When the M42B rifles first came onto the market, they were anywhere from junk to brand new.
When I bought my first one, it was new. Nothing to indicate it had ever been refurbed or handled. It came with a brass muzzle cover, spare parts kit, spare magazine, leather sling and bayonet/scabbard/frog. Lever, also threw in 100 rounds of surplus ammo. Even though CIL/Dominion were still making it, try to find it.
All of the surplus ammo, was 160 grain round nose cupro nickel ball.
I disassembled and cleaned the rifle completely. It was still wrapped in heavy wax paper and tied with a heavy red cloth band. There was a packing slip inside the wrap, with a small target, stating type of ammo and range it was tested at, along with name of the tech all wrapped up in a thick plastic pouch.
I took the rifle to the range, not really impressed by the length and weight but extremely impressed by the incredible workmanship and finish.
I placed the rifle onto a home made rest, made out of an old tire, filled with an inner tube full of water and a wrap around padded blanket to catch any shrapnel. It was made to test fire surplus and used firearms. A lot of firearms back then, even if they looked good, were grenades waiting for a cartridge to detonate.
I loaded one round into the chamber and pulled the trigger, via a 3 meter string. Everything was fine. Other than the fact it was very hard on rims and dented the side of the case.
OK, loaded up the mag with 10 rounds (legal in those days) and repeated the process as fast as I could pull the string. Again, all went perfectly.
Well I felt OK with the rifle and loaded up another mag full. I was pleasantly surprised at how little felt recoil there was and at how accurate the rifle was. Around an inch at 100 m. This was the same as the factory target, which was fired at 50m and was about 1/2 in.
I then cleaned the rifle completely and went back to the bench. Ten more rounds, very accurate and impressive. Especially with surplus ammo. dated from the forties.
I wanted to see what I could do with it off hand. The thing was front heavy to say the least but with the light recoil, I was hoping for some nice shooting. The first couple of rounds went well. The 4 inch clay pigeons set up at 100m shattered on cue.
Somewhere around the 7th round, my leg felt like I had been hit with a sledge hammer. The bottom of the magazine had been blown off and the remaining cartridges, along with the spring, follower and bottom plate had been blasted against my thigh. The stock was cracked in front of the mag well, the extractor, plunger and spring were gone and the tip of the firing pin was broken off. Other than that, when I replaced the parts, the rifle was fine.
I called Allen Lever about it and in his usual manner, he stopped selling the ammo with the semi auto rifles. He was smart enough, not to sell anymore of the ammo, in case there was an issue with it. THERE WASN'T.
The issues were as mentioned before. The 160 grain bullets and the relatively slow powders were not intended for the AG42B. They were intended for the bolt action rifles and machine guns.
Don't get me wrong here. To this day, I can understand making up special machine gun ammunition but to package it in 5 round chargers for use in a rifle, just didn't make good common sense to me.
It turns out, the ammo was suitable for any of the bolt action rifles and machine guns but not the AG42B or C models.
Mine wasn't the only incident. A few other shooters across Canada suffered similar fates.
The rifles, all came in from International originally and were distributed to dealers from there.
I paid $35 for the complete kit and ammo. All looked to be as new. International, replaced my rifle and kit but not with a brand new rifle. They didn't have any left. The replacement was as new but refurbed.
After that, I only shot 140 grain ammo through the rifle, using a surplus powder that International was selling, called No44. It was a Bofors made powder and similar to IMR 3031. We also acquired several thousand rounds of ammo with wooden bullets and a flake powder that worked very well in 357 magnum handloads. They sold the ammo, powder, bullets of 160/140/100 grains in a package that you had to disassemble and reload. Good stuff but the primers were corrosive. I've still got some of those components around.
By the way, the 160gr round nose bullets had all been pulled and had an indent ring where they had been crimped. The 140/100gr flat base, spire point, bullets were never loaded previously.
As was mentioned, be extremely careful with the AG42B. They are tough, robust rifles that were ahead of their time. They had some issues but if you were forewarned and heeded them, the rifles will work perfectly and safely, all the while, as long as the bores are good, being very accurate as well.
