer this way

I don't like taking the chance, when lowering my gun, that something gets stuck in the barrel. My opinion, you don't have to agree. I've been doing it my way for 25 years with zero issues.

If you know how to tie a half-hitch knot then all you need is the rope itself.

Step 1. Unload gun.
Step 2. Verify gun is unloaded.
Step 3. Repeat step 2.
Step 4. With gun pointing upward, tie four half-hitch loops around the barrel, and finish it off by tieing the loose end of the rope through the trigger guard. In your case, since you are dealing with a pump shotgun, open the action and leave it open (this just gives you peace-of-mind that gun is not loaded) which allows you to pull up an unloaded gun with an open action... no way an accident can occur.

If you don't know how to tie a half-hitch, see link below. It's a very simple loop, where the rope pulls on itself, thus not hard knot to untie when you get the gun up to your stand.

http://trailmeister.com/how-to-tie-a-half-hitch-knot-2/

I do this 90% of the time as well, when I can. N2TRKYS way is probably is the safer way, for all parties( pointed at the ground), I just don't like to point my gun barrel into the ground when lowering .

Why not just run some paracord through the loading port and out the ejection port.
That would result in the coming up relatively flat and would ensure it couldn't possibly fire as the paracord would prevent that.

^^^This. Easiest and safest way. If you drop it and the barrel goes in the ground, call it a day and go home and clean it out but this is the best way.