@historicalfirearms / www.historicalfirearms.info
The Royal Bermuda Regiment utilises one of the most unique SA80/L85A2 configurations around. Combining a Trijicon ACOG originally purchased under an urgent operational requirement for Afghanistan and HK’s redesigned handguard.
One of the most prominent rifles of the ongoing war in Ukraine has been a bullpup - the Vulcan / Malyuk. Designed and developed by Ukrainian company IPI, the Vulcan has been adopted by elements of the Ukraine's Special Forces and frequently seen in imagery from the war.
Check out the video:
The VHS-2 bullpup rifle manufactured by Croatia’s HS Produkt became one of the most frequently seen rifles during the Iraqi counter-offensives against ISIS during 2015-17. The rifle regularly appeared in news reports and social media posts and became somewhat synonymous with the fighting for Fallujah and Mosul.
Check out this week’s Armourer’s Bench video on the VHS-2 in Iraq below!
In this Armourer’s Bench video Vic takes a look at a Steyr AUG with an HBAR barrel but all is not as it seems. The HBAR is the light machine gun variant of the AUG with a heavier profile barrel, firing from an open bolt and the the HBAR-T could be fitted with a non integrated optic.
Check out the accompanying article here.
Everyone likes cutaways, so when I spotted this Tavor Cutaway at IWI’s SHOT Show 2020 booth I had to grab some video of it. IWI had two of these beautiful instructional aides on display at their booth. In the video below I look at the rifle’s operating system.
The rifles are functional and show how the Tavor’s action operates, showing lots of the little details including the bolt release mechanism and the gas system. I put this together on the fly so please forgive the production values.
Hope you enjoy the video, there are some more hi-res photos here.
The latest episode of The Armourer’s Bench is a very special one. I examine what is probably the first repeating bullpup rifle - the Curtis. Designed by a British inventor, William Joseph Curtis, in 1866 it predates all other known repeating, magazine-fed bullpup rifle designs.
The Curtis Rifle has a fascinating story, the original design never left the prototype stage but gained notoriety in 1895, when it was used by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company to defend against a lawsuit over pump action shotguns - I explain this interesting story in the video.
The Curtis Rifle is not only the first repeating bullpup, but it is also an early example of a striker fired weapon, uses an advanced drum magazine and even has a folding stock - all patented in 1866!
In this episode I discuss some of the earliest bullpup designs (which followed after the Curtis), the Winchester vs Francis Bannerman shotgun court case and the intriguing Curtis Rifle itself. Using contemporary news reports, engineering and patent drawings and illustrations I try to explain the history of a firearm that was well ahead of its time!
This episode was a big one to pull together, I did a lot of research and checking various patents. Editing it all together so the story made sense was also a big task but I am so happy to finally share it with you guys! I hope you enjoy it and find it as intriguing as I do.
You can also check out my accompanying in-depth blog for more photos and information over on TAB’s site here.
The latest episode of The Armourer’s Bench is a very special one. I examine what is probably the first repeating bullpup rifle - the Curtis. Designed by a British inventor, William Joseph Curtis, in 1866 it predates all other known repeating, magazine-fed bullpup rifle designs.
The Curtis Rifle has a fascinating story, the original design never left the prototype stage but gained notoriety in 1895, when it was used by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company to defend against a lawsuit over pump action shotguns - I explain this interesting story in the video.
The Curtis Rifle is not only the first repeating bullpup, but it is also an early example of a striker fired weapon, uses an advanced drum magazine and even has a folding stock - all patented in 1866!
In this episode I discuss some of the earliest bullpup designs (which followed after the Curtis), the Winchester vs Francis Bannerman shotgun court case and the intriguing Curtis Rifle itself. Using contemporary news reports, engineering and patent drawings and illustrations I try to explain the history of a firearm that was well ahead of its time!
This episode was a big one to pull together, I did a lot of research and checking various patents. Editing it all together so the story made sense was also a big task but I am so happy to finally share it with you guys! I hope you enjoy it and find it as intriguing as I do.
You can also check out my accompanying in-depth blog for more photos and information over on TAB’s site here.
Today, was my last day researching at the Cody Firearms Museum and the McCracken Research Library. This morning is finished off the last of my archival research before heading to the museum. I had a chance to handle, disassemble and photograph some very special guns. Above are some phone snaps I grabbed - I got some great video and photographs.
The first is what may be the first bullpup developed, a very intriguing Firearm. The second two photos show Winchester’s would-be AR-15 killer, the Winchester Lightweight Military Rifle. Extremely lightweight and well put together. The last photo is a teaser, the butt of a very special gun - any guesses?
I got to handle and photograph a couple of other guns including a number of Winchester SPIW prototypes, a Springfield M1903 fitted with a Maxim silencer and a modified Garand.
If you find yourself in Wyoming, the museum’s of the Buffalo Bill Centre of the West are a must see.
When the SA80 was initially adopted a carbine variant was not offered. The L85A1 rifle was believed to be short enough to be suitable for troops in all roles. Subsequent attempts to create a carbine were made in 1989 and 1994 but neither of these proved successful.
It became clear over time that troops in specialist roles needed a shorter carbine as a personal defence weapon and the British Army’s Armoured Trials and Development Unit called for the development of a dedicated carbine. The Sterling L2A3 submachine gun had originally fulfilled this role but these had been retired from service by 1994. Heckler & Koch, who also performed the extensive refit of the SA80/L85, developed the L22A2. HK built several thousand using parts from redundant L85A1 rifles, although other sources suggest L86 Light Support Weapons receivers may have been used.
The SA80 in its current configuration, the L85A2 (source)
Heckler & Koch made only minimal changes to the base weapon, altering the gas plug by lengthening it and reducing its diameter to accommodate the shorter gas system and balance the carbine’s pressure curve. This allows the weapon to cycle reliably. A specifically designed aluminium heat-shield with Picatinny rails was added to the front of the receiver to mount accessories and a forward grip. A folding grip is increasingly is being issued, this makes the carbine even more compact for storage. The L22A2 has no backup sights and is generally fitted with a SUSAT sight.
The weapon is 57cm (22.5 inches) in length with a 33cm (11.2 inch) long barrel and weighs 3.5kg (7.7 lbs) unloaded. One of the ergonomic shortcomings of the SA80 series is that they are difficult to quickly fire from the hip, a feature the L2A3 Sterling it replaced was designed for. The L22A2 is issued to a number of branches of the British military. Armoured vehicle crews with the Royal Armoured Corps and helicopter crews of the Army Air Corps are often equipped with the carbines as are Royal Navy and Royal Marine boarding parties.
Sources:
Images: 1 2 3 4
‘Centrefire automatic carbine - Experimental L22A2′, Royal Armouries, (source)
‘British Enfield SA80 Part 6: Carbines’, ARES, J. Ferguson, (source)
The Last Enfield, S. Raw (2003)
SA80 Assault Rifle, N. Grant (2016)
By the mid-1960s the French military had been in search of an assault rifle for a number of years with many of the major French state arsenals developing designs. In 1967, the French Army requested a new infantry rifle to replace both the MAS 49/56 rifle and MAT-49 submachine gun.
Under the direction of Paul Tellie Manufacture d'Armes de Saint-Étienne (MAS) began work developing a new rifle in 1969. A year later, following ballistic testing the French military selected the new new 5.56x45mm cartridge. MAS carried out an ergonomic study and decided to develop a bullpup rifle.
MAS chose a lever-delayed blowback action which removed the need for a gas system and theoretically made for a simpler, more reliable weapon. MAS built the first prototypes, designated the MAS A1, in 1971. A series of development prototypes followed until the French governent halted the programme in 1974, to test foreign rifles including the HK 33 and the FN CAL. The A4 prototypes struggled with reliability issues during testing and the MAS programme was placed on hiatus for further testing of other designs. The foreign designs, however, also failed to meet the French Army’s requirements. As a result the MAS development programme resumed in the summer of 1975.
The first of the many FAMAS prototype’s developed c.1969 (source)
MAS continued to develop prototypes with the A5 and A6 attempting to fix problems with reliability and barrel wear. In 1977, a decade after the French military had called for a new rifle, the army tested the new the A7 prototype. The army solved the problem of the MAS prototypes' continued failure to have a reliable 3-round burst capability by abandoning the requirement. Despite this MAS continued to experiment with the 3-round burst system.
In August 1977, the French Army adopted the MAS A7 as the Fusil d'Assaut de la Manufacture d'Armes de Saint-Étienne 5.56 Modele F1 - or FA MAS F1. By 1979, MAS had developed a reliable burst system and incorporated this into the F1, with the rifles already produced retrofitted. The FAMAS first saw action in 1983 in Chad during Operation Manta.
The FAMAS has a steel alloy receiver inside a plastic-fibreglass shell. Its unusual lever-delayed blowback action stems from designs by John Pedersen and Pál Király. The bolt is not conventionally locked during firing, instead, it begins to move rearward and an H-shaped lever at the centre of the bolt slows the travel of the bolt. This allows pressure in the chamber to drip to safe levels before the action opens enough to extract the spent case and load a fresh cartridge. The FAMAS isn't the only French weapon to use the lever-delayed blowback action, the earlier AA-52 also used this system.
Manual diagram showing the FAMAS’ bolt using the lever-delayed blowback action (source)
The lever-delayed system has its positive and negative characteristics, it makes the weapon relatively simple but it also introduces issues with variation in ammunition with the initial F1 designed to fire 55grain 5.56 ammunition. Additionally the FAMAS favoured steel-cased ammunition as this removes the threat of burst cases due to over pressure. The F1 also uses a proprietary 25-round magazine, as France left NATO in 1966, they cannot use the standardised 30-round STANAG magazines. The G2, however, can use NATO-spec magazines. Unlike the British SA80, the FAMAS can be set up for left-handed users. The charging handle, located on top of the receiver inside the carrying handle/sight mount, can be easily cycled from either side. The direction of ejection can also be altered as the ejector can mount on either side of the bolt. Ergonomically, the ejection port can be covered on either side by a detachable cheek rest.
The F1, unlike its contemporary the Steyr AUG, uses iron sights mounted on its carrying handle. The FAMAS also has an integral bipod and the ability to fire the AC58 and APAV40 rifle grenades. These can be used against both enemy infantry positions and armoured vehicles, able to penetrate the side and rear armour of a T55. It’s bayonet fits onto the top of the barrel so it doesn't project beneath the rifle. MAS assembled the FAMAS from parts made by a variety of state and private manufacturers.
In 1995 the French Navy adopted the improved G2 variant of the FAMAS (see image #2). This rifle feeds from standard STANAG magazines, has a larger AUG-style trigger guard, a slightly different stock profile and 1/9 rather than 1/12 rifling.
French troops with new FAMAS rifles during Operation Manta (source)
The FAMAS has seen action with French forces around the world in a number of African interventions, the Gulf War and in Afghanistan. MAS, and later GIAT, produced approximately 500,000 FAMAS rifles during the course of production. Over the year the French military attempted to update the rifle with the retrofitting of optics rails on the carrying handle and the more elaborate FELIN programme which incorporates sights, sensors and communications equipment. Approximately 30,000 rifles have been retrofitted with the FELIN system since 2009.
In 2016, the French government announced that the French Army would replace its F1s with the Heckler and Koch's HK416F. Placing an order for up to 100,000 416Fs with HK to deliver 16,000 annually. The replacement of the FAMAS will take some years as this initial contract will not entirely replace the 400,000 rifles currently in service.
Sources:
Images: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Modern Military Bullpup Rifles - T.B. Dugelby (1984)
The FAMAS Assault Rifle, Small Arms Review, J. Huon
French FAMAS F1, Forgotten Weapons, (source)
By late-1947 three principal rifles had been designed by the Armaments Design Department for the Infantry Personal Weapon programme. In January 1948 these were designated the EM-1 designed by Stanley Thorpe, the EM-2 designed by Captain Kazimierz Stefan Januszewski and the EM-3 developed by an Australian, Major J.E.M. Hall. These three designs shared one common design feature, they all utilised a bullpup configuration.
Major Hall began designing his rifle in 1944 as a response to a problem set during a small arms course at the Royal Military College of Science at Shrivenham. Hall developed his design further and in February 1945 he was granted a British patent. Hall’s rifle was semi-automatic only and used an interesting vertically sliding block to lock the rifle’s breech (see image #3). It was projected to fire a rimless .303 round (although in practice a cartridge had not been selected) and feed from a 10 detachable box magazine similar in dimensions to that of the Lee-Enfield’s.
In the late spring of 1945, Hall returned to Australia leaving his drawings and specifications with the Armaments Design Department. In April he wrote to Brigadier J.A.Barlow,one of the British army’s small arms experts and later Director of Artillery (Small Arms), shortly before returning home, requesting that he be informed of if his design was to be developed further.
In the letter he enthusiastically espoused the benefits of the ‘bullpup’ layout:
“should my suggested mechanism be rejected, there are other points about the design which might well work in very successfully with current small arms projects such as CEAD’s S/L Rifle and Burney’s development [sometimes referred to as the EM-4]. I refer in particular to the disposition and relationship of both magazine and chamber and to the decided advantages gained in respect to the ratio between the barrel and overall length.”
Perhaps the most interesting characteristics of the rifle are its action and its method of ejection. The action was completely enclosed and cycled vertically at the same time spent cases were ejected to the rear, over the operator’s shoulder. This meant that the rifle could be used by both left and right handed riflemen.
Hall’s patent diagram showing the breech block assembly and transporter (Reproduced in Dugelby’s EM-2 Concept & Design)
Hall’s rifle was gas-operated with a piston linked by a connecting rod acting on a vertically sliding breech block. A transporter is also actuated extracting spent cases and ejecting them out of the rear and picking up a new round as it returned forward. A cocking handle was located beneath the rifle just behind the pistol grip.
Only a single wooden mockup was built and no functioning prototypes were ever made. The EM-3 was the first of the three rifles to be dropped as it was 'unlikely that EM-3 will be developed in the required time.' As development of the various IPW designs was ramped up the shortage of technical staff became acute and in September 1947 staff were redistributed to other projects. The EM-1 designed by Stanley Thorpe and the EM-2 designed by Captain Kazimierz Stefan Januszewski (later anglicised to Stefan Kenneth Janson) both chambered in the .280 British intermediate round continued to be developed. The EM-1 was first tested in December 1949, but due to problems with the new stamping techniques used to manufacture the rifle, it was eventually dropped in favour of the EM-2 which was in a more advanced state of development. The EM-2 was selected by the British Army in April 1951 before international political wrangling over calibres and universal standardisation led to its abandonment and the adoption of the FN FAL.
Sources:
‘Improvements in and relating to self-loading rifles and machine guns’, J.E.M. Hall,19/06/47, UK Patent #589394 (source)
EM-2 Concept & Design: A Rifle Ahead of its Time, T.B. Dugelby (1980)
UK & Commonwealth FALs, R. Blake Stevens (1980)
Ministry of Supply, Armaments Design Department, General Progress Reports Nos. 9-12, 1947, D.5/2/9, December 1947.
Here’s this month’s Patreon supporter desktop wallpaper. This month’s hi-resolution wallpaper (available to Patreon supporters) features the early British bullpup rifle, the EM-2. Briefly adopted by the British military in 1951, it was eventually abandoned in favour of the FN-FAL.
If you’d like to support Historical Firearms and receive monthly desktop wallpapers featuring important and interesting historic guns you can find out more and sign up to support the site here:
Thanks for supporting the site, here’s to 2016!
Matt
Here’s this month's Patreon supporter desktop wallpaper. This month’s hi-resolution wallpaper (available to Patreon supporters) features the early British bullpup rifle, the EM-2. Briefly adopted by the British military in 1951, it was eventually abandoned in favour of the FN-FAL.
If you’d like to support Historical Firearms and receive monthly desktop wallpapers featuring important and interesting historic guns you can find out more and sign up to support the site here:
Thanks for supporting the site, here's to 2016!
Matt
Lieutenant-colonel Armand-Frédéric Faucon of the Troupes coloniales (French Colonial Infantry) was an early proponent of the bullpup concept. In 1908 he developed what he described as a ‘Fusil Équilibré’ (balanced rifle), in January 1910 he submitted a patent application for his concept which was granted a year later (see image #2).
Faucon claimed that his configuration was “adaptable to any existing weapon and capable of bettering its performance.” The concept was intended to allow the rifleman to show a smaller profile when firing from cover and reduce the effort needed to fire from a number of positions. His ungainly looking concept brought the rifle out of the shoulder instead placing it on top instead. This placed the rifle’s action next to the rifleman’s face. A pistol grip (which in photographs appears to be from a Chauchat) and a brace for the shoulder were added and the rifle was sighted through a collimator sight mounted on the left side of the rifle. There was also an articulating rear grip for bayonet fighting which can be seen in the photographs above.
Diagram of Faucon’s concept, from J. Huon’s Proud Promise (1994)
The first official testing of the concept took place in 1909 and 1911 with a wooden mock-up rifle. The evaluating officers at the musketry school at Vincennes were less than enthusiastic. The rifle’s overall length was approximately 41 inches, while still extremely long it was 10 inches shorter than the Lebel M1886 but weighed significantly more at 12 lbs.
Photograph of Etienne Meunier’s A5 semi-automatic rifle, from J. Huon’s Proud Promise (1994)
In 1918, Faucon took two Meunier A5 self-loading rifles and adapted them to his balanced rifle configuration. The A5 had been developed in 1908 as part of France’s first attempts at developing a semi-automatic infantry rifle. It was chambered in a 6.5x61mm cartridge and had a six round magazine. The Faucon-Meunier rifles (see image #1) were presented for testing at Versailles in July 1918 and Chalons in May/June 1920. At some point during the testing the original stock seen in the posed photographs was replaced by a more rectangular stock seen in the first image.
Interestingly it was found that the riflemen testing the rifles were less tired after a long session shooting than they were with more conventional rifles. Despite this the rifles suffered issues with the trigger mechanism which had been shifted well forward and was linked by a long rod. This is now recognised as a perennial problem for bullpup rifles. Evaluating officers declined to continue the Faucon-Meunier rifle’s testing probably due to its unconventional configuration.
Sources:
Image One Source
Image Two Source
Proud Promise: French Autoloading Rifle 1898-1979, J. Huon (1994) (images 3 & 4)
In late 1945 the US Army’s Light Rifle Program began its search for a new rifle weighing less than 7 lbs. The first of these designs was the T-25 developed by Earle Harvey with the backing of Colonel Rene Studler, the chief of the Small Arms Division of the Office of the Chief of Ordnance. In 1946 two other designs began to be developed: the T-28, designed by Cyril A. Moore which used a German-inspired roller locking action and John Garand’s innovative but unorthodox T-31.
Garand was eager to maximise the length of the weapon’s barrel and decided to use a bullpup layout. While not weighing less than 7 lbs the T-31 was the lightest of the Light Rifle program weapons weighing 8.7 lbs. The rifle used a gas trap system, similar to Garand’s earlier designs, to cycle its action. Almost the full length of the barrel was shrouded by a gas cylinder. Once fired the propellant gases of an ignited round were directed down the cylinder to push a short stroke tappet piston which pushed the bolt rearward.
Garand’s Concept drawing for the T-31 (source)
While there are no diagrams of the rifle’s action available to show how enclosed the cylinder was early prototypes (namely the first and second made) have been described as using a Lewis Gun-like vacuum system where gases leaving the muzzle break were sucked back into the cylinder to the piston both cycling the weapon and helping to cool the barrel. While a later prototype has an entirely enclosed gas cylinder which had a gas port near the muzzle where the cylinder ends and a more conventional piston system.
A display featuring a M1 Garand converted to chamber T65 ammunition and a T31 (source)
The problem with this system is the large amount of surface area the gases have to cool, condense and deposit carbon. This was the issue which doomed the early German semi-automatic rifles the G41(M) & G41(W) as well as the early gas trap M1 Garands. Following a 2,000 round test of the T-31 it was reported by testing officers that almost 1 pound of carbon was scrapped from the internal walls of the gas cylinder. This not only made the rifle heavier over time but would eventually prevent gas reaching the piston causing the rifle to fail to cycle.
The ergonomics of the T-31 prototype appear awkward with a large 20-round box magazine sitting just behind the pistol grip and in front of a large squared off rubberised butt stock. The rifles were 84cm or 33 inches in length and were fitted with adjustable folding sights, designed and patented by Garand but clearly influenced by those of the German FG-42. The in-line stock profile helped to reduce the recoil of the large T65 round.
Garand’s FG-42 inspired diopter sight, patented in 1950 (source)
In response to the problems of carbon fouling discovered in the gas cylinder of the early prototypes Garand developed a longer stroke gas piston system which tapped gas directly from the barrel to reduce fouling and improve reliability.
The rifle was select fire with the large muzzle break on the first two prototype rifles designed to mitigate blast and recoil. The T-31 had a cyclic rate of 600 rpm and fired from a closed bolt which some sources describe as a rotating bolt and was chambered in the ‘Lightweight Rifle Calibre .30′ round (T65) which evolved into 7.62x51mm. The 20-round box magazine was designed by Garand and was the only element of his design which would survive as it was later used in the successful T-44 rifle which became the M14.
Garand continued to work on the design until he retired in April 1953, at the age of 65, the T-31 design was never realised as a practical service rifle and the both Moore and Harvey’s rifles were also eventually abandoned in favour of the T-44. John Garand’s last rifle design was just ambitious and innovative as his early work, the T-31 was not only the lightest of the Light Rifle program’s three early rifles but it also attempted to combat the heavy recoil of the T65 cartridge, which while designed to be an intermediate cartridge was still too powerful. Garand died in February 1974 at the age of 86.
See also: John Garand’s .30 Calibre Carbine
Sources:
Images One Source
Image Two Source
Image Three Source
The Great Rifle Controversy, E. Ezell (1984)
US. Rifle Garand T31 ′Bullpup’ .30 (T65E1) SN #1, Springfield Armory, (source)
US. Rifle Garand T31 ′Bullpup’ .30 (T65E1) SN #2, Springfield Armory, (source)
By the early 1960s the AK47 and subsequently the AKM had been in Soviet service for nearly 15 years. Approximately 10 million rifles had been made and the designs had been shared with half a dozen allies including China, the East German Republic, Hungary and Egypt.
However, during the early 1960s Soviet small arms konstruktors were at work on another rifle which was quite unlike the AK. The team of konstructors was lead by German A. Korobov (see image one) a designer who had also entered the same contest Mikhail Kalashnikov entered and won with his Avtomat Kalashnikova in the mid-late 1940s. Korobov, a designer at the Tula arms plant, entered the competition with one of the world’s first practical bullpup assault rifle designs, the TKB-408 (see image two), the design lost out to Kalashnikov’s and while Korobov was disenchanted with the bullpup configuration he did not fully abandon the concept.
With the development of a new phase of mobile warfare in the 1960s which saw troops travelling less on foot and more onboard helicopters and inside armoured personnel carriers the Red Army decided to look into the development of a shorter rifle. Korobov and his team again entered the state sponsored competition. In 1962 Korobov designed the TKB-022, another bullpup (see image three). The TKB prefix is an initialism for ‘Tulskoe Konstructorskoe Buro’ which translates as the ’Tula Design Bureau’. The TKB-022 looked unlike any other contemporary military rifle, its trigger group was located beneath the rifle’s barrel and just in front of an integrated magazine/pistol grip - a configuration similar to the Uzi’s. It also featured another advanced design feature, a moulded plastic stock which fitted around the receiver.
While Korobov’s initial design was rejected he continued developing and between 1962 and 1968 he built several more variants of the TKB-022. The first was the TKB-022P No. 2 (see image four) which featured a standard AK trigger and pistol grip with the magazine no longer integral and set back further along the stock. The TKB-022PM No.1 (see image five) saw the weapon’s configuration alter significantly with the magazine and chamber being moved to the rear of the rifle while the trigger group moved to the front of the weapon (a stock shape not unlike FN’s recent P-90 and F-2000). The last variant, the TKB-022PM5 No.1 (see image six) had a more evolved and ergonomic plastic stock and was chambered in the new Soviet 5.6x39mm experimental cartridge.
The TKB had an overall length of just over 20 inches, significantly shorter than the AKM’s 32 inch length. With the unusual positioning of the rifle’s trigger and magazine it had an unconventional vertically moving bolt - rather than the standard horizontal orientation. This also meant that the bolt could not extract a spent round and instead Korobov designed a U-shaped extractor which pulled with empty casing from the chamber and then pushed forward the next round.
The TKB-022 was never adopted by the Soviet Union, possibly because of the rifle’s unconventional configuration (which would not see widespread adoption until the 1980s), possibly because of the untested nature of the plastic stocks it is likely that there were concerns regarding its hardiness in extreme temperatures. It is also possible the TKB’s unconventional bolt raised concerns among senior Soviet konstruktors. Regardless of the reason the TKB-022 in all its configurations and variants was undoubtedly a rifle well ahead of its time.
Sources:
Image One Source
Image Two Source
Image Three - Six Source
In 1952 and 1953 with the likelihood of the U.S. accepting the British .280/30 round as the new NATO standard the British attempted to rechamber their EM-2 rifle to calibres acceptable to the U.S.
The first of these were a number of .280/30 rifles rechambered in the American T65 (7.62x47mm) round and a later run of purpose made rifles in the standardised 7.62x51mm NATO round. A final conversion was made in 1953 modifying an EM2 chambered first in 7mm HV (7x49mm) originally made by Chambons Tool Company to fire the U.S. standard .30-06 round. At the time .30-06 was the defacto standard of the newly formed NATO alliance. The 7mm HV rifle, serial number HV-1, had already been previously converted to fire 7.62x51mm. However, the second conversion was more complicated as the .30-06 case is significantly longer. This was done by cutting, elongating and then welding the receiver back together and fitting an enlarged bolt. A magazine was also enlarged to feed the larger .30-06 rounds. While chambered in .30-06 HV-1 fired just 190 rounds. It remains part of the UK National Firearms Centre’s collection.
.30-06, T65 (7.62x47mm), .280/30, 7.62x51mm
(source)
In the photograph above its clear to see the relative sizes of the three bolts. The EM-2, designed to fire an intermediate round, struggled to handle the increased pressures and heavy recoil of both the 7.62x51mm and .30-06 full power rifle rounds, as such the rifle was eventually dropped from consideration with the FN FAL and M14 being adopted respectively..
Sources:
Images 1 - 3 Source
T.B. Dugelby, EM-2 Concept & Design: A Rifle Ahead of its Time (1980)
