Unknown purpose STERLING item. 204534 ADAPTOR

[reccetrooper]

Does anyone know what this is?

Purchased recently and still sealed, it was carefully unwrapped today to examine it and take photos. The label says 204534 Adaptor - 1

It’s a 1959 Fazakerley made Sterling L1A2 magazine body, completely stripped of parts, on the base is welded a pintle that has been turned from square bar stock, you can see the marks left by the four-jaw chuck. The whole is finished in suncorite.

[browningautorifle]

PL should be along shortly to tell us...

[skiprat]

Another “tool” any Armourer could never be without, to support the weapon while been worked on , there is also one for the L1A1, they were SO useful, I never saw one issued in service let alone ever used ,

[reccetrooper]

Thank you skiprat. Was there some type of mount for the work bench that the pintle of this adaptor fitted into?

[MAC702]

Good question. I thought of a support for holding the gun, but the round bit seemed odd as I would expect it to be a flat projection that could be put into a vise. But maybe you're onto something that it would only be done at an armorer level in a facility that had a receiver for it. But then it would still spin?

It also doesn't seem nearly as useful in a horizontal magazine well.

[browningautorifle]

It also doesn't seem nearly as useful in a horizontal magazine well.

I'm curious, why not? I carried the Canadian version of those for the first half my career and having the weapon flat would allow...bolt and barrel removal, sights servicing, butt extension or removal...firing mechanism removal or manipulation...

If you used a hole in the workbench you can pivot the weapon to whichever angle you wish.

Still, as pointed out they weren't popular. Most tools the armorer used seemed to have been made during his trades training.

[Peter Laidler]

Nope......., I'm with Skippy here. SMG'\s were my work bread and butter and persona; weapon and I never saw such a thing. The round bar thinggy looks like it could be held in a vice but as skippy says, it'd be better if it was flat. The magazine is a 1959 Fazakerley made magazine. To be honest, it wou;d have been better if the mag had been cut short by half.

But never seen one neither has James Edmiston - and he owned the company!. However, it reminds me of another tool that some half wit designed to take up play in the axis holes main butt frame......... A ring punch! You could use it, but only once. Far better was to simply bore the original ovalised holes out, slightly oversize and then insert a couple of bushes, soft or silver soldered in place. They'd last forever........

And another piece of stupidity for the big bold and beefy M1919 Brownings that only Biffo the Vear would dream up. Maybe next time the question of stupid crops up......

[Low & Slow]

better if the mag had been cut short by half.

Was thinking the same, simply mechanically. Never even held one, so pure conjecture on my part.

[Peter Laidler]

I did see some short magazines in a box of odds and sods and the report from the trials unit said something along the lines that when you've got a sub machine gun, it's not just ammo that you need, but LOTS of ammo!