Charlton Machinegun

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Originally Posted by Peter Laidler

When I was in NZ (and Aust to a slightly lesser extent) in the 60's I noticed that these two nations had blokes with bags of nous. They could pretty-well fix anything. The word I'm looking for is versatility. I asked my friend Robbie Robertson how come they were so good and versatile and he told me that in NZ at the time, it was pretty well impossible to import new things or even some spare parts without what was known at the time as 'overseas funds' As a result, they had a good home based industry making parts and the ability to do everything for themselves including the manufacture of parts for the Sunderland flying boat engines

He also said to me that this was the reason why all (?) of the desert LRDG and SAS teams had New Zealanders or Australians as their fitters. Simply because they were so adaptable and able to get you home when the muck hit the fan.

I was paid in UK-Sterling or Aust £ (I could choose) while I was in NZ and I was always asked if I would give the blokes my UK ££'s in exchange for NZ£ instead of going to the bank. I seem to recall that the Aust and NZ £ changed to $ while I was there.

Yep...... Very versatile people

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Quite so Peter! I was 21 and in Australia when I saw my first brand new car for sale in a showroom. At that stage in NZ you had to have 'overseas funds' to buy a new car and the 2 year old trade-ins sold for more than the new price. When I started out in business as a gunsmith in 1969 I had to make written application to our Minister of Customs with valid reasons why I should be able to buy a new lathe. We all cut our teeth on keeping our old pre-war cars on the road (US and English although I was always a Chev man). Strangely there was no restriction of the importation of sporting firearms although anything other than .22 and .308 attracted another 5% duty. Happily that all changed in the 1970's.

There is a nice example of an Elecrolux conversion from a Lithgow rifle, in the collection at Shrivenham.

Regards

AlanD
Sydney

I saw this on the news and thought it was somewhat on subject given the "enginuity down under" aspect.http://metro.co.uk/2013/09/17/beer-o...prank-4038455/
I wish I had friends like this. Classic!:beerchug:

Just as a matter of interest, has anyone ever made a non working replica of one of these MG/rifles. Just for show or as part of a collection. Good to see if you have. Or better still (or worst still, depending on your engineering point of view!), what about a WORKING replica?

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Originally Posted by Peter Laidler

Just as a matter of interest, has anyone ever made a non working replica of one of these MG/rifles. Just for show or as part of a collection. Good to see if you have. Or better still (or worst still, depending on your engineering point of view!), what about a WORKING replica?

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Peter, it would be fair to say that there are more replicas than originals. Copies of the original patent drawings have been available here for 40 years to my knowledge. All of the replicas however, suffer the same fault in that they are made to the drawings which are not the same as the production models. These differences are largely cosmetic and the shape of the rear grip is the give-away. The drawings show the grip as leaning forward at the bottom (a la Boys A/T rifle) and of an odd shape, but the production guns had a rearward leaning grip that was straight. Most of the replicas are semi-auto only to avoid Police complications, and many do not function at all. Gun City Ltd of Christchurch had a replica for sale but I am not sure if it is still on their website. I will post some pictures of one of my originals that I am rebuilding (in the distant future!).

I have finally got around to rebuilding my Charlton. I had to use a good MLE barrelled action that I machined to the original specs, and with the exception of a couple of nuts, 6 screws, two spacers, a flat spring, and a plunger, all of the other parts are original. The actual restoration took me two weeks (lots of hand-fitting), but it has taken me 30 years to gather up the parts. It is a fully working, select-fire gun and I will video the test firing.Attachment 84689

Rod, that's what we pommy engineers would describe as not just good, but fxxxxxx good. Well done and a pleasure to see........

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Originally Posted by Woodsy

I have finally got around to rebuilding my Charlton. I had to use a good MLE barrelled action that I machined to the original specs, and with the exception of a couple of nuts, 6 screws, two spacers, a flat spring, and a plunger, all of the other parts are original. The actual restoration took me two weeks (lots of hand-fitting), but it has taken me 30 years to gather up the parts. It is a fully working, select-fire gun and I will video the test firing.Attachment 84689

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That looks superb, what an amazing piece of work, please do share the test fire with us!

Thanks Peter! By my calculations this is the 10th genuine NZ Charlton left in the World. I am going up to the range this week to test it. Can't wait!:)

To be really honest Rod, when you mentioned some while back on the forum - or via Bill M - that you were going to build a Charlton I really didn't expect you to finally do it. So it's good to see the skills that went into it. As a matter of interest, which Charlton did you base/copy it from as there were several small variations, albeit sometimes small and minor, sometimes a bit more obvious. My boss at the big Northern District Ord Depot mentioned that he had fired their example for a NZTV semi documentary about NZ war output but it struggled a bit and it'd only reliably feed and fire with two particular Bren mags. I think that ones now at Waiouru but someone told me recently that that one went to the museum where Charlton hailed from.

GREAT to see and a credit