AIA No4 Mk4

[Colonel Enfield]

Articles were few and far between, but they did exist. I've only seen three or four about the AIA rifles in Australian magazines.

That was sort of my point - you'd think the shooting/hunting/outdoor mags would have been all over an Australian arms-maker producing a .308 Lee-Enfield again, but no-one really seemed to know much about AIA or the guns and AIA didn't seem to be doing much to change that. There's always interest in Australian gunmakers; look at the coverage Lithgow are getting with their Crossover rifles.

I've always thought it's a shame Australia's arms indstury post-war can't seem to get itself sorted out. Take the Model 1887 lever-action shotgun debacle; pretty much even as the ink was drying on the 1997 arms law changes ADI were supposed to be working on a prototype Model 1887 shotgun with full production expected shortly afterwards. I know they made some of the prototypes - I've seen at least one in a museum - but despite having the demonstrated means to do it, the demand, and the potential for huge amounts of effectively free money, it all just fell over with no-one really sure exactly what happened. It wasn't until 10 years later when IAC/Norinco shotguns started appearing on the market here - and were selling out pretty much as quickly as they could be imported.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

The "ADI" 1887 was the project we (Australian International Arms) started after our coup in recovering a swag of ex-mil shotguns from Viet Nam was terminally derailed by the gun-grabbers.

It quickly became obvious that the authors of the oppressive new laws had never considered the possibility of a lever-action shotgun.

Thus, because it was NOT a pump or auto, and it only had one barrel, it was by their own daffynition, legally in the same class as air-rifles and bolt-action .22RF rifles.

Those of us who actually had some real-world experience knew better (not terribly difficult, I know).

It was obvious that the "straight" 1887 was a bit "flimsy" for modern 12ga loads, so, a 1901 (10 ga) was acquired and reverse engineered, then, a whole lot of work went into adjusting the dimensions of internal components, as well as the barrel, to work with 2 3/4" 12ga shells. This had the two-piece lever and the dual extractors of the 1901.

The original drawings, made right here in sunny Brisbane, then went to Lithgow.

There, a "tool-room prototype" was machined up and blued, then fitted with furniture from the Viet source.

Test-firing on the "back forty" range at Lithgow was a hoot, and very successful.

All systems go!

Then, someone at the factory decided that their newly developed facility for investment casting could play a big part in this job.

That's when things started to go wrong.

The other rolling disaster was the fact that the factory had not "blued" a gun since about 1965, being more into grit-blasting and phosphating military goodies. Furthermore, Tri-Zact belts are not the ideal way to retain edges on a shape like the '87 receiver. "Mass finishing" was the new trick. Think of a case-polishing bowl four to eight feet in diameter and filled with components and little abrasive ceramic chips. They work wonderfully, but it takes a bit of "suck it and see" to select the right shape and grade of "chip" and the appropriate time and intensity of the vibration.

We also pointed them at things like the Du Lite bluing system, but time and money were running out.

Prototypes were shown on the stand of the potential importer at the next SHOT Show, but within 6 months, the tiny handful of accepted guns were sent to Tri-Star and there they stayed.

Interestingly, in a conversation with yet another Oz ex-pat who worked in "the biz" in Malaysia, of all places, the matter came up. His suggestion was the 1897, but that was pointless in Oz. A couple of years after that conversation, and in what was by now an unsurprising development, 1897s AND "1887s" started appearing from the mysterious East.

The first of these 1997's appeared to have been accurately reverse-engineered from a flogged-out early model; "loose as a goose" was one description I heard from US contacts. However, they seem to have amortised their investment in the first few thousand and actually took note of the "market feedback". Later samples are reported as being somewhat better. Some of the oriental '87s appeared here, but too few to make much of a splash outside a small number of "Cowboy Action" shooters.

Just for giggles, I did propose, and started work on a "trench gun" version of the '87, complete with 7 round mag tube, heat shield and bayonet standard on a 20 inch barrel; Wild Bunch, eat your heart out. That was (probably rightly) consigned to oblivion with the rest of the project. Would have looked outrageous with a Yataghan bayonet affixed.

Subsequent efforts to make sundry screws, pins, springs, strikers, etc. for things like the little Cadet Martinis have even been a struggle to get done "right".

[tbonesmith]

I did propose, and started work on a "trench gun" version of the '87, complete with 7 round mag tube, heat shield and bayonet standard on a 20 inch barrel

Someone else had a similar idea about a month ago:

[browningautorifle]

Looks a bit odd, but I guess. I'd have done without the poly choke, but I doubt you'd want to cut it off. Look good though...got the blade for it?

[tbonesmith]

The owner does.