The Charlton was a conversion of a bolt action Lee rifle into a light machine gun, designed by New Zealander Phillip Charlton. Some 1500 were made in New Zealand, but a bit later it appears that there was an effort to also produce the gun in Australia. The Electrolux company (the same one that ma...

In this video Matt looks at the history of Australia's attempt to improve the British STEN gun - the AUSTEN. Despite efforts to improve on the austere STEN, the Australian Army quickly discovered their other indigenous design, the Owen Machine Carbine, was superior. Production Note: This video is...

In this episode Matt takes a look at an Australia's last general issue submachine gun, the F1. Taking cues from both the Australian Owen Gun and the British Sterling submachine gun, the F1 is a fascinating but relatively unknown Cold War submachine gun. Check out our website https://armourersbenc...

An Antipodean entry with some extremely extremely rare features, but like so many weapons of this series, this week's entry was destined to be a footnote in the annals of firearms history. Created by Australian, Russell Robinson, inventor of other extremely odd looking firearms, the SR-11 had an ...

The Owen Gun is one of the really good submachine guns fielded during the Second World War, but is a very scarce gun to find today. I had a chance to briefly shoot one year ago, and when I had the opportunity to try one out at Morphy's, I jumped at it. Feeding from the top and ejecting out the bo...

When World War Two began, Australia saw little threat of invasion from Germany (obviously), and sent a substantial number of firearms to Britain to help arm the Home Guard there, which was seriously concerned about the possibility of a German invasion. When Japan and Australia declared war in Dec...

The story of the Austen submachine gun did not end when the Mk I guns were pulled from combat service in 1944. The manufacturer continued to work on an improved version, which would be ready in 1946, after the end of World War Two. Only 200 were made total, and they were both adopted and declared...

The Australian Owen submachine gun was once of the best overall SMG designs of the Second World War, and when Australia decided to replace them in the 1960s, the new F1 design have big shoes to fill. The basic configuration of the top-mounted magazine remained, but coupled with elements of the St...

The One submachine gun is one of the ugliest SMGs ever designed, and yet also one of the most beloved by its users. The original basis for the gun was a .22 rimfire submachine gun designed by 23-year-old Australian Evelyn Owen. That prototype was found by his neighbor Vincent Wardell after Owen ...

In 1880, the South Australian Police service was introduced to the Smith & Wesson No3 New Model revolver at the Melbourne Exhibition. They took a liking to the design, and promptly ordered 250 of them, nickel plated with 7” barrels and detachable shoulder stocks (as well as 30 more with 6.5” barr...

Australian Vickers gun converted to 7.62x54R (so we can shoot cheaper ammo). Water-cooled, and when it gets hot it boils the water and vents steam. This is why the military used hoses and condensing cans - so the jet of steam doesn't give away your position!

I have read much about the Australian dislike for the Austen submachine gun, but until now I never had the chance to actually try shooting one. I did not have very high expectations, but the gun is actually pretty darn reasonable! It doesn't climb like I expected the stock would cause it to, and ...

The Australian-designed Owen submachine gun is a weapon with quite a story behind it. The Owen is arguably the best subgun used during WWII, and also probably the ugliest. Its mere existence was a drawn out struggle between the inventor and manufacturer and the Australian Army bureaucracy, and ye...

The Leader Dynamics T2 was produced in Australia with the intent of getting a military contract to replace the Australian military's FAL rifles. It did well in testing, but not well enough to be adopted. The rifles were available on the civilian market in both Australia and the US for a short tim...

A little while back I had a chance to take an Austen MkII out to the range. There were only a couple hundred of these ever made, at the end of World War Two in Australia. The Mk I Austen was essentially a Sten made with some die-cast components, as this was a specialty of the Australian firm cont...

Many the nations that adopted the FAL (or L1A1, in Commonwealth terminology) opted to also use a heavy-barreled variant of the same rifle as a light support weapon. In the Commonwealth, this was designated L2A1 and it was used by Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The Australian model was buil...

Edward Felk was an Australian who decided to produce semiauto pistols in Australia. In 1994 he patented a couple features of his new design, and set about finding a way to produce it. He ended up subcontracting with Star of Spain to produce barrels and slides, while the polymer frames were produc...

In 1943, experimentation began in Great Britain, Canada, and Australia into developing a shortened and lightened version of the Lee Enfield rifle. In Australia, the work was done on the No1 Mk3* rifle, as the Lithgow Arsenal had never switched over to production of the No4 rifle.

We have thre...

Bloke takes Frankenrifle, his customised Australian International Arms AIA M10A1 in 7.62x39 to the 300m range to zero it and see how it does with iron sights and Wolf steel-cased ammo.

No Lee Enfield SMLE or No.4 rifles were harmed in the making of this film.

In which Mike takes his Australian Automatic Arms SAC in .223 Rem / 5.56x45mm out to 300m with a Holosun 503 atop it to zero it and to see what it can do.

Here at BotR we show things as we find them, warts and all, so you're seeing this more or less as Mike did, with all its frustration...

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