As with just about any smallbore rifle in military Service in wartime, the 82 would have had a variety of uses ranging right from basic marksmanship training to diagnostic/remedial practice to recreational shooting. It was designed to mimic the .22" SMLE Number 2 Rifle (called the Mark II previous to the 1926 reforms) which was in short supply and could not be replaced/added to because the industrial capacity (in the form of factories) did not exist.
At that time, every small town in the country still had its local Armoury for the local Militia and Cadets. Each Armoury had a basement rifle range as a part of its design. The Armoury here, for example, could accommodate 4 shooters and 2 Coaches at a time. Likely it would have had a complement of half a dozen rifles. Multiply that by the number of Armouries. As well, each CATP facility would have needed rifles for the teaching of basic marksmanship. Air bases also had Trap ranges: deflection shooting instruction and practice.
Remember, there had been nothing made or acquired since 1919 and Canada's War effort in the Second World War was DOUBLE what the country had done during the Great War. We put a MILLION men into uniform out of a population of barely 14 million. ANOTHER million went into War industries.
That contract for Cooeys would have been high priority and I would not be surprised to learn that deliveries started well before the Contract date. That DID happen with Essential War Supplies from time to time.... and the Cooeys certainly were "Essential".
Another point: .303 ammunition was in very short supply for the first years of the War. When my Dad was on Coast Watch (he was an Instrument Tech, but everyone had to take Coast Watch on top of their regular duties after the Japs came in, there being just not enough manpower to do everything), their instructions were very simple: "If the Japs land, fire 5 rounds and run like hell!" Those FIVE rounds per rifle were ALL THEY HAD; when your shift was done, you turned Rifle and ALL FIVE COUNTED rounds over to your replacement. Previous to that, he had been on guard duty at the Brandon Airport (still being built). There, they had 3 rifles and 5 rounds to stop the Fallschirmjagers if they showed up. Once Ammunition production had ramped-up, the situation became a lot easier. In the Air Force there was lots of .303 available which had become outdated for AC use, but the stuff had to be MADE first and THEN pass its "best before date". Until then, it stayed in the Browning belts in the Hurricanes or in the Base ammo dump.
The Cooeys eased a lot of this. For one thing, we had a factory which was set-up to produce .22" ammunition already..... and .22" RF rounds cost half a cent per round to make, which compares very favourably to more than 7 cents a round for .303". These are Wartime prices, BTW; our present-day currency is woefully debased.
Once production of the Number 4 Rifle was underway..... and AFTER the Cooey contract..... a quantity of "Long Branch .22"" rifles were built. Mine is a 1944 (same year as ME!) I have HEARD that a few were made in 1943 but I have not SEEN one. STENCOLLECTOR: WHERE ARE YOU??????? HE will know for sure. The Long Branch .22" was the prototype for the official C Number 7 rifle. I do remember that our local Armoury still had some Cooeys in the very early 1960s, although we had C Number 7s for training and FN C-1s, Stens and a few Sterlings for SHTF, with Number 4 Rifles, a couple of Brens and large quantities of .303 ammo on hand.
But the Cooeys served right through the War and for a time afterwards. Based on the standard Cooey Safety Bolt action and with a heavy Barrel and a stock mimicking the SMLE, they were an excellent stop-gap device. BTW, Cooeys had their standard 8-groove rifling with quite shallow grooves. It shot VERY well with old Standard Velocity ammunition. If you really want one to stand up and do tricks for you, feed it a box of Remington SUBSONICS, which are very close to the old specs for Standard Velocity. Modern hot-rock loads tend to come unglued in the shallow rifling; with the prevalence of hot-rock ammo these days, this has given the old Cooey the reputation of not being accurate. NOT SO if you feed them what they were DESIGNED to eat. Same goes for the Long Branch .22 and the C Number 7: they will keep up with a Winchester 52 or a modern Anschutz if you feed them the right stuff.
Sorry, but I have no idea what a C2B1 might be. Only C2 of any kind I ever met was a selective-fire HB FAL which went to the smelter many moons ago.
Hope this helps.
