EM2 production

[Warren]

Attachment 79153Attachment 79154I believe the 7mmHV, EM-2 that I once owned was the only totally complete rifle in Canada at the time.
My EM-2 had the rotating iron/scope sight and was complete with the Canadian arctic trigger guard.
Only fired about 10 rounds out of it as as 7mmHV ammo was almost impossible to find but it was nice to be able to fire one for the few rounds that I did have.
The only thing that was of concern to me was the chamber beside your head.
I was never a fan of the bullpup design.
The EM-2, 7mmHV that Tom Dugelby (who wrote the EM-2 book) once owned went to the UK in trade for a 7.62 calibre EM-2 around 1975, if memory serves me right and is still there.
The British senior armourer at the UK EM-2 .280/30 trials was an old friend who picked up a biscuit can of empty British RG .280/30 brass that he gave me some years ago and that I think I still have it around ..somewhere, or maybe LeeEnfield got those also.
If anyone needs a spare EM-2 mag for either the 7mmHV or .280/30 let me know..... :-)##
*******Just made a quick run to the cellar and actually found the can of EM-2 .280/30 brass....
As we always have a doubter here, the head stamp picture is also included....
can14..(RP) ..drop me a private email.....

[mrclark303]

Well, that's quite somthing to have owned one of those rare birds!

Thanks for sharing the case pics. That has to be some of the rarest spent brass.

[mrclark303]

The difference between the TSR-2 bomber and the EM2 rifle is that sooner or later, you'd get the TSR-2 off the ground. The EM2 was never likely to make the grade. I think that the complexity of the bolt was greater than that of the control surfaces of the TSR2

Do you think it would eventually have been shelved as a lost cause Peter, or I wonder would it have eventually evolved almost beyond recognition like 1970's trials IW to the L85A2?

That said, the Army really couldn't carry on into the 1960's with the No4, so perhaps the luxury of waiting it out wasn't an option.

[Peter Laidler]

My views on the EM2 from the technical point of view are well known. On reflection, it was overrated and in reality, a total pig-in-a-poke compared with what else was in the offing from FN. During the 80's a lot of the old 7mm EM ammo surfaced from limbo somewhere and was quite plentiful and we regularly used to shoot it as Ensci and Bombdoc will confirm. I seem to think that it was all pink tipped ?. So I'm not surprised at the quantity of cases or live sloshing around. I saw quite a lot of it at one of those cartridge collectors things at Bisley a couple of years ago. Rare...... No. Expensive...... ain't got a clue!