- there is an unreliable workaround which involves equipping a second weapon, swapping to it, dropping the first (bugged) weapon, picking the bugged weapon up again and swapping back to it. sometimes, this fixes the issue, but it takes an unreasonably long time to perform, and must be done at every respawn.
- (after further testing) if you choose "pick up (sling)" instead of the default "pick up", the bugged weapon goes on your back and can then be equipped normally. this is the easiest workaround. {F2753128}