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Posted: 6/4/2007 1:09:57 PM EDT
| Educate me. |
As usual, you are the man when it comes to retro stuff. |
uxb, would the OD cotton sling be correct for a 601? What about a '65 dated SP1? |
The original 601 slings I believe were almost the same as M1 cotton slings, but the buckle was sewn on, while they are not on M1 slings. I believe the M1 slings are as close as you'll get without looking for years. Personally I have a nylon M1 sling on my 601 just because thats what I have. |
What about the SP1 sling? |
+1, including the nylon part. I have them on all my retro projects. Moore Militaria strikes again... |
I believe there was a black cotton or nylon sling made the same way as the 601..not sure. |
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Edit RE: post by Black-Tiger: That's the ticket! I remember seeing the troops marching along the roads on training exercises and some had slings on their rifles that looked like yours. The slings used early on were a mix of cotton and nylon. I guess they used whatever they had. M1 and M14 slings were used on the M16s. My memory is a little hazy but when we were college kids: There was a shoe repair outside of Schofield Barracks in the early 1970s. Surplus by the truck load. Literally hundreds of pouches, ponchos and poncho liners, jungle boots, uniforms, slings, web gear - belts and suspenders, canteens and covers - 1 and 2 quart. We were buying pouches for .50 to .75 cents - my friend bought a couple of the M1956 type short cotton canvas pouches for the 20 rounders but we decided that the nylon pouches were cooler looking - both for the 20s and the 30s. But the nylon slings were slippery so we mostly bought the cotton slings. The pistol belts were interesting - there were at least 3 variations - cotton with brass buckles, nylon with brass buckles and nylon with flat sheet aluminum(?) buckles. There were also some white cotton pistol belts - MPs?. I guess the Army was dumping a lot of surplus gear as VN was winding down. Condition of the gear varied from dirty, rotten junk to brand new. |
Early SP1s came with a black sling version of the 601 sling. Pretty hard to find without an attached early SP1. |
Like this one? black sling I bought one anyway, if not. |
Nope, the SP1 sling doesn't have that belt buckle thing. That looks like a Marine M16 A2 sling. |
Here is a sling I picked up for $12 at the last gunshow, which I believe is an SP1 sling. It's black cotton web, grey parkerized metal mostly except for adjustment buckle. Note that it's C marked. I'm pretty sure it's a factory SP1 sling. I know the early OD slings didn't have any adjustment at one end, this is clearly not that, but interesting for me anyway. If it doesn't go on my A1 clone it may end up on a shotgun. 
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Depends on what era you want to represent, I suppose. The USMC used the black "silent sling" in the late 70's early 80's. That's the sling I had on the A1 I carried in Beirut. ETA: Morg's sling looks like the A2 sling that came with the weapons when they were new in the Fall of '84. That's what I have on my A2 clone. Noisy suckers. 
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The bottom sling in the photo is a nylon M1 (or M14) sling. They were frequently issued with M16s but are really too short. The sling pictured in Essayons' post is the "silent sling" Oops, sorry this was already adressed. |
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