Description
Original Item: The MAS-36 CR39 with its folding aluminum butt stock is one of the scarcest modern military rifles. Even scarcer are the slings, and even scarcer than that are unissued slings. IMA has acquired and extremely small quantity of unissued MAS-36 CR39 slings.
The CR39 was derived from the standard MAS-36, France’s last major bolt-action military rifle. The wooden butt of the MAS-36 was replaced by a hollow aluminum butt that hinged forward under the rifle. The sling, which was made narrow to fit into the hollow of the butt, attached to the upper sling swivel with the common stud-and-slot system, but the lower attachment was completely unique. A pin through the stock passed through a metal bracket riveted to the lower end of the sling like the pin in a hinge.
In the photograph of the French soldier in the trench, an MAS-36 CR39 rifle is lying on the slope in front of the soldier. The bottom of the rifle is visible, and the sling and its attachment inside the butt can be seen. (Photo source: ECPAD, France)
