Printable View
I picked this wall rack up years ago, you can stack another rack on top of this rack as there are holes. Rack is made of wood with metal edges. There is a heavy locking bar (not shown in photo) that will lock both rifles and carbines. It is very difficult to find any photos in reference books that show this rack. I believe it is WW2 as indicated by the drawing number. Only M1 rifles or M1 carbines will fit.Attachment 87449Attachment 87450Attachment 87451
Nifty! Gotta love that Olive Drab paint. I wonder if there are any plans floating around for one of these.
17 x M1 rifles? Is that right? Nice...
Jim, I wish that I still had them today, but sold-off a number since this 2011 photo. I still have the M1 on the far left with the shorter 22 inch barrel and different gas cylinder.
I still have not found any photos in any books that show this rack ? as there is a drawing number, it should be listed somewhere ?
I have the drawings for a rack similar to that on one of my computers, will try to locate the plans.........2 drawings if I remember correctly.
Attachment 87460Attachment 87461
Having eyeballed OP's pic's, the racks look a lot like the ones we stored our L1A1's in.
Attachment 87481
Original British L1A1 Rifle Racks.
That would be a gas trap?Quote:
Originally Posted by RCS
Most of the old armouries that were from the No1 and 4 days used the standard Enfield racks slightly modified, if necessary, by raising the top rail to accommodate the barrel of the L1A1 ABOVE the gas block. When the smaller L85 came on stream, it came with the small 'noddy' racks per 10(?) rifles, specially made by REMPLOY at great cost. They were good for breaking the plastic handguards but also came with a locking bar. Plenty of the old units with old No4 racks, later converted to L1A1 racks saw or heard of the damage that was being caused by the new L85 type racks. These racks still wouldn't accommodate the longer L86 LSW. But if you now LOWERED the top rail (.....remember that it might have been raised to accommodate the L1A1 rifle in the early 60's.....), the same old No1 and 4 racks could accommodate the L85 IW and the L86 LSW. So at some of the old TA and Yeomanry centres, you could see very old No1 racks with a hole alongside each rifle bay/slot for the No1 bayonet, then used for the No4, then used for the L1A1 and bayonet and then used for the L85's/L86's.
Simple isn't it? Well, it would have been until the box-tickers got involved........
Jim, you are correct, gas trap rifle
I'd say it is a hallway wall rifle rack as found in the US barracks in Germany.
Neat item! Wonder how it got to the US?
Sarge
It would make a neat home accessory to decorate the hallway of one's home. Not sure that one's spouse would feel the same way about it though.
What is interesting about the engineering drawings is that they depict an SMLE in place, the spelling of 'Centre' is our way and not the American way, and the dating is day, month, year instead of the American convention of month day year.
One wonders, what all else more was there to Lend Lease than weapons, munitions, aircraft, ships, and vehicles?
I don't know if they dated back to WWII but those look almost exactly like the racks we had in the armory in Gulfport, MS in the 70's
Mr Baker, on your rifle racks in the armory in Gulfport, what kind of rifles were stored in the racks ? M1 Rifles/M1 Carbines or were the racks modified for something else ?
Most were M16A1's I remember a few 14's as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by RCS
In the rare spirit of; "Waste not, want not', here in Oz, we "re-engineered" the big transit / storage boxes for the No1 rifle to also accept the L1A1.
Placed one way up, a hinged "flap" cut out for the rounded handguards of the No1 was presented.
Invert the box, and that one hinged out of the way and the other one, with sort-of triangular cut-outs came into play.
Also included was a "locking bar" that retained the rifles du jour. This ran from side to side and was secured by a pair of padlocks.
In the centre of this retaining bar, a small lug was welded on and this protruded through a slot in the centre "door". Another padlock held this in place. DO NOT Lose the keys!!
In the "good old days", this was how rifles were conveniently stored in armouries; the boxes being stackable, and transported to the field, etc.
Some were painted in the classic "Bronze Green', others in the equally classic "Olive Drab".
Come the somewhat shorter "Tupperware rifle", a lot of these storage / transport crates met their end in the regular funeral pyres that marks the passing of a generation of gear.
Rumour has it that some, apparently, "fell off the backs of trucks" on their way to immolation, and now live quietly in various "retirement homes".