This russet leather U.S. rifle sling shows just a little darkening here and there and very minor crackling to the finish on the edges in a couple of spots, but is solid, with the brass hook, standing loop, and tigthener in place and bears a crisp “WATERVLIET ARSENAL” stamp in two lines. It was certainly on a rifle at some point, but does not have any tears or weak points.

This sling measure 68-inches, significantly longer than the usual Civil War 46-inch 1850 pattern gun sling. Many collectors and dealers identify these longer slings as U.S. made slings for the large number of imported P53 Enfield Rifle Muskets, which have swivels on the triggerguard bow and the upper rather than middle band. Black bridle leather slings issued to British rifle regiments at the time seem to have been 60-inches long, which puts these in the ball-park, though a commercial sling by S.W. Silver & Co. is only 50-inches. (See the English Connection, 356-357.) A rival theory is that these are 1880s one-piece production of the 1870 pattern U.S. rifle sling, which was specified as 63-inches long, but occasionally show up a bit longer, made up when Civil War slings to splice together were running short and were intended to accommodate not only the wider spacing of the swivels on the two-band trapdoor rifles, but new firing stances utilizing the sling to steady the rifle for greater accuracy. (See McChristian, US Army in the West, 91 and 280; and, U.S. Army on the Western Frontier 1880-1892, Vol. 2, 54-57 and, especially, p.64, mentioning Watervliet marked 63-inch slings.)

In either case, this sling is in very good condition and is a nicely marked example produced at a U.S. arsenal.  [sr] [ph:m]

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