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I know this has been discussed before but I am wondering if the picture going around by WeeBee is just a suggestion on the routing or was that how it was intended?
In my case, my shovel is a bit longer than the ones I have seen on other M38's so its farther away from the middle footman loop and lands on the axe strap.

With it routed, as shown by WeeBee pic and that open spot, it allows movement of my handle away from the body if pulled on. If your handle is closer to the middle footman loop, it has a better hold on the handle keeping it held into the body.
I redrew the routing, and I think with this configuration, it will pull it in from both sides to hold it snug against the body. This is simiar to how I've seen it done on the MB/GPW's minus the front loop.

Here is a pic (reversed for orientation) of a MB. This leads me to another question. Are the M38's really supposd to utilize both forward loops? Or are there 2 loops to accomidate the different shovel sizes? As you can see the MB body also has provisions for another footman loop. I may even try just using using only the middle loop with the rear, and not use the front one at all just like they did. It will do the same thing as in my redrawing.

I have seen this discussion several times on the G503 board and the consensus was there was only one footman loop and a second was added in the field when the shovel lengths started to vary. Also keep in mind the purpose of the strap is to pull the shovel forward tightly into the steel bracket. Some inboard pull of the handle will result but is not important to the retention of the shovel on the jeep.

There are virtually no illustrated gospel methods published in the military manuals for the use of these various retaining straps. It was left to the average troop's understanding of simple physics.

I had a thought that there may not be official way.

I understand the concept of how its pulled into the forward bracket. Mine is tight in that regard. I'm just not thrilled how it's not snug to the body. When I get home tonight I will try it this other way.
Thanks for your comments.

Follow-up:
I routed the strap the way seen in the last pic on the MB and used only 2 footman loops. The difference is black and white to the way it was. The shovel is rock solid now. Amazingly solid.

Good drawings. As I mentioned earlier the stock M38 only had the one loop. Those with the second footman loop had them added in the field due to variations in shovel length.