SSAA NSW

8 Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (NSW) Inc. A Must-See for Sporting Shooters The Lithgow Small Arms Factory Museum Lithgow's Small Arms Factory Museum houses a fascinating collection of rifles, sub-machine guns and ordnance that help make the city's industrial past come alive. SSAA NSW President Paul McNabb recently visited during a stopover in the region. On a recent trip through the Central Tablelands of New South Wales, I stopped in to see the Lithgow Small Arms Factory Museum. This is truly a must-see for every sporting shooter. I was lucky enough to be guided around by the museum's secretary, Mr Kerry Guerin, along with museum volunteer, Adam. Their enthusiasm instantly made it clear that this is one of the biggest and best collections in the world with over 2,500 firearms in the collection. Unique to this museum are Australian-designed and produced experimental, prototype and pre-production weapons. You'll see the very machine guns, rifles and handguns our troops took to war. And they've also got what has to be the world's smallest self loading pistol, the 2.7mm Kolibri, crafted by a precision watch-maker complete with bullets. I even came across a Lithgow-made 1950s Slazenger .22 still in the box and never used – back then every Aussie kid dreamed of owning one. I certainly did! You can also handle past military firearms like the .303, L1A1, Owen Sub Machine Gun and Austeyr. Plus, there's a magnificent display, inspired by the famous Australian Army 'Rising Sun' badge, showing every year of Lithgow production of the Rifle No 1 Mk III and Mk III* and its accompanying Pattern 07 sword bayonet (1913-1956). There's also the world's only display of all the different timbers used trying to find suitable timbers for the production of .303 stocks (only a couple ended up being used in production). And not forgetting the engineering displays…I found the cutaway firearms extremely interesting myself. These were used to train military gunsmiths. Up on the first floor, the museum houses what I can only describe as an incredible collection of handguns. Back in 2006, the museum was fortunate to become the beneficiary of what must certainly be one of the world's most important collections of historic handguns. Donated by fervent collector Ron Hayes (and author of The Hayes Handgun Omnibus – a catalogued encyclopaedia of collective pistols and revolvers), he's spent a lifetime it would seem travelling the world collecting unique and special pieces. Trust me when I say this is a mind-blowing collection and too vast to describe here. Featuring over 800 handguns on display (1500 donated), there's everything from duelling pistols from the 1800s, through the Wild West, military issues from around the world from throughout the years (including an 1849 model 44/40 revolver with ivory grips from the American Civil War), and even golden guns – gold-plated presentation weapons that gleam among the black, grey and silver of the more usual examples of the gunsmiths' art. Believe me when I say if you're into handguns, you won't want to leave! What's equally impressive about this museum is the historical site it is situated on. From information the museum provided to me, it was purpose-built and commenced manufacturing .303 Lee-Enfield Rifles for Australian troops from 1912. Prior to Federation, weapons for our various colonial forces were sourced largely from the UK. However, there was generally a time lag which meant our small arms ordnance was rarely up-to-date. Like other British Colonies, Australia was urged to become self-reliant and, following Federation, the Commonwealth Government decided to build their own central defence "arsenal" to equip our now centralised defence forces with the British-designed Short, Magazine Lee-Enfield rifle. Not only did the factory become recognised throughout the world as a premium manufacturer of small arms, it also led the way in Australia when it adopted from the outset modern precision engineering practices that became the benchmark for all engineering establishments in the country. In essence, this factory is the birthplace of precision engineering in Australia. For more than 100 years, the factory has supported the Australian Defence forces with the provision of rifles and machine guns through two world wars along with a number of other major and minor conflicts. During the 1980s and early 1990s, both local media and townspeople campaigned for the large collection of historic

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