Correct sling for a m28 Finn with an unusual stock
A while back I picked up a m28 Finn Mosin as part of an amazing firearms deal. Since we all enjoy a good gun buying tale, I'll include it, but if you're the type that hates anecdotes just skip to the last line or two.
I met an older gentleman at a gunshow in Oregon. I was there looking for a Swiss K31 but was dismayed that the only ones on display were sporterized and rechambered into .308. As I was about to leave this guy came up and showed a list of guns to the owner of the table - and got a reply that ran something along the lines of "I'll give you $50 for the K31. I can't go any higher because I'll have to put so much work into cutting it down, rechambering it, and refinishing the metal." I offered $95 on the spot, and we left to conclude our transaction in private.
When I got to the guy's house I saw that he also had a lot of other milsurps that he was looking to sell. Apparently he had a decent collection that he was cutting down to finance a hunting trip to Alaska while he was still young and spry enough to enjoy it. There were lots of great rifles in there, and in the end we negotiated the sale that provided the core of my early collection: A 1944 M1 Garand in decent shape (Blue Sky import, OK barrel dated 1953, average wood) a 1942 Remington m1903 in amazing shape with all the cartouches intact, a 1942 Australian No.I MkIII* in very good shape, and an excellent condition late production K31 with the soldier's ID tag in the buttplate for USD$1200 all together. As I was leaving he said he also had an "old, beater" mosin in the back that I could have if I wanted it, no charge. I was expecting some rusted out m44 or the like but, I figured, a free rifle is a free rifle. It was wrapped in newspaper and I didn't really look at it until I got home.
The first thing I saw when I opened it up was that there were a few patches of surface rust on it, especially on the butt-plate. Thankfully it wasn't bad - only a light surface bloom over areas that looked like they had rusted decades earlier. That came out in 30 seconds with a little 0000 steel wool and gun oil. When I started inspecting the gun itself I noticed that none of the markings were anything like my m91/30 and that it was far too long for a carbine. Remember: this was quite early in my collecting and I knew almost nothing about Mosins other than they were fun to shoot. The receiver had a mark on it that appeared vaguely like what I remembered the Imperial Russian Eagle as looking like, though, so I had an inkling that this might not be your average WW2 manufactured conscript rifle. I was also intrigued as to why the stock had a visible splice in the wood half way up the barrel channel and why there were two sets of sling holes in the butt of it.
After getting the rifle apart and looking around online I figured out what I had: A Finnish m28. It was built off of a 1914 Izhevsk receiver, had a SIG manufactured barrel (the "Schweiz. Industrialle Geschellschaft Neuhausen" stamp under the wood made a lot more sense when I found out about the history of these guns), rear sights that were in both arshin (struck out) and meters, and all of the usual Finnish fingerprints (e.g. "SA"). The stock turned out to be the back half of a Russian m91/30 stock with a new barrel channel out of Finnish wood to accommodate the thicker and shorter SIG barrel and, I later found out on another milsurp forum, the double pairs of rear sling holes were for securing the weapon while using skis. All of this pretty much elated me as I've always had an interest in the Winter War, making this the best free gun I could have asked for.
For the record, the stock's in decent but very worn shape. Put bluntly it's intact and attractive enough, but looks like it was used and abused for decades - a rifle with character as my other collecting friends like to say. It also shoots like a dream - accurate as can be and with a trigger that is so light and crisp I had to take it apart and see the old-style Tula hammer on it to believe it wasn't a modern replacement.
Now for the question. This gun has become one of my main projects in the last few months. As good as it is it was missing all of the little extra bits and pieces when I got it. No cleaning rod, no bayonette, no sling, and so on. I've been able to research what the proper kit for this gun would be ca. 1940 with no problems, but I can't find any info on how the sling would be arranged, or what kind of sling it would use. I've been told that a Finnish dog-collar would be correct for it, but it doesn't seem like that would utilize the double rear sling slots, unless I'm really missing something. If any of you have any information on how it would be secured, that would be great. If you happen to have a period photo of the correct arrangement that would be even better.
And, since a good gun story is worthless without a picture or two:
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...7/05/m28-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...5/m28SIG-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...5/m28top-1.jpg
Thanks for any info you have.
