Deleted member 1487
Cheaper than adopting a new rifle in the new caliber they wanted. Of course dependent on US decisions. So when the US abandoned .276 Pedersen cartridge/rifle and wasn't about the license the Garand Britain was out of luck, because they did develop the Pedersen as their choice semi-auto:This will be controversial but I'm going to nominate the No 4 Mk 1 Lee Enfield rifle and it's derivatives. Why? The improvements over the S.M.L.E. were not worth the time, effort and money spent developing a new rifle. If the British were going to spend scarce resources developing a new rifle in the 20's and 30's those resources should have been spent developing a self loading rifle not reworking a design dating back to the 1870's.
Pedersen rifle - Wikipedia
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