They seem to be difficult to source. Any ideas?
I was able to buy two sets over past year (?) on CGN EE - some people (like me) call them "fish hook" sling swivels, so that might make difference to find them. Was some Winchester rifles supplied with them - also were made by Parker Hale in England, and maybe others - I do know the "Winchester made" and the "Parker Hale made" have different features - do the same job, but are different to each other. I notice many of the BSA sporter conversions used that old style "eye" and sling hook - why I wanted some. They came with various width loops for different width slings. I am not real sure that anyone has made them for say past 30 or more years? - I have never seen "new" ones offered for sale by any retailer.
Another option - not sure if made "new" any more, but I got a couple sets on CGN EE - they are the spring loaded recessed sling studs - drill a much larger diameter hole into the wood stock - the brad point bit here for them is 31/64" - base unit screws into that hole to be flush more or less - then the sling part has like a "T" shaped nose to it - push in and give the thing 90 degree rotation to anchor the sling swivel in there - when removed, is no stud sticking out - is more or less smooth surface to the wood stock.
And, like others who posted - I received at least two rifles with the Quick Detach studs installed visibly off centre and "crooked" to centre line of the stock - I drilled hole and inserted birch (?) / poplar (?) dowels - worked them down to match to the contour of the stock - not a hope for me to get staining to match - so they are fairly obvious, if you look. One was installed (to me) in entirely wrong place - like 1" from the butt - so I installed replacement more like 3" from the butt - leaving that filled hole to be seen.
Through Lee Valley, I also got a set of "Snug Plug Cutters" made by Veritas - they make a taper sided "plug" - three diameters in the kit - you drill a clean sharp hole into the stock - then I cut "plugs" from inside of barrel channel - thinking that getting "plug" from same piece of wood, they would stain much closer than the end grain on the dowels - and turned out that it is really important to match the grain "exactly" when installing those plugs - rim of hole was nearly invisible, but I messed up and did not get the grain direction exactly the same - so again, fairly obvious to see if you look. The holes dug out on inside got filled with epoxy when I epoxy bedded those stocks.
