This carbine was designed by John Pierce, and submitted to the Light Rifle trials by the Savage Arms company. It was a complex short-recoil design using more than 80 total parts. It was supplied with 5 and 20 round stick magazines and a 50-round drum, thought he 20- and 50-rounders were dropped from the test because they caused feeding problems. It weighed in at 5.45lb with a sling and 5-round mag, had a 16 inch barrel, and an OAL of 33 3/8 inches.

Testing went well until the breech bolt housing broke at round 2882 in the endurance test.  Up to that point, accuracy, handling, felt recoil, and reliability were judged to be good. The testers’ sole complaint was the rifle’s complexity to disassemble and large number of parts.

3 Comments

  1. Very neat design with extension of work by Browning. Many of the items are numbered in the slides. Is there anyone who knows of the legend that goes with the slides? Some of the parts are not easily identified without a legend. It is not clear from the pictures how the barrel assembly is attached to the receiver. Any help?

    Nice website with much interesting information.

    • I ain’t no expert so take what I say with a grain of salt (or however the expression goes), but in Ian’s Bendix-Hyde video, he states that the Light Rifle Trials were announced in later 1940, so logically, the rifle would have been conceived between late 1940 and early 1941.

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