Parts arrived; Simson finished.

Got the parts yesterday. Repro sling of vintage leather, cleaning rod, cheap brass muzzle cover, ejector box screw, and Imperial marked rear sling mount from Liberty Tree in Maine. Snagged an Imperial 46 follower on G-broker, so rifle is now all matching except for bolt, trigger guard, and floorplate. Bayonet is an original Carl Eickhorn 1916 98/05.

Does someone have a picture of the folded 'parade loop' mounting of the sling at the forestock? I could never figure it out.

Looks like I have to wait for a lot more snow to melt before I can shoot it.

PM

Carl Eickhorn is a harder to find mfg, not really rare or scarce but not nearly as common as some (especially for how many years they made them).

Here is a good picture of a Gew.98 in parade.

Slings are slung.

Figured out the Gew98 parade sling mounting. Took a while and my fingers were a bit sore afterwards. Turns out the cheesy reproduction sling on the '16 Danzig is a little short. The nicer Liberty Tree slings are manufactured backwards; the button attachment is on the quick disconnect here. Took me quite a awile to find out how to reverse the set up.





PM

The only 'correct' WWI repro sling mounted on the '16 Danzig. The Liberty Tree's repros turn out to be Pre WWI, too long, and attach to the rear mount.

PM

TP (moderator at Gunboards/Mauser) is the only guy I know that does 1st class work on reproducing slings. I think he stopped doing them though.. last I asked he didn't reply.

Anyway, I see quite a few reproduction slings on ebay, maybe other sites too, but generally I have never got a good repro sling off ebay or an auction site. Even well known collectors who you would think should know better send poor quality garbage when selling on ebay. One well-known collector, an old Kaiserzeit collector and early KCN'r sent me some really poor quality 98a slings.

Just goes to show, some do not care about their reputation.. so be careful with slings, - I would try to buddy up with TP and sweet talk him into making a couple, or as the old saying goes, if you want it done right, do it yourself.

I could shorten the Liberty Tree slings by about 8" and repunch the holes and slits. They're 'early' war style, just long as they work on Gew88's which have a longer sling. Maybe some day if I feel like I need something to do.

PM

I got a very nice repro sling from http://clang.adkinssoftware.com/WWI pics/gew 98 01.html

Very nice for $65. The 'cheesy' sling cost me $20 two years ago, and the Liberty Tree ones go for $39. Seems a nice comprimise between the two, but a little long as they are meant for the longer gew88 for which they are a perfect fit.

https://www.libertytreecollectors.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=304&idcategory=53





PM

I agree the quality will vary more by the individual or company than by the price. TP use to sell them for $25, you provide the hardware, others who do a much poorer job charge 3x that sometimes.

The quality of the leather is just as important as the stitching and hardware used, as is the length, which some seem to not even know the length of a proper sling- or even how many holes original slings have.

I think Storz gives an exact measurement in his book, but over the years I have owned a few dozen slings and have recorded all I have owned.

A Kar.98a sling will be between 53-58 inches, depending on shrinking-stretching and condition (how it was stored) and all have 9 adjustment holes.

A Gew.98 sling, will be between 38-42 inches, again shrinkage is an issue as is stretching. (TP slings were around 42 inches as I recall); of course no adjustment holes, rather has an m-buckle.

Anyway, I have owned them slightly longer & shorter but most that are original fall within these range.

plymouthmauser said:

Very nice for $65. The 'cheesy' sling cost me $20 two years ago, and the Liberty Tree ones go for $39. Seems a nice comprimise between the two, but a little long as they are meant for the longer gew88 for which they are a perfect fit.
PM

Click to expand...

Well, it was a quiet night tonight, so I decided to do a little surgery on the too-long repro slings for my 1916 Simson Gew98 and 1916 V. Chr. Schilling 98M. That the slings were incorrectly mounted because they were too long had been bugging me. Also when I shot the Simson the other day, the feeling of the sling running from the rear mount though my palm was an awkward one.

I had to narrow each sling with scissors by about two to three mm on each side, and then take off 18mm in length from one, and 24mm from the other. Two repro slings from the same company and they weren't even the same length! I used a belt hole punch to make new holes using the old end as a template, and a razor blade to gradually make the access slits to each new hole. I then used saddle soap to blend in the new bright leather edges.





PM