Pedersen Rifle - Foreign Interest

Foreign Interest

Publicity of the U.S. Army's serious consideration of adopting the Pedersen rifle as standard issue generated similar interest in the rifle in the United Kingdom. Pedersen traveled to the UK in 1930 to oversee tooling up of a production facility by Vickers-Armstrong for manufacturing of rifles for test by the UK Government and for possible marketing to other countries. The UK tested the rifle in 1932 along with other prototype semiautomatic rifles, but decided not to take any further action. Vickers apparently both manufactured the rifle in small quantities and also further developed the design. A caliber .276 Vickers-Pedersen rifle offered for sale in March 2008 by the James D. Julia Auction firm was serial numbered 95, and the clip that accompanied the rifle was of a curved and symmetrical design (suitable for loading into the magazine either end up). The butt stock had a noticeably different shape than those of rifles made at Springfield Armory, but otherwise the rifle was identical to the U.S. production T1E3 and thus incorporated the design revisions covered by U.S. Patent 1,866,722 to make his rifle more modular in construction and thus easier to disassemble and maintain.