Last year I started googling around to learn how to tie the jug sling. With the exception of above instructable, I found less than a handfull usable and correct tutorials. After a month of practice (which also included The Axis Bend – an Alternative Bottle Sling by Dick Clements ) I have come to the conclusion that while kind of pretty, I'll never use either again. They're just too complicated to remember, and too complicated to tie.

What would I use instead? Two overhand knots, or two double-overhand knots, or get this, four knots. I've only tested this with nice lips on plastic water/soda bottles (500ml/2liter) and even 5 gallon water cooler bottle. For the heavier bottles I recommend adding a kilick hitch around the body (a timber hitch followed by half hitch).

The neatest arrangement I found is to tie a slip knot (two half-hitches) on each end of a cordage, and then tighten over the bottle. See attached 2slip-loop-bottle-sling.png