Question

[Pvt Burt]

This may be a unusual question but does anyone know where on line I could find a photo or drawing of an 1853 Enfield with sling attached
Thanks for you help
Btw this a great forum

[johan_steele]

Grrr... tried to upload a pic but too big. PM me w/ your email & I will send you a couple of my insurance pics.

[rock city guard]

i'd like to see a picture too, so I can see how wrong I have mine put on,

[johan_steele]

1. Remove sliding leather loop. Set rifle w/ lock facing you. W/ hook facing down loop through rear sling swivel... pull from right to left.

2. Put hook through attached leather loop and pull loop towards trigger guard.

3. put sliding loop back over the hook end of the sling and run hook through the front sling swivel (from muzzle side towards trigger guard.

4. Hook the hook into a hole in the sling so that it is semi taunt and slide loop over hooked end and up to the front sling swivel.

If doing Federal PEC is a shorter Springfield Sling, this was standard. If doing CS pretty much anything goes from the US Springfield CS construction canvas slings and even the Brit sling that was actually designed for the Enfield. It was not imported in large numbers and was by and far the least common.

If anyone says to you they were never imported into the US then simply tell them you know of a fella who bought an original set of CS trousers w/ a suspender made from an Enfield sling.

Enfields were not typically shipped w/ slings. The brits issued them out w/ their cartidge boxes & cap pouches as accoutrements and documented them as such. This means unless you are wearing British accoutraments you should not be using an Enfield style sling and should instead do without or use one of the other options. That said there is documentation of captured blockade runners & some period documentation that lists a sling w/ Enfields right out of the box so the rule mentioned above is not a rule set in concrete but it was the norm instead of the exception.

[Pvt Burt]

Shane Thanks for the photos and the explanation it was exactly what I was looking for. This a fantastic forum for new reenactors
Thanks for all your help