Help with ID of this sling. Enfield?

Brewer

Cadet
Joined
Jan 26, 2019
Location
Near San Francisco.
Hello Everyone,
I am new to this era and i am learning as well as getting into BP percussion.
A friend of mine bought an old rifle and this sling came on it. He did not care for it and he gave it to me because he thought it would be up my alley. I am new to the 1860s and i have no idea what it is. What i can say is that it was toasty as toasty gets, i think this might have been up an attic in a half century. i had to oil it a bit to get if off his rifle and i have since oiled it up completely. I have not oiled the sliding band for comparison. It kind of look like an enfield p53 style from my research but it is not exactly it. It does look almost identical to the confederate linen slings on E bay currently, just made of leather.It is 51 inches long and it does have a makers mark. IMD (over an arrow) 10 11 30. im not sure the last two, it could be 39. Any ideas? Thank you ahead of time.

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There is a chapter on Enfield slings in The Civil War Musket: A Handbook for Historical Accuracy (2006/2011). During the Civil War-era, the English used buckle fastened rifle slings forty-eight inches long with a fixed loop at the base and a sliding loop at the top in black leather for the P56. For the P53 "long rifle" (rifle-musket) the English sling was buff leather (white), forty-five inches with a buckle fastener and a button/thong tie at the base. The most common English sling seen in Civil War images is the black P56 rifle sling, which because of the distance between the sling swivels on the P56 rifle, was longer than the P53.

None of them was 51" in length. After the Civil War-era, the English used a thong-tied sliding loop friction type sling for the Martini-Henry which was in use thru the WWI-era SMLE Lee-Enfields. English slings did not have maker's marks of a number/letter combination during the mid-19th century. So whatever the origin of this sling might be, I think we can rule out Civil War-era English manufacture. Most reproduction slings for the P53 Enfield are a modern fabrication and not historically accurate. You can see what English slings looked like in Library of Congress period images of Civil War soldiers as the buckle makes them easily identifiable. Alternately, C&D Jarnagin makes some very good reproduction Civil War-era Enfield type slings if you want to see pictures of just the sling. None of them use a brass wire hook.
https://www.jarnaginco.com/Cw carbine and musket slings.htm
 
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Welcome From THE Heart Of Dixie.
 
Welcome from South Florida and the Reenactors forum. No that's not an English Enfield sling. Haven't seen anything quite like that as far as Civil War era slings. It may be old but don't think it's that old. What kind of rifle did you acquire?

This from a guy out in Tennessee, it was attached to a french Berthier 1892. But it is not a french style sling, those were a buckle and thong types.
 
I posted it on Milsurp, no responses. For the moment is it still a mystery leather sling. I may put this on a rolling block i was looking at a while ago or another project. Thanks for the responses guys.
 
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