Did Canada export L1 receivers to the UK?

[Longshaor]

Hi gang,

Here's an odd one. I just bought what I thought was an L1A1 parts kit. The lower receiver is marked "UB 58" which I took to mean it is a 1958 BSA gun. The opposit side of the receiver is stamped "Made in Canada". So is this a Brit gun or a Canadian one?

Cheers!

Information

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[The Wizard]

You got a Century International Arms receiver. Not even close to a real C1 receiver.

[Longshaor]

Century made LOWER receivers? I thought they only made uppers.

[Peter Laidler]

This is a very interesting question from another point of view too Longy........... Did Britain ever import Canadian made C1 rifles or did any come into the Ordnance system? I ask because while we had mixed/pooled Ordnance stockpiles in Germany and they all went through the same Base Workshops at Werl (or was it Verl) and later Wetter in Germany, did they find their way into UK stockpiles?

We have a few Canadian L1A1's at Warminster but they were brought over for interchangeability reasons and other trials. The UK also bought stocks of Lithgow L1A1's to augment stocks in the 70's but even before then, Australian L1A1's were in our system and note was made in the 60's EMER's that rifles with an AD prefix were in the system.

Another question............. Were new-made Canadian LB made C1's exported to other nations as were the UK and Australian rifles?

Just interested and at the same time, keep the FN FAL thread interesting too!

[Longshaor]

Hi Peter,

This one has me stumped. The "UB 58" is on the left side to the rear of the safety. The size, style & location are consistant with a BSA rifle. On the right side in small caps and about even with the hole in the LB that holds the rat tail it says "Made in Canada". I'll post photos later.

Cheers!

[Peter Laidler]

I don't know anything about Long Branch L1A1's but Fazakerley Trigger Mech Housings went to Australia together with other Fazakerley strike bound production stuff. I have to say that I never encountered a Long Branch made L1A1 in UK service - or in Australia either. But as I said, plenty of Lithgows in the UK and UK's in Australia and NZ

[browningautorifle]

I have looked at this for some time and what I have found out is that we were greedy and exported none for outside use. The only minor exceptions were RCMP and OPP (police) use. Now since the 8L series was released for sale publicly, it's possible you can find them other than in Canada but even when the C7 came into service there was no surplus sale to foreign powers just rebuild,storage and scrapping. Some of these warehoused weapons apparently came to light for the current Afghan crisis with JTF but supposedly the magazine supply has run dry. Mr Laidler, got any extras we can purchase???

[nzl1a1collector]

longshaor, your rifle is a parts kit (British) built by Century International Arms (CIA) in the early days when they assembled rifles in Canada. The "MADE IN CANADA" is typical of their markings and have nothing to do with Canadian made C1 or C1A1 rifle production.

The Lower of the rifle was made by BSA in 1958, the "Made IN..." has nothing to do with the original British L1A1 rifle markings.

If you can list all the other markings you can find on the rifle parts I will be able to ID the rest of the parts for you to see if all the rest of the doer parts are British as well. If you can manage some photos as well that will help.

[nzl1a1collector]

Peter, it seems the Canadian's never exported the C1/C1A1 rifle, they did export spare parts/accessories in the early days via the supply system as we have a number of Canadian made BFA's here. I think the UK and Australia had most of the commonwealth sewn up with export sales. I would think due to the number of country specific differences with the Canadian design the British and Australian New Zealand forces preferred to purchase from 'L1A1' derivative spares. I also think it didn't help that Canada stop production around 1969 any spares available would of been required for Canadian supply.

The only C1/C1A1/C2/C2A1 rifles outside of Canadian would be ones privately exported or those that were part of the original RSC (Rifle Steering Committee) interchangeability program.