Czech Sling Overview

Information and pictures courtesy of T.P. Hern, John Wall, and Robert Lukes

Three scarce slings used on various Czech made rifles. (1) Austro-Hungarian M95 sling or early Czech copy. Found on Czech VZ23 rifle. Reqired large, oversized rear sling swivel typical of Austrian and Czech weapons. (2)Czech VZ24 sling from a Bolivian contract rifle. This is the Czech modification of the A.H. M95 sling seen above. Has Imperial German style, removable buckle on end opposite that with the small, tongued buckle. (3)Czech sling with German style large buckle for adjustment and button on oppsite end for attaching to the sling swivel.

Buckles on three slings. The two on the left are for fixing the sling to the rifle and the one on the right is the German sliding adjustment buckle.

(1) Buckle detail, Austro-Hungarian M95 sling. You can plainly see the taper described in the text for #7 below.

(1) Austro-Hungarian M95 sling (or Czech copy), from vz23 rifle. This probably the earliest of the three slings and features a "standing" or fixed leather loop on the wide end for adjustment as opposed to the iron, removeable frame buckle on the other two. The loop had to be tight for the sling to hold it's adjustment - something that didn't last long. With use, especially under wet conditions, the standing loop would stretch and shortening the sling would become problematic due to the loose fit that would develop. Still, a very wide (almost 1 and 1/2 inches) and comfortable sling that did it's job well!

A good if slightly out of focus WW1 photograph of Austrian soldiers carrying M95 Steyr rifles with slings like No.1 above and the reproduction below.

(2) Czech sling on Bolivian contract VZ24 - buckle detail.

(2) VZ24 sling on Bolivian contract rifle. This is perhaps an earlier sling than #3, having the removeable German style buckle and the earlier style slling attachment of the Austro-Hungarian M95 sling seen in #1. This sling tapers at the end with the smaller, tongued buckle so that the sling can turn back on itself for fixing to the rifle.

(3) VZ24 with basketweave imbossing on leather. Buckle detail.

(3) VZ24 sling (#3), German style basketweave embossed, straight sided heavy leather. As you can see, the button (left end in the photo) is a football shape and and allows the attachment of the sling to the lower sling swivel. The frame buckle (on the right) is detacheable from the sling by the football shaped stud fixed to it's back and allows the sling to be shortened or lengthend by sliding as with a normal frame buckle. As an interesting observation, this sling could be used on the bottom or side sling swivels of the Czech made rifles. #2 and #1 could only be used on the bottom set due to the fact that the permanently attached small buckle of the others would only fit through the deep rear sling swivel fond on the bottom set. The side set has normal if somewhat wider sling swivels.

The VZ24 sling from the collection of Robert Lukes. It is straight sided with the detacheable buckle shown seperate. This is a combination of Austro-Hungarian and Imperial German sling features and probably more durable than the A.-H. sling shown above due to the strength of the steel buckle as opposed to the standing leather loop with it's propencity to streatch and loosen with use.

Ends and detachable buckle of the regimentaly marked Czech sling. (Robert Lukes collection)

Export sling for VZ33. Unlike the other slings on this site, this is a "standard" Mauser style sling made of heavy bridle leather and embossed with German style crosshatch pattern. (Robert Lukes collection)

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