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Japanese Used Czech VZ-24 Sling
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Pictures and information courtesy of John Wall
Some years ago, I bought a P-series Vz.24 rifles made in 1937 at the Ceskoslovenska Zbrojovka factory in Brno, Czechoslovakia. The rifle came with an original vz.24 export sling. Some P-series Vz.24's are known to have been purchased by the Imperial Japanese Navy. Identifying these rifles as Japanese contact pieces has always been difficult unless the rifle comes with genuine US Army export papers which identify that rifle by serial number. The only other ways in which Japanese ownership can be demonstrated is by the sling on the rifle. Occasionally, these turn up with Kanji characters painted on them.This morning, while inspecting my P-series rifle, I removed the sling to clean the leather, when it happened to fall in sunlight and I noticed for the first time that the sling had Japanese Kanji characters on the inside surface. I have had this rifle and sling for years and never noticed this. It turns out that the butterfly sling buckle for years has been between 2 of the three characters, and made seeing the badly-faded white paint of the Kanji characters very difficult.
I used the numeral table in the back of Noel Schott and Richard Hoffman's "Handbook of Military Rifle Marks, 1871 - 1950" to identify the Kanji characters as the numbers 5, 3 and 6.
Here is definitely something to be said for inspecting your rifles and slings
in strong sunlight! I can't believe how many years I have owned that sling and
never knew what it really was!
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The three Kanji symbols for 5, 3 and 6 painted in white on the inside of the sling.
Comments, corrections, questions, or if you have a rifle sling you would like to share with the world:
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