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Photo Of The Day: While the rest of this blog is stacked with new product releases and reviews, you can just enjoy the tranquility and the historical picture above. Today, from the Vietnam era, we have the X3F1 Sub-machine Gun made by the Lithgow Small Arms Factory, Australia, sometime around 1962. The Australian Ordnance Department took some of the features from the Sterling submachine gun with some of those of the Owen submachine carbine and came out with the prototype shown above. The end result was the F1 submachine gun which replaced the Owen. As you can read below, some of the parts came from the L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle (SLR).
Picture and description from The Australian War Memorial. Unfortunately, it’s quite far away from where I reside, but it looks like a great place to visit.
X3F1 Sub-machine Gun. Tubular construction with a drilled barrel jacket and a top magazine slot. The trigger box is marked on the right side MACHINE CARBINE 9MM (AUST) X3 and the serial number. A safety catch and the cocking lever are on the left side. It has a wooden butt with an alloy shoulder plate incorporating a trap for an oil bottle and pull through cord. The sights are a fixed front post on the magazine slot and a folding rear peep. Sling swivels are attached to the top of the butt and the muzzle. A bayonet lug is welded to the right side of the barrel jacket. Overall metal parts are blued. A yellow band is painted on the barrel jacket and on the butt wrist with DP. Complete with a detachable curved magazine.
The X3 F1 was designed by the Australian Ordnance Department and combines the features of the Owen with those of the British Sterling sub-machine guns. The bayonet, pistol grip and butt plate come from the L1A1 rifle to simplify production. The bolt is a modified Owen design giving good protection against dirt and the top-feed magazine feed of the Owen was also carried over. This X3 is a prototype of the production F1 sub-machine gun.
Photo and Information Source: Australian War Memorial