Our Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper travels several times per year to our Great White North because of national security concerns and natural resources development. Two years ago he went up there to announce a tripling in size of the Canadian Rangers. The CR's are a branch of the Canadian Armed Forces that is made up largely of native Inuit who patrol vast expanses of the Canadian Arctic. Tough as nails, their issued service rifle is....the venerable Lee Enfield No. 4 Mk 1 in .303 British! Aside from the obvious military utility, the CR's use these rifles as game-getters and, occasionally, self defense against polar bears. They love their "Smellies" (Short Magazine Lee Enfield), but since production essentially ceased back in the '50's, spare parts are getting hard to find reliably. Harper asked them what their preferred choice would be for a new service rifle, their answer: NEW Lee Enfields! LOL Hey, they need something that can be dropped on the rocks, into the icy Arctic Ocean, subjected to -70 C temps, and still shoot!
Colt Canada (right here in my Kitchener, Ontario) is the preferred supplier, but they are quibbling over the relatively small initial order size of an estimated 10,000 units. I guess the start up costs for a completely new rifle are prohibitive, and they would have to reverse-engineer existing ones since production machinery is long, long gone. One specification that would change is calibre: .303 British would be updated to 7.62 NATO. The Canadian Rangers will have scopes on their rifles, but they insisted that they be easily removable in the field and that iron sights be retained even with scopes attached. Easy to understand why, given the conditions they operate in. There has been talk of alternate suppliers (Canadian Tire? LOL) and going to over-the-counter bolt action rifles (Remington 700's, Mossberg MVP's, Savage Model 10's, etc), but nothing has been decided at this point. It sounds easier to pick a new fighter jet!
The Canadian Rangers were adamant that they want bolt action in preference to any semi autos, and were even reluctant about polymer synthetic stocks (plastic? hehehehe). All I know is that when they finally do decide....I want one for myself!
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