What´s wrong with A Square ?

[closebutnocigar]

I really don´t know where to ask this question in this forum but it´s a question about a factory rifle and so I chose "Factory Rifles".

Feel free to move the Thread if its wrong here.

Since a few years I wanted to buy an A Square Hannibal Rifle.

In the past I met the founder and owner of the company - Mr. Arthur Alphin - personally once a year at nuremberg, germany gunshow.

But in the last few years I missed him and his company wasn´t at the show.

So I tried to write emails and letters (fax) but never got an answer. The german importeur told me that he also would like to buy rifles from A Square because there is an demand but can´t reach A Square.

Their website is already available:

http://a-squareco.com/

Does anyone now what happend?

[nicholst55]

Seems like I recall hearing that the owner of A-Square was in some trouble with the BATF a couple of years ago; I think they shut him down, but I could be wrong. Have you tried calling them?

[Heavy lead]

I had thought I heard they went broke, but can't remember for sure.

[376Steyr]

I called the number on the website last week, got a real person on the line that said they were A-Square company. I didn't ask questions though, just thanked them and hung up.

[Multigunner]

If these are the rifles built on M1917 receivers I suspect that the supplies of usable receivers is drying up by now.

Back in the 90's complete M1917 and p-14 actions could be bought by the carload. Many of those were from rifles converted to 7.92 sometime before WW2 and they were cheaper if you ordered one with shot out 7.92 barrel still mounted.

The P-14 receivers could be bought with eiter a P-14 bolt or fitted with an M1917 bolt, which I believe was part of the 7.92 Conversion process.

A great many M1917 rifles given to Nationalist Chinese troops in the China Burma India theatre were captured by Marxist revolutionaries and rebarreled or rebored for the 7.92 cartridge since they had already captured the ammunition factories that manufactured that cartridge for the pre war Chinese mauser clones. It could be that some of the actions I saw advertised might have come out of China or somewhere in the far east.

Theres also the recent problems of some M1917 receivers cracking when the original barrel is removed. Most that were over torqued should have succumbed to that problem long before now unless they somehow got through 90 years and two world wars without being rebarreled at least once.
If some developed cracks that couldn't be detected by eye during the various rebuilds those might be a source of problems if used to manufacture a modern sporter now.

In any case I've heard only good things about the A-Square rifles, so lets hope the present problems are only temporary.

The old American Enfield is a fine action for a sporting rifle, it would be nice if it could be revived as a Remington Model 30 or Mod 30 Express clone by a modern manufacturer. Remington could do worse and has.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Can`t say I`ve ever seen or heard of a `17 Enfield that was barreled in 8mm for any country.Robert

[Ben]

Ditto....... I've never seen a single one.

[Multigunner]

The Chinese did their own rebarreling, but I've heard that some were rebarreled by Belgian firms (possibly P14 receivers with M1917 bolts), and some 8mm rebarreled P-14s ended up in Lithuania.

I haven't heard of any complete 8mm chambered M1917 or P-14 rifles being imported but the 8mm barreled actions were advertised for sale in shotgun news for quite awhile.

The Nationalist Chinese would have prefered 8mm chambered rifles, Since their main armament was in 8mm and Canada manufactured millions of rounds of 8mm for the Chinese and supplied BREN guns modified to fire the 8mm, but they were lucky to get the M1917 rifles in .30-06 along with US supplied .30 ammo.

Remington also manufactured what was basically an M1917 clone in 7mm Mauser for sale in South America. They used the Remington model 30 action which had no rear sight ears but was otherwise the same action. These had barrel mounted rear sights.

I rather doubt that any of the Chinese conversions have survived in shootable condition. But you never can tell.
Some Long Branch No.4 rifles sent to China late in the war have shown up, but very few.

PS
According to this the M1917 rifles were converted by the Nationalist Chinese rather than the Red Chinese after an embargo was placed on US supplied ammunition.
The converted rifles were later captured by the Red Chinese.


Chiang's troops were able to seize the key cities and railroads in Manchuria from the Reds, but were not able finish them off. They became established in the rural areas as the U.S. pushed Chiang into four cease fires in 1946. Each time the KMT lost ground. Marshall put an embargo on the supply of .30 (U.S. thirty caliber) ammunition to Chiang to pressure him into accepting U.S. proposals. The U.S. had supplied Enfield and Springfield rifles to Chiang's troops during WW2 that needed this .30 ammunition and the best trained troops were armed with them. The Nationalists couldn't make this ammo in country. From the summer of 1946 until May of 1947 the U.S. would not supply ammunition for these rifles.

There was an American military mission still assigned to the Nationalist Army in 1946. General Lucas, then head of MAGIC, said "All we can do is draw up a new table of organization for the Chinese forces. We are getting them to shift from the four squad system to the three squad system, as we had done in our own forces. We are also preparing paper plans on logistics. But every one of my men is forbidden, from Washington, to go within fifty miles of any front. The exercise I am going through here is a pretense. I'm not able to do anything effective."

The Nationalists were forced to withdraw the .30 small arms from issue and store them. Some M1917 rifles were converted to 7.92mm at the arsenal in Mukden by pulling the barrels, boring out and re-rifling, shortening the chamber end, reaming and refitting to the receiver. Most of the .30 weapons were captured in storage when Manchuria later fell to the Reds. You can spot the conversion when bayonet is mounted as the muzzle ring is seen to be forward of the front sight at the very end of the barrel.

The Nationalists had captured large numbers of Japanese rifles in the south after the surrender. The Nationalists also converted Japanese Type 38 and Type 99 rifles to 7.92mm, as they sought to get more serviceable rifles in a caliber they could manufacture ammunition for readily. Most Chinese Armies had facilities to reload 7.92mm ammunition. German machinery was available for large scale production of this caliber in the arsenals.



http://www.carbinesforcollectors.com/china1.html