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Gew 98 Woven Canvas Sling

MichaelWC

Senior Member
M1913 New Pattern Gew 98 Woven Canvas Sling. Made for Imperial German forces in the African colonies and used by Imperial German forces in the Middle East theater of War. Leather piece attached to the sling is broken. Sling swivel is unit marked 10. ? 75. or 76 second number is not legible. The 10 also could be a 12. It looks like it may have been renumbered at one time. This is one of four woven canvas Slings I have ever seen. I don't know how many were produced. I don't know how many are left in the world.
 

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I have seen dozens over the years, owned a couple, - Mike and I use to cost each other money bidding for the same damn slings!

They come in many different styles, often slight differences, the most common are the riveted ones, very common in period pictures. These with leather ends are a little scarcer, they were made for the 98a also, mostly late in the war. I am sure Storz has the official documents, - not going to pull his heavy unintelligible volume out - but they were also used as a substitute for leather. This looks like a nice one, not sure I have seen this exact pattern before either. This style is more typical of 98a ersatz slings, the canvas around the m-buckle. Jeff Noll and BerndN own similar canvas mounted buckles w/ leather ends.

I think the variation comes from the diversity of suppliers.
 
Yes, that's a nice clean one, & the unit marking is a big plus. I've got 3 or 4, as I recall one is maker marked/dated, but none clean like yours. Thanks for sharing the pics...
 

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