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LOT 431
Rare Vickers & Armstrong, Pedersen Designed .276 Caliber Self-Loading Semi-Automatic Rifle - Serial
no. 172, 276 cal., 24 inch round bbl., blue finish, walnut stock. This is an outstanding example of a rare John D. Pedersen designed Self-Loading Rifle manufactured by the Vickers & Armstrong Company in England circa 1930. In 1923, the Army hired J.D. Pedersen to design a semi-automatic rifle as a replacement for the Model 1903 and 1917 bolt action rifles. The first Pedersen Self-Loading Rifle, (chambered in .276 caliber) was approved for testing in 1924 and in 1927 Springfield Armory manufactured twenty Pedersen rifles for initial field tests. These tests were to be run concurrent with the Pedersen rifle and an early version of the John C. Garand M1 semi-automatic rifle also chambered in .276 caliber. In 1932, the Army selected the M1 Garand rifle, chambered in .30-06, for limited procurement and stopped all further testing/development of the original Pedersen Self-Loading Rifle. However,
in 1929 (at the same time the Army was conducting its testing), John Pedersen had also contracted with the Vickers-Armstrong Company to manufacture his Self-Loading Rifle for commercial sales. It is estimated that only 200 Pedersen Self-Loading Rifles were ever manufactured in total by the Vickers-Armstrong company mostly for testing/use by China and Portugal. This wonderful example, still chambered in the .276 cartridge as approved
for testing in 1927, features a delayed blow-back action with toggling breechblock design that uses a 10-round enbloc clip similar to that used in the M1 Garand Rifle. The left side of the receiver is roll stamped “PEDERSEN
receiver ring is stamped with a circled “C2” marking. The top of the front edge of the bolt and the left side of the receiver is also stamped with an early Birmingham Nitro proof mark (used until 1925). The rifle has a distinctive half round barrel with spiral cooling fins that are covered by a steel hand guard/heat shield with fourteen cooling holes on each side and is fitted with a Model 1917 type pattern upper barrel band. The bolt toggle has a sliding bar safety marked “REDY” on the left side of the bar and “SAFE” on the right side. The rifle is fitted with a one- piece walnut pistol grip stock with finger grooves on the sides of the forend with a series of cooling holes on the underside of the forend that extend from the upper barrel band to the trigger guard. The rifle is equipped with
a unique, fully adjustable rear sight that uses a rotary-drum mechanism for elevation adjustment with a sliding- bar/rear sight aperture for the windage adjustments. Both are graduated in half-minute of angle adjustments. Any examples of a Pedersen Self-Loading Rifle should be considered very rare and certainly a center piece of any British or U.S. martial rifle collection.
CONDITION: Excellent with 99% of the original dark parkerized finish overall with only a hint of edge wear. The light walnut stock is also excellent with only a few minor handling marks on the side of the stock below the receiver area. Mechanically excellent. This is just a superb, like new example of a very rare and collectible Vickers & Armstrong Pedersen Self-Loading Rifle.
Estimate: 14,000 - 22,500
324 SELFLOADER PA/VICKERS-ARMSTRONGS LTD”, and on the right rear side is the serial number. The top of the