What I have here today is my No.5 Mk1 Jungle carbine rifle manufactured at the ROF ( Royal Ordnance Factory ) Fazakerley
During World War II both Britain and Australia were locked down in conflicts in the Far Eastern provinces where jungle fighting was common and often at shorter ranges than the standard No.4 and No.1 rifles were intended for
As well as complaints about its weight and length in aforementioned jungle environments eventually lead the British to begin with experimentation on the concept of Lightened and Shortened rifles in 1943
A series of different designs and lightening techniques would be used and even a few submissions based upon the No.1 MkIII* SMLE from the Australians would be lodged for testing
Eventually a design based on the British No.4 Mk1 rifle was settled upon and deemed satisfactory for use
Stories abound about “ Wandering zero “ and “ Vicious recoil “ during its short lived service history and I am not educated enough on the topic to lend an expert opinion to weather or not there is substantial truth to the claims but what I can say is whatever the case was the British certainly devoted no small amount of time and resources into getting to the bottom of the issue to no real avail
However once all is said and done they sure did manage to make a light and sexy looking rifle
Very dashing indeed
Hope you enjoyed the video
Cheers