Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and today we are out at the range
with a Mark I Boys anti-tank rifle.
So I've done some video on these, both the Mark I and the Mark I*,
but I've never actually shot one. And that's what we're going to do today.
Now I have a single stripper clip of 5 rounds of ammunition.
This is .55 Boys, or in metric terms 13.9x99mm.
So it's the same case length as a .50 BMG, it's relatively equivalent in ballistic potential.
However it's only made with armour-piercing projectiles
because of course it is an anti-tank rifle.
This was never used in actually any other guns,
it wasn't used in a machine gun or anything like that.
So the standard load, which is what we have here, is a 946 grain bullet
travelling at 2,500 feet per second, which is a heck of a lot of energy.
... And that, by the way, is a ... hardened steel core.
They did also make a lighter tungsten-cored bullet
that was intended to get better armour penetration.
That sucker is a 746 grain bullet, lighter, because tungsten is lighter than steel,
but travelling at 3,100 feet per second, which is really rather insanely fast.
So let's see if we can get some ammo in the mag here.
This is a bolt action system.
It does have a recoil mechanism built into the gun.
(There we go.)
The whole upper assembly is going to recoil back into ... this frame.
So if you're curious about all the details of how it works,
check out my previous videos on the subject.
... I don't know that I'm going to want to fire all 5 of these,
but we'll at least put them in the magazine.
We'll go 4, it doesn't really want to load the fifth.
So right hand only, there is a cheek pad here on the side
to get your head offset properly from the gun.
There's a nice thick, and in this case fairly soft, recoil pad.
I've got aperture sights over here.
Alright.
Reportedly, these are not pleasant to shoot, which I would not be surprised at
because it's a really big projectile going really fast.
So, let's give it a go.
Good sight picture.
There it is. Fire in the hole!
Actually, that's not horrible.
That was quite a lot of concussion.
That cookie cutter muzzle brake does a lot with the blast.
You can see it has thrown the front of the shooting mat up,
and it has peppered me with clods of mud and pebbles from under that brake.
But the actual impact on the shoulder, really not that bad.
Let's do another one.
That was actually kind of fun, let's do it again.
Here we go.
Whoo! Yeah, it is really the concussion that does it to you, not so much the kick.
I'm holding it nice and tight in.
This wooden cheek pad really does its job well
in that there's nothing in front of you here that's going to come back and hit you in the face.
One of the things with heavy-calibre high-recoiling guns is
you've got the wrist of the stock and sometimes your own thumb knuckle
that come back and hit you in the face.
This doesn't do that because the sights are offset,
so the shooter's face has to be offset.
Bottom eject there.
There's our empty case. Good solid primer strike.
Alright, this ammo is not exactly common these days and fairly expensive,
so I don't want to dump too much of it through, but we'll do one more shot.
By the way, one of the common things that was done to these guns,
and I think still is sometimes,
is converting them to .50 BMG, the American machine gun cartridge.
And the reason is .50 BMG is not regulated by the NFA because it's not over .50 calibre.
.55 Boys is over .50 calibre, and so this technically is an NFA-registered destructive device.
Which adds an extra layer of bureaucracy and annoyance to its ownership.
... In addition to, of course, the ammo being rather difficult and expensive to find.
So a fair number of owners have, over the years,
put basically converted Browning machine gun barrels to convert these to .50 BMG.
This one is not, this is still in the original .55.
And I am told, although I haven't tried it myself, that the .55 is actually more
pleasant to shoot, or less unpleasant to shoot, than the .50 BMG conversions, so.
Certainly today I would not recommend a conversion like that for someone who owns one of these,
because there are few enough of them still around in .55.
Let's keep the history intact in its original configuration.
Alright, one more.
See if I can get one of those clay pigeons.
Yeah, there's a big ol' burst of wind that comes back into your face when you fire that thing.
I think we're good with three rounds.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed the look at actually firing a Boys anti-tank rifle.
Thanks for watching.
- What do you think? - Not as bad as a .50 BMG.
But I don't like the clods of earth going into my face. That is what I do not like.