EM2 production

[Lee Enfield]

Morning all, following on from our lively debate regarding the SA80, I wanted to take us back to another era and another bullpup, the EM2.

I had the great opportunity to inspect an example a few weeks back and was very impressed with the overall design, it appeared very advanced for its time and seemed to offer great promise for further development.

Considering the rifle was officially adopted (briefly) under the designation No9 mk1, how far had production plans evolved and how many of the .280 calibre prototypes / pre production rifles were made?

Any plans made for Canadian series production?

I would assume production plans would have echoed it's replacement, the L1A1 and been undertaken by Enfield and Fazakerley or indeed BSA had events unfolded in the same way.

Any info avalable anyone, plus, for those of us lucky enough, what does the file shoot like, I would love to shoot an example of this fascinating rifle!

EM-2 rifle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (info on numbers)

- .30-06 EM2 In 1952 and 1953 with the likelihood of... (one of the ones converted to .30-06)

British EM-2 Forgotten Weapons (excellent disassembled photos)


10 were built at Long Branch (member "wheaty" owned one at one time)...

The EM-2 is basically a vertical feed, flapper locked (more parts!!) upside down FG42, (with the op rod above the barrel), [while the FG42 was simply a lightened side feeding Lewis gun]... with the receiver lightened to such an extent it probably wouldn't have had a long lifespan in the field...and was horribly complex to machine.

As has been said here (and other places) repeatedly, successful combat weapons (historically & today) are as simple as possible.