Russian and Com Bloc slings
Hungarian AK
This all leather sling was issued with the Hungarian AK series rifles and uses bare steel front spring hook attachment with a rear roller buckle type adjustment. A leather sling keeper retains the extra portion of the rear sling adjustment. Used on the 47, AMD 63 and 65 series and later.
Russian 1940 SVT leather
Full length of this early Tokarev sling is from tip to tip. It is wide. Constructed of brown tanned leather, it utilizes steel blued buckles. These blued buckles quickly disappeared at the onset of the wear and were replaced with bare steel and later with black enamel painted buckles to provide some form of corrosion resistance. Integral sling keepers are sewn to each end of the sling for the extra strap length on adjustment.
Close up of 1940 dated leather slings attachment strap for the rear of the sling. Notice the tell tale spear point shaped tab that the strap attaches with to the main body of the sling and its sling keeper. All points should be sewn.
Russian 1942 canavas
This wartime construction of canvas was made to spare the use of precious leather. The attachment points are utilizing pigskin or horse rather than leather. The attachment points are untanned/dyed and remain in a natural color. The buckles are black enamle painted. These slings were made quickly with just a bare minimum of detail. The sling keepers are of the same construction and sewn to the sling as are all other points on this sling. The color is a simple kahki.
Here you see the buckle end of the 1942 sling. It details the simple strap attachement and design and the makers mark and date (1942) as well as acceptence marking on the tip of the tab.
Russian SVT canvas grouping -Army-Naval Infantry
Here are some unique sling variations. The top sling is the standard Russian army wartime issued sling with blued buckles. Probably from 1941. The two below represent the so called Naval Infantry slings that used a rear sling slot of the Mosin Nagant design style and the forward attachment swivel or bar of the SVT band. The middle sling is a dark olive green. Very square wide attachment point on the front with a bare steel buckle. The adjustment buckle slider is brass. The rear of the sling is retained by a simple leather sling strap as used on the Mosin nagant m/91-30 rifle. The bottom sling is a Blue/gray example of naval issue. Its buckle is a simple zinc coated steel and the front attachment strap and base are pigskin dyed black. The rear sling keeper is black leather and the rear sling strap is black leather again. Note that the front attachment strap does use a buckle but rather a thong tie made of pigskin. A very rudimentary style sling in a very uncommon variation. These styles of slings with sling strap rear and traditional SVT fronts are quite scarce and rarely encountered.
The two styles of combination attachment point slings for the SVT from Army and Navy issue. Naval Marines were often heavily armed and were issued large numbers of Toakrev rifles.
SVT-40 rear attachment strap markings.
Here we see a close up of the rear sling attachment point for the standard sling of the war and the close up of the front strap which is longer. This Tokarevsling is in exceptional unissued condition.
Russian rear sling slot front swivel type (Naval Infrantry)
PPS-43
The PPS-43 smg and its sling. This example is a Polish made sling in a nylon type material. The color is a olive drab green with untanned leather attachment points on the front and tanned brown on the rear.
Polish PPS-43
Front and rear close up of the PPS-43 sling. Simple zinc coated roller buckles are clear here.