Late 1941 Lend Lease M1 Rifle

[RCS]

My Lend Lease M1 that I bought a very long time ago, still complete but the little amount of red paint
on the bottom of the hand guard is long gone. The gas cylinder is still dark and with the front screw seal
still on it. Excellent bore but I did shoot it over the years, always used good clean M2 ball and never
had any problems.

While there are better examples this rifle still looks gooddscn2713.jpgdscn2709.jpgdscn2717.jpgdscn2711.jpgdscn2751.jpg

[JimF]

Curious to know if the rifle has the “round” fire-pin, and did you temporarily replace it with the later version (flat-sided), in order to guard against breakage.

Neat rifle . . . mine is one month older than yours! —Jim

[RCS]

Jim,

This rifle has the round firing pin. When I bought this rifle a very long time ago, there wasn't any warnings about
the use of the round firing pin. I has the TM9-1275 Ordnance Maintenance manual which said to remove any round
firing pins, but nothing was said about the possible danger that a round firing pin with a broken tip could cause.
Ordnance also wanted the flush nut replaced too. Not until much later when Billy Pyle and Scott Duff published
information about the round firing dangers, collector/shooters were informed

[Sunray]

The BNP stamps have nothing whatever to do with Lend/Lease. They're there because British law requires any milsurp sold through England be proofed.
A Lend/Lease M1 should have at least the remnants of a 2-inch band of RED paint with the calibre stencilled in black on the fore-end and front hand guard. Most of 'em were returned without ever being issued to anybody.

[Johnny P]

My Lend Lease M1 that I bought a very long time ago, still complete but the little amount of red paint
on the bottom of the hand guard is long gone. The gas cylinder is still dark and with the front screw seal
still on it. Excellent bore but I did shoot it over the years, always used good clean M2 ball and never
had any problems.

While there are better examples this rifle still looks good

Is the letter on the left side of the crossed sceptres a K ? If so this would indicate proofing in 1959 when released by the British military for commercial sale. Nice Lend-Lease.

This one is hard to read, but is a F, indicating proofing in 1955. It is also an excellent all original Lend-Lease.

[RCS]

I can not make out the letter as the operating rod was rubbing that area ? Almost looks like a J or S ?

[Johnny P]

Could be a J which would indicate 1958, but not an S.

[Troy (WA)]

Nice rifle Sir. Love those greenish colors on those old receivers and parts.