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.

5 comments:

  1. Old NFOOctober 21, 2012 at 10:45 AM

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

    ReplyDelete
  2. AjdshootistOctober 21, 2012 at 12:47 PM

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

    ReplyDelete
  3. RabidAlienOctober 21, 2012 at 5:38 PM

    Dang, that's awesome!

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

    ReplyDelete
  4. bluesunOctober 21, 2012 at 11:08 PM

    Looks like something from a steampunk convention.

    ReplyDelete
  5. TheredneckengineerOctober 23, 2012 at 2:04 AM

    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.

    ReplyDelete

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