boys anti tank rifle

[camerl2009]

hi so ive been looking around and i cant seem to find very many of them im looking for a
.55 cal boys(im in canada so no worrys about DD bs) but untill i find one in my price range its all a dream (any help on that would be great so far ive only found 3 one with a damaged chamber ad a good price,a US boys rifle,and one way over priced)

i got some info from a ex-canuck that is now in AUS and deals with the boys rifles over there(he sells reloading supplys for them and has reloading data and what not)

id love some help with any info from fellow cauncks that own them and shoot them so far i know that brass can be made from .50 bmg and i found turned bullets that are made for the .55 boys i know the dies are a bit pricey so can the press needed but all in fun and games

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.

[Badger]

For quick and thorough searches, everyone should check out the Google CSE (Custom Search Engine) which is located at the top right corner of the forums, just under the standard search box.

It's a piece of custom code from Google that just searches Milsurps.Com posts and threads, including the archive.

So, give it a try and you might find some really interesting old threads with content about topics you either never knew about or had forgotten.

In this example, try searching for boys tank and see what turns up.

Hope that helps ....

Regards,
Doug

[Peter Laidler]

There are several pages about the Boys rifle on this very site if my memory serves me right including stuff about reloading.

To be honest, if I had one, I'd keep the original barrel tucked away to one side so that I could say that I had an original Boys and I'd have a .50 BMG barrel fitted to the beast, just so that I could shoot and enjoy it.

I have to say that so far as I am concerned, I let my little boy shoot one (and a Barratt on the same day.....) a few years ago when he was only about 14 or so and after 2 or 3 rounds at a target Daimler Ferrett a few hundred yards away I asked the Sergeant who was laying alongside him, supervising, if he was OK. Son looked round and nodded so I let him shoot the 5 rounds which he did without any fuss. The only protection as such he had on was a bullet proof protective jerkin just because it was padded - and double ear defenders of course

[Milsurf]

As an aside, I remember as a kid in West LA in the early sixties a gun shop that had an anti-tank rifle on the floor in the corridor just inside the front door, had to step around it to the left or right to see the rest of the merchandise. Don't remember the price. However there were a few display cases full of Lugers, the standard ones about $75-100, the artillery models $125-150, and the carbines for maybe $500-750 or so, not sure, don't remember those as well, other than that they were there and there was more than one of them. Ah, to have an operating Way Back Machine ...

[camerl2009]

i think at one time they were sold as suplus for about $100 now fetch about $5000+

they where not reall used on tanks in europe after the brits had to pull out of france(really only good on the panzer I and panzer II) the US had there own too they used them in the pacific witch it was better wth the jap tanks

.50bmg barrel nope you can shoot it with the boys barrel woodleigh makes bullets and brass can be made form .50bmg just sized in the .55 boys dies the belt is not really needed just necksize after fire forming im going to try reduced loads with heat treated wheel weight bullets (i can get them to about 35 bhn) or i found a way to make zinc work with cast bullets but thats my little secret i figured if you can do cast in the .50 you can do it in the .55boys

[Peter Laidler]

Surely, it's the belt around the cartridge that seats and obturates the cartridge in the chamber! Not that it's too important, but the headspace is calibrated from that point too. You couldn't fire-form the belt around the case, it's a solid ring isn't it? And if you did try, wouldn't it just bulge, stretch and break or at least form a critically weak ring of brass. I'm not an ammo man, just a simple engineer, Or am I over complicating this a tad? Anyone else out there........

[camerl2009]

Surely, it's the belt around the cartridge that seats and obturates the cartridge in the chamber! Not that it's too important, but the headspace is calibrated from that point too. You couldn't fire-form the belt around the case, it's a solid ring isn't it? And if you did try, wouldn't it just bulge, stretch and break or at least form a critically weak ring of brass. I'm not an ammo man, just a simple engineer, Or am I over complicating this a tad? Anyone else out there........

nope fire form it and neck size this makes it head space on the sholder and not the belt making the belt not necessary i sent emails to peter meyer he says the belt is a waste to put on as brass only last a few fireings anyway if you wanted a belt a brass ring expoxyed in place will do the job the belt was realy one used on the millitary cases that where ment to be shot once and varyed alot on the dimensions so they needed the belt to head space this was rushed war time manufacturing with multiple different manufacturers in the UK and canada

[John Sukey (Deceased)]

I fired one ONCE! pushed me back a foot!
Then there was the guy who bought one, and couldn't figure out what the washers were for. So he just screwed the muzzle brake all the way down. wound up with the gas ports vertical instead of horizontal, Then he fired it on a gravel berm

[smellie]

Quick fix for converted .50BMG brass in the Boys is to pick up a few rounds of that European .50 brass and cut it down into washers. Then you lightly knurl the outside of your "loading" brass at the bases and use a silver-bearing low-temp solder, solder the headspacing belts onto your Browning brass. There is low-temp silver-bearing solder available ($4 a tube) which works at a low enough temperature that you will not be affecting the cartridge casings on which you are working.

Bullet diameter is .562" on my single specimen round (DA 43 WIz), so you can start making a mould from that; it's almost exactly 9/16".

Boys Rifle actually put out 44% MORE power than the BMG: larger bullet diameter made it easier for the "cork" to get out of the "bottle". There ARE disadvantages to necking things down too far.

Wheelweight metal will take much more velocity than commonly thought. Just be careful of the new wheelweights, as they are not made of lead.

Hope this helps.
.