Gentlemen,

A question for Australianicon and New Zealand members from North America:

I seem to recall that a shipment of No 4 rifles was sent to Australia from Canadaicon sometime shortly after the fall of Singapore, which would be sometime after February of 1942. I do not recall the exact number of rifles, but seem to recall that it was at least 2~4,000 rifles. I also seem to recall that the rifles were issued to the VDC, the RAAF and some militia battalions that saw combat in New Guinea sometime in mid 1942. I also seem to recall that Lewis Maynard (Vulch) posted on this board or another board now gone pictures of these rifles in Australian service and the vast majority of them had “waisted” early front sight protectors, as well as the round cocking knob. Please feel free to correct me on any of the above, or add any information that I have missed.

Now to another question: What happened to these rifles? Are any of them still in Australia? If not is it possible that they were sent to New Zealand during WWII or just after the war?

I ask as I saw an interesting rifle this weekend. It was a NZ marked Long Branch MK I* which someone had sported. The serial range was around 5L0330. 1942 date with an early cross hatched MK II sight. The barrel was dated 1942 and was a two groove variety. The NZ rifle number was 971, making it the earliest Long Branch NZ gun I have seen. No import marks, so it is likely one of the Pre 1968 imports by Century Arms around 1964~1966 or so. So far nothing but an early NZ modified No 4 MK I* Yawn.

Now the kicker: The rear cocking piece was the round variety and looked original to the matching bolt. While not on the rifle, the seller had the front sight cover (removed when the rifle was sported), this was an early Long Branch “waisted” sight cover. There was not likely to have been any attempt at improving the rifle by adding parts, as the entire kit was 130 dollars. Given the serial number and the slightly different shade of blue the “waisted” cover is not likely original to the rifle, but I would guess it was on the rifle when the gentlemen had it sported, he had no other .303 rifles. So the “waisted” sight protector most likely came off another similarly early Long Branch rifle.

So that got me to thinking. Most of the NZ rifles I have seen were in the 22Lxxxx and later numbers. Is it possible that the Australians supplied their No4 Long Branch rifles to New Zealand at some point? Do any of the many ANZAC folks here have any insight on this?

Thanks in advance

Frederick 303
Information
Warning: This is a relatively older thread
This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.