Aussie or NZ Members, a Question...

[bowfin]

There is (or was) a company called Australian International Arms that made a version of the Lee Enfield. It's website seems to have disappeared off the net, which leads me to believe either:

A. They are now out of business

B. They have merged, been bought out, or are doing business under a new name.

C. There are internet problems down around that part of the world.

Any information you can give me about the status of this company would be appreciated.

It is also possible that someone close to Marstar in Canada might be able to give us the scoop.

[Red River Rick]

Are these what your referring to: http://www.marstar.ca/gf-AIA/index.shtm

RRR

[bowfin]

Those are it!

However, the link to Australian International Arms itself has gone dead.

[bruce drake]

I was very interested in their 7.62x39 No. 5 Carbine when they were first talked about but at the time, there wasn't an American distributor yet and then they were priced higher than I wished when they did get to the States as well.

Instead I rebarreled a Small Ring Mauser and went forward with the carbine plans another way.

But I still would love to get a new built No 4 or No 5 if they weren't priced through the roof in the States.

Bruce

[bowfin]

As a further update, I looked around on some of the Australian shooting websites. They said the website is down and the phone is disconnected. However, their biggest distributor in Canada says as far as they know they are still in business.

Bruce, I saw one of the AIA Enfields in 7.62x39 in a Gander Mountain store for around $600. I guess they did get some in the country before they were banned because of parts being made in Vietnam.

[Kraschenbirn]

Bowfin...

When I first saw your post, I said to myself, "Now that could be a nice piece!" Dug around online some with essentially the same results as yours...no active website and the only place that seems to be selling the guns is Marstar in Canada.

Also ran across this, too: http://www.303british.com/id74.html It appears that the Canucks looked at the AIA guns as possible replacements for the #4s being retired by the Rangers and found them sadly lacking. Also, ran across similar comments...from another source...about the general quality of the 7.62x39 version as well.

Bill

[303Guy]

A Lee Enfield built to chamber the 30-30 would make more sense to me. But it needs to be half decent to be worthwhile.

[Multigunner]

A Lee Enfield built to chamber the 30-30 would make more sense to me. But it needs to be half decent to be worthwhile.

I'd thought of something similar years ago.
A scaled down version of the No.5 action in .30-30 or 7-30 Waters would make for a nice woods carbine. A light loaded .303 in a No.5 would be more versitile as a deer rifle.
A No.5 with a quality barrel and twist suited for both 125-150gr bullets as well as full power loads 175-215 gr bullets would cover most hunting situations.
A tighter throat and closer headspace would also be a plus for maximum accuracy, though cartridge cases with thicker rims and bullets with a fatter ogive can make up for the looser tolerances to a great extent.

There have been .30-30 conversions of the Lithgow SMLE rifles. These seem to work okay.

The only problem the .303 had as a civilian sporter cartridge was the limited number of bullet types available, mainly because British shooters weren't that much into handloading till the 80's.
NRA UK rules against use of any but the ammunition they supplied in competition made handloading counter productive.

Too bad the Canadian shortened and lightened No.4 didn't go into mass production. If a company wanted to manufacture a replica Enfield that is one that would probably sell very well.

The much wider selection of bullets in the .311+ diameters has made hand loading much easier these days.

The No.5 and any .303 with a barrel much shorter than the issue 25 inch barrels will benefit from use of faster powders like 4198 especially when lighter bullets are to be used.