World War II Training Cartoon - Boys Anti-tank Rifle

[Hawkeye]

Sorry its still not there.... Perhaps you can show me...??

It’s still there. Scroll below the “bid” bar. Click on description and you’ll see this:

Holy Crap! Here is the rifle that dreams are made of! Take a chance and pony up! You'll have the attention of everyone at the range! What a piece of history, well maintained and cared for and comes scoped in with a Nikon Monarch 4-16x50mm SF Riflescope, 4 mags, and tons of extras! This was originally chambered in .55 Boyes and has been rebarreled in .50 BMG to make it legal. This gun comes with a soft carry case, a log book, spare parts, cleaning kit and rod, spare muzzle brake, and so much more. Please see the pictures. Named for its designer, Captain Boys, the Boys Rifle was developed in the mid-1930s and was soon rendered obsolete for its original duty of tank hunting in the European Theater as developments in German armor left the proprietary 55 Boys cartridge behind. That said, the rifle was still put to good service through WWII, most famously by the Finns against the Soviets, as well as by the U.S. Marine Corps against the Japanese in the Pacific Theater, becoming one of the grandfathers of the modern "anti-material rifle" concept. Refitted with a 50 BMG chambered barrel in compliance with the National Firearms Act. Serial # A1137 Don't miss the opportunity to own this cool and rare 50 cal rifle!


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[indy1919a4]

It’s still there. Scroll below the “bid” bar. Click on description and you’ll see this:

Holy Crap! Here is the rifle that dreams are made of! Take a chance and pony up! You'll have the attention of everyone at the range! What a piece of history, well maintained and cared for and comes scoped in with a Nikon Monarch 4-16x50mm SF Riflescope, 4 mags, and tons of extras! This was originally chambered in .55 Boyes and has been rebarreled in .50 BMG to make it legal. This gun comes with a soft carry case, a log book, spare parts, cleaning kit and rod, spare muzzle brake, and so much more. Please see the pictures. Named for its designer, Captain Boys, the Boys Rifle was developed in the mid-1930s and was soon rendered obsolete for its original duty of tank hunting in the European Theater as developments in German armor left the proprietary 55 Boys cartridge behind. That said, the rifle was still put to good service through WWII, most famously by the Finns against the Soviets, as well as by the U.S. Marine Corps against the Japanese in the Pacific Theater, becoming one of the grandfathers of the modern "anti-material rifle" concept. Refitted with a 50 BMG chambered barrel in compliance with the National Firearms Act. Serial # A1137 Don't miss the opportunity to own this cool and rare 50 cal rifle!


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This description is pretty much bupkis, It describes this actual gun very little, 50% is a Wikipedia listing about the Original Boys gun History, 15% is a sales pitch.

Now I do not blame the auctioneer because they gets thousands of items in and lists them for the owners. He tells what he knows (we hope) and puts a good spin on it.
In this case this is a modified rifle (cannon some would say) and there are some side issues with this kind of conversion.. And really need to be known by the buyer/bidders

The main problem is the 55 cal Boys round. It is shorter then the 50 cal BMG. So when guys converted these they 9 times out of ten made them single shot. The original Boys Magazines & Magazine mount must be converted to allow 50 cal rounds to feed correctly from the magazine. So lots of times they just put the magazine on for looks.. (Again this is not a big issue, but it is a factor that one needs to ask and really pointed out in the listing). I dread someone getting this home expecting things to work one way and things work another.

Where as this rifle may be a dream to own, it is not an original Boys gun anymore it has been worked on by someone (we do not know who, what they did or what kind of experience they had). Also just to be more
questioning we do not even know if the gun fires or has even been tested with its new barrel. Now that's a problem with all guns purchased at auction. But in this case because of the power of this gun and the unusual nature if its conversion. Really more questions need to be asked and I feel even stated by the auction house.

There is not a large amount of knowledgeable people out there that know Boys guns. Where as if a Mauser rifle or AR rifle comes in one could reasonable expect the auction lister to have someone give it a reasonable check.

I have tracked a couple of these and many times the seller/lister has never tested the gun, does not know how it works and does not know the owner or builder. Just selling as is. Best story is Widow brings in husbands guns to sell. Well, that just is information that I would want to track down before I bid big money on something like this. And considering the size and complexities of this beastie, a trip to the auction before hand would be a good idea. I would even consider (and have) pay someone who knows about the gun to come with me and look the gun over.

 

[Larry!!!]

Thanks for posting that, fun to watch.

 

[amafrank]

As someone who has owned more than a couple and still has one here is a little info. The rifles use a 5 rd single stack magazine that will feed 55 Boys ammo with no problem but the have to be modified to work with BMG ammo. The Boys ammo has a larger diameter but is shorter overall. The Boys cartridge is based on the US 50 BMG case with the neck expanded to .585 and a belt added for headspacing. The action is a simple turn bolt type with funky wedge shaped locking lugs. Straight manual operation for every round and the trigger sucks....heavy, draggy and long pull.

Despite BS wiki and other articles the Boys round and the 50 BMG aren't much different. The 55 cal was loaded with 2 different weight bullets, one lighter than the BMG and one heavier. The heavier one is slower than the standard BMG API 650gr and recoil is about the same. The 55 isn't much different at the target end either. Penetration is about the same as the US 50 AP.

The rifles were imported in the 50s and 60s and up til the gun control act of 1968 they were just rifles. GCA68 created the Destructive device catagory and required registration of anything over .50 bore diameter. A lot of the Boys rifles were registered but a lot more weren't. There are some unregistered guns still out there and a lot more that had the barrels chopped or chambers welded to remove them from the requirement to register. I've barreled about 30 or so of those with BMG barrels. The gun pictured in the auction has an M2 heavy barrel that has been cut down to fit. Not a very good job though. You can see the grooves in the barrel for the carry handle which is a bit tacky. All the camo paint and rag covers make it look pretty mall ninja as well. Wonder what it will go for. Nicely done rifles will sell in the $4500-6500 range. Guns built up with aircraft barrels or other poorly done types seem to run in the $2500 to 3000 range. Original registered 55 cal rifles run about $5-6000. Ammo is tough to find anymore but most 55 owners don't shoot them. The 50 cals get shot a lot more.

My current rifle has about 3000 rds down the tube and still shoots about 1 moa with iron sights. They can be very accurate and ammo is more of a limiting factor than the rifle itself if done properly. We fired mine with Hornady 700 gr AMAX bullets and handloads at 400 yds and were keeping 5 rd groups inside 4 inches. Recoil is not as bad as everyone thinks though the muzzle blast from the brake can be annoying. It tends to pick up dirt or whatever else is in front of the gun and blow it back in your face. Keep your mouth shut when firing and wear safety glasses. I've taken my rifle to demo shoots and had 90 lb women shoot it with no problems. Usually its the 300 lb guy who won't pay attention when I tell them to keep the rifle tight in their shoulder who have sore body parts.

As for real world utility in WWII, the guns might not have been a lot of good against heavy ( or even some light) tanks but they were quite useful. Merrills Marauders carried them into battles in the south pacific to take out pill boxes, Japanese tanks and other armored targets and sniping at longer than garand type ranges. They were used in Europe as well as North afrika with some effectiveness too. While the general population seems to think the Germans had a million tanks the truth is that there weren't a lot. On the other hand there were a lot of armored cars, halftracks and other lightly armored targets of opportunity. The Boys rifles were capable of disabling these quite handily. Unlike the 50 cal M2, the Boys was a little more precise and could be used from longer range with less ammo used. It was also a lot lighter at 36 lb for the rifle and mags loaded with 5 rds are about 2.5 lb ea. The commando groups carried the Boys for that reason....much less weight but still a powerful weapon for targets that would shake off any of the 30 cal stuff.

Hope that helps.

Frank

 

[indy1919a4]

The Boys gun had some Kick ass sub caliber training aids for the rifle... I have been for years looking for the Enfield rifle attachments.

Heck it could not be that hard to fabricate,, It looks like it fell off a hardware store shelf..

More Boys toys & photos

http://archive.is/JPESt ...

 

[indy1919a4]

ooooh fun Boys anti tank gun rotating photos

Trial Zoom and Rotate imagery