Pick the best of Canada's military rifle heritage.

[maple_leaf_eh]

M14 and FN mags where the same, but for one small difference, the mags would not fit each other's rifle. just one small flaw. Guess the Americans did not want to share,

Nope! They are only the same in as much as they both feed 7.62x51 into semi-automatic rifles and rock back to lock. The FN C1 magazine is far superior to the M14. It is also a better mag than the UK L1 SLR's and most others.

As far as the BEST Canadian service rifle, I like the Diemaco family of C7 (and C8) rifles. Used for over 20yrs in war and peace, with distinction on the ranges, and has the ultimate compliment of being chosen by Allied regular armies and special forces over the M16 family.

And BTW, the Garand was issued to the RCAF in Europe in the 50's and M14 parts were made by various Canadian companies for the Americans.

 

[7offsuit2]

To that end, the finest battle rifle designed by a person born Canadian, is of course THE GARAND!!!!

100% True.

 

[762shooter]

The Bren and #4T are my favorites in my collection. To shoot one is to love one.

Yeah, I was thinking of the Bren, too, but I guess the poll is just looking at infantry rifles, not machine guns.

 

[willr1]

My vote goes to the Long Branch

 

[cyclone]

100% True.

Yep..........

 

[BUSHMAN79]

The Martini-Henry should have been left off the list, and the SMLE should have been on it. The M-H was never really a standard issue weapon in Canada, but the SMLE was our standard arm through most of the Great War, and was used by our guys extensively in WW2, as well. In fact, I believe the soldiers in Italy carried the SMLE right through the war, but I might be wrong on that. Interestingly, I was looking at some pics of soldiers stationed on the West Coast early in the war, and THEY all had new LB No.4's! This while our guys at the front were using 20+ year old rifles....... I don't think anyone familiar with Canadian politics would be too surprised by that.

 

[snowhunter]

I always view the Garand as a canadian gun because John Garand first moved tro the US when he was a teenager.

I also sometimes think of the Lee-Enfield as a scottish gun, because James Paris Lee was born in Scotland, and like John Garand, he created the Lee-Enfield in the US, who refused his invention, and then he made a full circle and then sold his famous gun design to the British, who used it for 71 years.

Several of John Brownings later guns, were invented while he was living in Belgium, but are they still consideret to be american weapons ? I know that french dictionaries used the word "browning" for an automatic pistol

 

[Timberlord]

I thought the Lee Enfield rifle wasn't invented until James Lee went into business with RSAF Enfield and that was after going into business with a fella named Metford.

Lee invented the "action" feeding from a magazine and he did that in Wallaceburg Ontario ,
and also , his 1878 prototype rifle has all the appearance of a fine hunting rifle.

Some photo's I took of Lee's 1878 proto at the Wallaceburg community museum...

 

[GrantR]

I thought the Lee Enfield rifle wasn't invented until James Lee went into business with RSAF Enfield and that was after going into business with a fella named Metford.

Ummmm .... Lee was never "in business" with either ....

The Lee action design was adopted in 1888 by the British War Department for their new repeating "Magazine Rifle". Mated with a barrel having Metford-designed rifling, it came to be referred to as the Lee-Metford rifle - in keeping with War Department practice of so designating rifles by the designers/inventors of those two major components (e.g. Snider-Enfield, Martini-Henry.)

Metford rifling was designed to minimize bore fouling from the original black powder propellant charge, but shortly after switching the propellant to cordite it was discovered that the much hotter gasses resulted in excessive erosion of the Metford rifling. Accordingly, a new form of rifling was developed at Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield and after it was introduced (November 1895) the rifle - essentially identical in all other respects to the current version of Lee-Metford - was designated as the "Rifle, Magazine, Lee-Enfield"

 

[ABCZAR]

FNC1A1 all the way.

 

[mechanic1908]

FNC1A1 and Lee Enfield for me.

 

[snowhunter]

A plaque of James Paris Lee's invention of the box magazine, while in Canada.

http://images.goggle.ca/imgres?imgurl Sorry, I was unable to show the link

 

[GrantR]

 

[MEC]

Pick one ...

I voted FN C1A1 mainly because thats what was issued when I was "in". Preferring to shoot long guns off the left side, I thought "I'd died and gone to heaven" with the cocking handle on the left side. Being a dumb ass country hick I used to 'plink' with a 30/06 from the age of 12, when I heard guys complaining of the recoil I wondered what the hell they talking about. Thanks to "GrantR" for the info on James Paris Lee, that was interesting !