If you are enterprising, all is not lost. The leather on these slings is, by length and width, quite similar to the Gew98 sling. When new they are wider but time and usage tends to shrink the leather (as with all leather slings/straps). If you have a original stirrup and slider buckle with foot on it, you might be able to make a pretty decent facsimile. Removing the stitching and PW buckle, trimming the bend to accommodate the oval metal loop of the stirrup and sliding it on, then restitching with white cotton thread can result in a vintage-looking (as opposed ugly, new repop) sling. The other end of the sling could be trimmed of the first button slot and the remaining one used to anchor the slider buckle foot. I have a new G1 sling set aside with a nice, blued stirrup and black painted buckle, which I will modify for my 99% (ghost 1937 receiver) Standard-Modell. It is begging for a sling and one probably has a better chance of winning the Powerball Lotto than ever finding such a sling even close to excellent condition...
