Oh Wow! Another Norm around here!
I wonder why you would take the metal plate off of the strap as Jerry suggested? You already know that its a repro. Grinding the rivets might expose a weakness and/or discoloration in the strap. Once you get the hang of how the strap looks after assembly, you can thread the strap though all the appropriate, and admittedly complicated holes, by using the other end of the strap. It takes a lot more time but its doable.
I agree with Anderson that its a mess trying to take the stock off of the strap/holster after everything is properly assembled. It also takes some of the fun out of shooting the artillery, if you decide to try to shoot your gun with the stock with all the leather attachments still on. It can also screw up the appearance of the stock irons leather cup if you do it too often. That cup fits pretty snug and a replacement cup is a hard thing to find. It probably would be better to buy a repro stock for when you decide to do some shooting at the range and leave your assembled rig for display.
Big Norm
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