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Period modified Mills belt for Forager rounds
I recently took delivery of a M1880 Mills cartridge belt that had been modified to carry .20 gauge Forager rounds or .12 gauge guard shotgun rounds. As there was no regular devices issued with the 1881 Forager Shotguns, I found this interesting, and actually surprising that I had not seen more such belts. The manner in which it was devised and sewn makes me think that it could actually be field depot work. Certainly not arsenal work, but the work is neat enough to have been made at such a depot. The coarse brown thread used to sew the loops is the same as seen in some other items of the period, such as the M1876 cartridge belts and their conversions. The method of converting this belt was fairly simple....each cartridge loop was split by its length, and every other half was completely trimmed out. The two outer halves were then sewn together with the coarse brown thread, forming a large enough loop to hold a shotgun cartridge. Simple, but effective, and utilizing materials on hand.
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