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We have this rifle at the museum where I work. It was issued to us as just another EX1. And while it looks like a regular EX1, it has the nomenclature EX1/2 stamped on the side. Notable is that the serial number is about 9 away from the start of the EX2 series.
For the life of me, I don't understand what an EX1/2 designated. Anybody?
Nice looking old rifle, lucky museum.
That is awesome.Quote:
Originally Posted by stencollector
That is a Canadian T48 (a US spec FN-FAL trials rifle).
I have seen lowers, but never a complete one. The late owner of your C2 told me about there being racks of them at wainwright in the '60s.
I was also unaware that they received a separate designation. Does it show signs of being a later addition?
I note also that the cocking handle is not a standard Ex1/Ex2 pattern. Does it have a forward assist feature? or is it something else? a replacement perhaps, as the fibre ones seem a little delicate.
Hey Stenny, thanks for posting a never previously documented FN-FAL variant.
I was told that we trialed all of the ABC variants, I wonder if the X8E1 top cover, safety selector & forward assist charging handle also resulted in a separate designation marking?
The " /2" looks to be a later addition, slightly different font/size and not the same infill.
Could be the military upgrading the rifle from an A1 to an A2 as an engineering project prior to returning it to the factory to produce full blown A2's
I don't think that theory will apply in this case. They were trials rifles. The first 1700 were the EX1...selective fire and normal sights. The next 300 were the EX-2 which was also selective fire, but had an optical sight on the top cover, and offset iron sights front and rear as backup.
They were all pinned to semi-auto only fairly early in their lives, perhaps even during the trials. After the trials were over, the EX1s were converted to Drill purpose (you can see the white bands and the DP marking over the serial number) to be used as drill rifles for the cadets, or jump rifles for the airborne school. A number were also converted to cut-away for training aids to support the FN C1.
I have a thread a little lower on this site showing my EX1 and EX2 rifles. Perhaps I'll import some of those photos and see where the difference is.
What a rare beast, I thought the trigger guard was very T48..
Great item for a museum, has it been deactivated?
Those must have been the ones they later welded up for training rifles at the airborne center in Edmonton...that were there until the C7 rubber rifles came out.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee Enfield
I think you got it. The trigger guard on this one folds into the pistol grip....the grip is hollow so as to accept the guard. I noticed that when we were taking the photos, and just now compared it to my EX1 and 2. The trigger itself is also different. Add to that the cocking handle being made of aluminum (I believe) as opposed to the phonelic handle of the EX series.Quote:
Originally Posted by mrclark303
When I checked the buttstock, it is numbered to the rifle.
The rifle is live, and technically still on DND inventory. This is going to be a bit of a bugger to the museums collection.....now we don't have a normal EX1 to show, although we do have the cut-away. And with the 3 sentences that can be fit onto the little bilingual card, it will not do this example justice. Of all the bad luck. :( Just kidding, although this "discovery" will be lost on 99.99% of those who view it.
One has to wonder how many more (if any) of this variation exist? I have seen the EX rifles broken down and scrapped for decades, and I suspect that after the museum give-aways in the early 2000s, the remainder went to smelter.
I am inclined to agree wholly with Skippy, thread 4. Regardless of the number totals given, it is far from uncommon to see trials and test bed rifles upgraded to incorporate later modifications which promotes an earlier rifle to a higher spec but NOT wholly. We've seen it hundreds of times in our service, especially with early SA80 types used and over engraved or issued, used in trials and tests, withdrawn, slightly modified and reissued as something else......... Seen it plenty of times. Not uncommon. A lot of the stuff we had was marked in a similar way. Interesting and rare but common practice I'd say
To turn this around.... about marking rifles with non standard nomenclature..... Heckler and Koch started to mark new made SA80 receivers as A3,
The British Army still only has the L85A2... and has not up graded to the A3 even if HK want think they have. (got to ask why procurement would let them do this)
So we have in service L85A2s that are marked with both L85A2 and A3.... its still just an A2
That should put the cat amongst the "experts" in years to come.....