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mhb
01-21-2015, 08:25
A recent thread addressed the apparent mis-match of the component parts of an early RIA M1907 sling. It is known that RIA made 1907 pattern slings utilizing parts of many earlier pattern slings in store, converting them to the newer type (over 100 thousand slings were made-up in this way).
The photos are of such a sling, which came attached to a 1908-dated RIA M1903 rifle in completely original condition (photos of that later). The rear half of the sling is dated 1908, while the front half carries a 1904 date, and retains
one of the 'button holes' from its earlier incarnation.

mhb - Mike

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Fred
01-21-2015, 10:51
Neat!

CPC
01-22-2015, 11:39
That was an interesting thread on the development of the slings. It is neat how they just took the old krag and 1903 slings and made them into the later 1907 slings. Note both hooks are the earlier type with the tapered sides but they had smoothed over the pins. I assume your sling has the extra holes added to the previous sling parts to make them correspond to the holes in a regular 1907 sling? The only problem with the previous sling that was in the original thread was that I believe the end of one of the tails had been cut off and squared/tapered. I believe the OP said it was slightly shorter. Here is a pic of another.
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mhb
01-23-2015, 08:29
yours certainly looks like mine. I am sure extra holes were added where necessary - on my example it is possible to see that the new holes are slightly different in shape and size from the original ones. One additional difference is that the 1904 (front) half of mine has raised rivets, while those on the rear half are flush.
Waste not, want not!

mhb - Mike