I just picked up my first Arisaka. It's a Type 99, and it's missing the mum, the dust cover, the monopod, and the aircraft sights, but it's in pretty good shape otherwise. The bore looks excellent and the wood only has some minor blemishes look like they've been there for a very long time.
There is a sling on the rifle. It's the rubberized canvas sling, and it's not so great. The rubber is pretty much solid, and the sling has almost no flex. There are four points at which the rubber has broken off revealing the canvas, and those are the only places where the sling flexes at all. Trying to get the rifle into a case was a major pain, and I don't think I want to shoot it with that sling on it.
There's no way to remove that sling as is without completely destroying it. Is there anything I can do to restore some flexibility to the rubber and maybe remove the sling in a graceful manner, or is it toast?