Green Aussie guns?

[cluttonfred]

Random question...

I have seen a number of references to Australian-used Lee-Enfield rifles and Owen SMGs--err, excuse me, machine carbines --being finished green during WWII. Here's one at The Box o' Truth.

I imagine we are talking about the metal furniture for the Lee-Enfields, though I think the Ownes were all over green.

Does anyone know the story behind that, how it was done, how often, what guns, why, etc.? I imagine jungle fighting had something to do with it, but I'd love to know the whole story.

Thanks!

 

[marktx]

For what it's worth the Aussies still carry green Steyr Augs

 

[Firepower!]

....and those AUGs work pretty damn well. I love the trigger mechanism so that you dont have to switch between semi and select by lever.

 

[mukluk]

From what I've seen and read it was common practice for firearms in British and Commonwealth service used in tropical/wet environments to have the metal parts below the wood line painted to help prevent corrosion.

 

[Vaarok]

Camo and rust/jungle rot protection, simple as that.

 

[cluttonfred]

Hmm, it's probably rude to reply to my own question, but I did find this article from the April 1995 issue of "Machine Gun News" (haven't ever seen that on the newsstand) on the Owen gun that at least confirmed my impression:

"All Owen guns originally had a blued finish, and all I have
seen showed traces of green camouflage paint on the metal parts,
applied over the bluing. A black and white picture from the
factory shows a World War II era gun as having contrasting light
and dark camouflage paint on it."

I have also found some references to Aussie troops in Vietnam using camouflage paint on their SLRs (FN FALs) so maybe it's just an Aussie thing.

 

[Eb1]

Green Strip on the Stock

Not to hi-jack, but what is the green strip (Band) around the stock of a Lithgow Aussie Lee Enfield mean?

 

[mukluk]

Aussies had a "cadet" program, I gather it was similar to ROTC here in the states. Anyway, the rifles they were issued had different colour bands denoting the condition of the rifle... green was best (think service grade), yellow was worn but safe to fire (think rack grade) and red basically meant drill purpose only though some people have fired red-banded cadet rifles with no ill effect. If in doubt, have the rifle checked by a gunsmith.

 

[bannockburn]

OwlnMole

Small Arms Review had an excellent article on the Owen SMG a couple of years ago. What was so remarkable about the story was the obstinate bureaucratic mentality of the Australian government in their attempt to keep the vastly superior Owen from being adopted by the Army. Certain government officials even went so far as to arbitrarily change caliber requirements, then fail to provide the Owen designers any ammo with which to make the needed changes. But the Owen won out in the end, and even after being pulled from active service in the mid '60's, the top mag design lived on in the Sub-machine gun F1. As far as the camo paint goes, most articles I have read stated that it was applied for the camoflage effect, and for more corrosion protection in the jungle environment.