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Relic Boys AT Rifle

Article about: If you remeber a while back a nice guy by the name of Sean (Torch on the forum) came across 6 Boys AT rifles and set about cleaning them. Well here is one of them! Got it delivered last week

  1. #1

    Default Relic Boys AT Rifle

    If you remeber a while back a nice guy by the name of Sean (Torch on the forum) came across 6 Boys AT rifles and set about cleaning them. Well here is one of them! Got it delivered last week and snapped a couple of pics today. Still in decent shape, solid and still heavy!

    Relic Boys AT RifleRelic Boys AT RifleRelic Boys AT Rifle

  2. #2

    Default Re: Relic Boys AT Rifle

    Excellent. I would love one.

    Cheers, Ade.
    Had good advice? Saved money? Why not become a Gold Club Member, just hit the green "Join WRF Club" tab at the top of the page and help support the forum!

  3. #3

    Default Re: Relic Boys AT Rifle

    Very cool item to have.
    Cheers.
    Nuno

  4. #4

    Default Re: Relic Boys AT Rifle

    Hi,
    What a lovely relic to have in a collection, thanks for showing it.
    Dave.

  5. #5

    Default Re: Relic Boys AT Rifle

    Daft question but can you put a mag in it? If you can, would you like a relic mag for the cost of postage?

  6. #6

    Default Re: Relic Boys AT Rifle

    Mate if a relic mag was on offer for it I would make it fit, lol. Yeah should do, am very interested.. Will PM you, Cheers

    Thanks for the comments guys, still deciding how to display it.

  7. #7

    Default Re: Relic Boys AT Rifle

    display it as a wallhanger?

    why is it called "boys" AT ?

    curious cos I saw for sale a "boys" AT shell casing

  8. #8

    Default Re: Relic Boys AT Rifle

    Courtesy of Wikipedia.


    Boys anti-tank rifle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    The eponymous creator of this firearm was Captain H C Boys (the Assistant Superintendent of Design) who was a member of the British Small Arms Committee and a designer at the Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield. It was initially called Stanchion but was renamed after Captain Boys as a mark of respect when he died a few days before the rifle was approved for service in November 1937.
    A bolt action rifle fed from a five-shot magazine, the weapon was large and heavy with a bipod at the front and a separate grip below the padded butt. In[3] order to combat the recoil caused by the large 0.55 inch (13.9 mm) round, the barrel was mounted on a slide, and a shock absorber was fitted to the bipod along with a muzzle brake on the barrel. The Boys had been designed with numerous small narrow-slotted screws of soft steel set very tight into the body of the weapon, and its repair and maintenance proved a nightmare for British ordnance repair crews.[4]
    The cartridge was an adaptation of the .50 BMG, with a belt added firing a 47.6 gram bullet. At its introduction, the weapon was effective on light armour (23.2 mm thick) at 100 yards (91 m).[2]
    There were two main service loads used during the Second World War, the W Mark 1 (60 g AP at 747 m/s) and the W Mark 2 ammunition (47.6 g AP projectile at 884 m/s). The W Mark 1 could penetrate 23.2 mm of armour at 100 yards, about the thickness used on the frontal armour of a half-track or armoured car, or the side or rear armour of a light tank. Later in the conflict, a more effective round was developed, the W Mark 2, which fired a tungsten-cored projectile at 945 m/s. The Boys effective range against unarmoured targets (for example, infantry), was much greater.
    Despite its recoil slide and cushioned buttpad, the recoil of the weapon (along with noise and muzzle blast) was said to be terrific, frequently causing neck strains and bruised shoulders. Consequently, the Boys was almost never fired as a free weapon (that is not affixed to a support) except in emergencies.[4]
    [edit]Service

    The Boys rifle was used in the early stages of World War II against lightly armoured German tanks and combat vehicles. Britain also supplied a large number of Boys anti-tank rifles to Finland in 1939 and 1940 during the Winter War with the Soviet Union. The weapon was popular with the Finns, because it could deal with Soviet T-26 tanks which the Finnish Army encountered in many engagements.[citation needed]
    Although useful against early German and Italian tanks in France and North Africa, such as the Panzer I, Panzer II and early models of Panzer III, increases in vehicle armour during the Second World War left the Boys largely ineffectual as an anti-tank weapon. A shortened version was issued in 1942 for issue to airborne forces and saw use in Tunisia, where it proved completely ineffective because of the reduced velocity caused by the shortened barrel.[5] The Boys was so unpopular that the Canadian government commissioned a Disney training film, Stop That Tank, to oppose the rifle's "jinx" reputation.[6] Nonetheless, in the European theatre it was soon replaced by the PIAT (Projector, Infantry, Anti-Tank) in 1943, which first saw service during the Allied invasion of Sicily. In other roles the Boys saw some use against bunkers, machine gun nests and light-skinned vehicles but was rapidly replaced in British and Commonwealth service by the U.S. .50 BMG calibre M2 Browning machine gun[7] as quantities of the latter weapon became available.
    Using armour-piercing (AP), armour-piercing incendiary (API), and armour-piercing incendiary tracer (APIT) ammunition, the .50 Browning was just as capable in armour penetration and more devastating when igniting thin-skinned vehicles using incendiary rounds than the Boys, but the Browning could also serve as an effective anti-aircraft weapon.[8] Even the British Special Air Service, which made much use of captured or cast-off weapons for their jeeps and reconnaissance vehicles, quickly got rid of their Boys rifles in favor of .50 M2 Brownings or the Italian 20mm Breda cannon.[citation needed]
    The weapon was standard issue to British and Commonweath forces which attempted to stem the Japanese onslaught through the Pacific theatre. At Milne Bay, the weapon proved completely ineffective. It also failed to stop Japanese tanks in Malaya. Some accounts claim that the 1/14th Punjabis knocked out two light Japanese tanks at a roadblock.[5] This claim, however, has never been substantiated from the Japanese side. During the Battle of Singapore the 1st Cambridgeshire Regiment claims the Boys was very useful in knocking holes through walls during street fighting. Again, however, Japanese sources do not substantiate the claim.
    In September 1965, members of the IRA hit the British fast-attack patrol boat HMS Brave Borderer with a Boys rifle, crippling one of her turbines while she was paying a visit to Waterford, Republic of Ireland.[9]
    [edit]

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