That sure looks like a charger guide on the receiver bridge.
It is! It is a charger guide!
And it works too!
Now I'm sitting here wondering why this designed from scratch as a sporting rifle accepts clips.
Or should I say, military ammunition feed devices?
I would imagine military surplus ammunition in stripper clips was plentiful in the marketplace during the years leading up to 1931, so they put it there for the convenience of their customers.
ReplyDeleteDid they really design the receiver from scratch, or did they base it off an earlier design? That's another thing to think about.
There's astonishingly little information out there on the internet about the gestation of the 54.
DeleteSwimming in the military C&R streams, I got used to every single screw having a devotee and writing reams of information about it.
Civilian stuff? Not so much sometimes.
It was common for match rifles of that era to be set up for stripper clips for use during rapid fire strings. This requires the shooter to shoot five rounds, reload, then shoot five more, for a total of ten rounds in the string.
ReplyDeleteAs an interesting note, the rules were later amended to allow 8+2 (or 2+8, I don't remember which) to accommodate the M1 Garand. This is why you can find 2-round en-bloc clips for that rifle.
Thanks!
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