Off the subject...but, I am a Townsend Whelen fan, also. I have a rifle in 35 Whelen with his "civilian" sling. That set-up is surprisingly stable. I've also put a 1907 sling on my sporterized Krag. One interesting note he put in his "Rifleman" book is that he doubted that Marlin, who stopped production of leverguns in WWI to make other things, would start-up its production of leverguns again. The design was just too obsolete. Fortunately, he was wrong.