Sunday, October 21, 2012

Things I did not know about firearms, vol. CXI

I knew that the UK made something like 19 Million Lee-Enfield rifles, so they were found everywhere.  I also knew that there was a terrible shortage of automatic weapons in the British Army after Dunkerque.  What I did not know is that there were several designs that converted the SMLE rifle into full automatic.

The Rieder conversion kit could be installed with simple tools and converted the rifle into a full automatic weapon.  You could use either the standard 10 round .303 magazine or the 30 round magazine used with the Bren.

And the Kiwis did a full re-manufacturing, turning a couple thousand Enfields into Charlton Automatic Rifles.

Pretty ingenious, and a meditation on how effective gun control can ever be.


Old NFO said...

I'd never heard of that one either! Learn something new every day!!!

Ajdshootist said...

Thanks Ted as Old NFO says you learn
something new every day.

RabidAlien said...

Dang, that's awesome!

...and I happen to have an Enfield here...!

bluesun said...

Looks like something from a steampunk convention.

Theredneckengineer said...

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.
It's actually much harder to build a semi auto firearm than a full auto one.
The parts to build a Sten can be found at your local hardware store. Many civilians took it upon themselves to build Stens during the war in their garages and basements.

Gun control is a losing philosophy, period.