Bought a No.1 MkVI - Fill me with knowledge!

[breakeyp]

I worked briefly for the Michigan State University museum gun collection and was told the tale of the Dr. who was taking a two year sabbatical in Europe and left a very nice minty collection of Sharps rifles with the museum with the provision that they could display them if they wanted to. The "Curator" of the time did display them by drilling two holes in the wood for dowel pins that mated to peg board. No input on what the Dr. said on his return. I imagine that there are collectors out there wondering why there are two filled holes in their guns!

[stencollector]

So I had the pair of no1mkVI rifles brought to me here at the workshop today so I could make one correct rifle out of the two. Horror of horrors, they had plugged the muzzle with a weld on one of them. As well, both had the barrels re-crowned somewhat amateurishly. I found the correct bolts hidden away in a box in the lockup here at the workshop, so the matching bolts are back in each rifle.

So I have two questions. The first one is the forward stacking swivel. Neither rifle has it. Was it the same swivel as found on the no1mk3 rifles?

Secondly, this rifle had what appears to be a home-made sling on it, sewn onto the sling swivels. I cannot imagine any reason for that, but what do I know. Does anyone recognize this pattern of sling before I cut the threads and replace it with a normal Enfield sling? One of the two swivels bears the Enfield marking so I would like to keep it with the rifle. Everything else about the rifle appears correct including the magazine. I had the wood off the barrel and the barrel is numbered to the original serial number and barred out to the new number.

The other rifle was not quite as pure as this one. The rear sight was replaced with a L type battle sight, the butt plate is a Cdn mazak plate, and the magazine is a LongBranch magazine. As well, both rifles had their accession numbers engraved on the bottom of the trigger guard. Personally, on a serialized item like a rifle, I don't understand why it has to be permanently marked with another inventory control number, but that is just me.

Anyway, let me know what you guys think about this sling.