*Cracking open a cold one with the boys anti-tank rifle Mk1.*

Come on Ian, if you don’t try to dual wield to them, are you even trying to teach us anything?

My Grandad say these in action in the middle east somewhere during WWII. Apparently he thought they were pretty useless against the German armour and had a recoil that "would kick you into last week". At some point he was on a ship (allied evacuation of Crete?) when they were under attack by German aircraft so every man was firing with everything he had (mostly small arms) back at the planes from the crowded decks. There was a couple of guys nearby with one of these anti tank rifles on the ship that were credited with shooting down a Stuka. It is thought they had hit an engine mount as the engine was seen to tear itself from the plane (unrestrained torque reaction I suspect) and both the engine and plane were seen to fall into the sea (with crew). This happened close enough to the ship for the resulting spray to be felt on the deck. Scary times. I am happy to have not been there.

Once I was curious about how one of these would fare against rolled homogenous armor, so I searched on the Google machine for "Boys Penetration".... ... and it was a mistake. One I shall not do again. Oh, and it's pretty much the same as an AP .50bmg. 26mm of RHA at 10m and 21ish at 100m. Panzer IIIs started rolling with 30mm side armor (50 to 80mm in front) due to these, which made them obsolete. For comparison, A good hit of the early Bazooka could go through 85mm of RHA regardless of range. Chemical energy munitions don't lose effectiveness due to speed drop, like Kinetic Energy rounds do. The LAW rocket could do 250mm. Latest RPG-7 can go through 450mm. The Javelin missile can go through 800mm.

The Boys are back in town!

The Boys Anti-Tank Rifle sounds like something advertised in the back of comic books in the 1950s.

An old tommy told a story about one of these once he said "i shot one of these at a german once i dont know if i hit him but he disappeared"

So many of these were converted to 50 BMG, nice to see there several nice originals left.

Dear Mr. Ian (I didn't wanna misspell your last name) Thank you for so many videos and the regular uploads. Thank you for making informative content and for teaching us about all these fascinating weapons. Greetings from Germany. 🇩🇪

Something about “two-foot monopod” really tickles my fancy

A gun able to deliver as mutch pain to it's target as well your shoulder and wallet.

I remember as a kid; there were advertisements in American Rifleman selling these with a 50 BMG conversion barrel for $89.95! Oh, those were the days.

There were at least one Boys rifle fielded with the US Marine Raiders during the Makin Island raid. It's reported to have been used to shoot down a Japanese float plane in the harbor.

There was also a late-type APCR round developed with a tungsten core that had 40mm~ ish penetration at the muzzle. It was approved for service, but it's still unclear to me if it ever saw issue as by then the boys was being replaced by the Piat in service. There also was a Littlejohn Adapter and squeezebore-type ammo designed for it, which was tested. I can't say how well it worked on than that it "did work."

People forget how few options there were available to have a proper ranged anti-tank weapon until the introduction of a rocked-propelled shaped charge. Given the need to balance the ability to punch a hole through any amount of steel plate and keep it portable and leaving the shooter's collarbone intact the field really narrows substantially ...

Oh those silly boys and their AT rifles...

The weapons may be forgotten, however my love of this channel never will be.

I remember when these were fairly common, including rural Missouri where I grew up. Lahti L39s too. I had forgotten how old I am....not many will enjoy the thrill of shooting one of these on a backwoods farm.

Cracking open a cold tank with the Boys

What's interesting is these are just sold like any other rifle in Canada, no extra paperwork or restrictions as Canada has no real limit on caliber sizes.

The opening shot of this looks like it should be a patch, crossed AT-Guns with a silhouette of gun Jesus.

"You know what Boys stands for, don't you? Pound It Again Tommy." "I think you mean a PIAT, Dale."

"And lo did Gun Jesus cross the Boys. And it was good. And the people saw this and were much pleased. And it was good."

Just a quick correction, the boys AT rifles were set for yards, not meters.

You took the time to line up the barrel of each rifle with the top of the magazine of the other. This is pleasing me greatly.

Thanks for this, well described and hope they sold well.

Holy crap, the machining operations on the early muzzle brake probably took 20 times longer than on the later one.

Shock Value of that first shot is wonderful. I wasn't ready for that really well done shot.

The US Marine Corps used them in 1942 on the Philippines against dug in infantry positions. In the Korean War, The Marine Corps again used them in this case they borrowed a few Boys rifles from Canadian troops, mounted them with scopes and used as long-range sniper rifles attaining ranges of over 2000 yards

I have a great interest in World War 2 and as I am in the UK these interest me. I would like to say you do a fantastic job of detailing all of these weapons, you are clear and concise.

Thank you for all your work ,

Hears Some one scream “do a collab with Nicholas Moran on development of man portable anti tank weapon and anti armour rifles”.

My father used them “Boys” in 39’ on . In through the front and out of the crew compartment into the engine enclosure on the Italian tankettes, usually one shot stops !, not nice to shoot , his words.

I have fired two guns in my life that I never want to fire again...the Boys and the Lathi.

I actually saw a WW2 British training video on the Boys on KZfaq, easily findable, but the video mentioned that because AFVs were getting too heavily armored the 500m setting was completely ineffective against armor and soldiers were trained, at least from the video, to just keep it at 300m as that's the MAXIMUM range for anti-vehicle combat. So having the 500m option removed in the 1* makes sense from at least that perspective.

I love videos on anti-tank rifles, keep it up!

The LRDG and SAS used these as anti material rifles in North Africa.

The Stanchion Gun was a popular concept back in the nineteen teens and twenties. Ships used it/them to combat boats, and light, traversable, fortress guns were also so quantified. We'd call it a pintle mount today, I think.

"A velocity dependent inert kinetic projectile" That's one high-falootin' bullet!

Probably the best intro on the channel

I litteraly watch your boys anti tank rifle video 10 seconde before that one came out

Any one else notice how nicely posed the guns are with magazine tops and barrels parallel?

Man, did the boys antitank rifle play music? The Backstreet Boy Antitank Rifles?

Hi Ian I’m in the uk I used to own and shoot a boyes it was chambered in 50 spotting calibre I regret selling it it had a scope fitted to it the only fault I found that fellow shooters just wanted to talk to you all the time and hope you’d give them a go which did happen most of the time as 50 heads where not dear and it came with 50 cases and dies also an ammo box full of tracer heads 2000 Berden primers and a hyd de priming tool the whole set was just a quality item which now is worth ten times what I sold it for great videos keep up the good work

That Mark I star`s muzzle-break looks like a 1:1 copy from Finnish L-39 ! Shape and number of holes are exactly the same.

Thank you GunJesus, very cool.

Yeah, boyz, finaly bik antitank daka

I always liked that the Numrich Arms, A.K.A. Gun Parts Corp., always had the Boyes and the PIAT in their catalog.

There is a pretty nice video on KZfaq about how to shoot and maintain one of these beasts. It's pretty interesting.

Sucks having grown up and no longer get to have one.

Girls: ugh he’s probably out hunting tanks Me and the boys:

@Forgotten Weapons 1 little remark is with the sighting in which I must correct, they sighted in yards not meters.

Today's non-sequitur: "A two-foot monopod." But, what else could one call it! LOL Great video as usual, Ian!

The perfect rifle for a weekend away hunting on Jurassic Island

Hi Ian, I'd love to see you review GM6 Lynx one day. I heard about it a couple years ago but apart from looking really cool from the outside I'd be really interested what you think about the mechanics of the gun.

Wow! It would seem as if this helped develop the Bareett M-82 .50 caliber.

Kraut space magic and now the boys, wow what are you going to find next to drive me green with envy 😂

Always remember: DO NOT CRAMP HERE

I all ways wonder how well the .55 Boys would have done if it was used as fighter,bomber MG round.

Effing bad ass first view. Two huge rifles crossed in front of my favorite utube gun dude....

The boys are back in town

Perfect for advertising in The Boy's Own Paper.

The Mk1 muzzle brake apparently came from Godsal's 1918 .5 inch calibre rifle.

The Boys Mk I* did see limited use by the 1st Ranger Battalion (and soon dropped and I don't think used in combat--the other Ranger battalions, even though on the TOE, did not use them) and some of the Marine Raider battalions used them in the Solomons prior to receiving the 2.36-inch M1A1 bazooka.

Epic opening!

Ah, yes, the good old John Inglis Company, making everything from Brens, to Hi-powers and even Boys anti-tank guns. Their successors are back to making washers and dryers.

My Dad told me he trained on one of these. He was given one round to fire, and he made some smart ass comment so the training Sgt gave him four more rounds. He told me that he was seeing stars after firing the first round and the Sgt made him fire the other four rounds. He was not a small man and saId the recoil moved him back a couple of feet.

My late father was issued with one of these when he was in the Home Guard.

Cool guns .

My late father had the dubious pleasure of firing a Boys. He said it just about dislodged his shoulder. The PIAT had better destructive power at short range but was still a bastard to use.

I think you will find the original mark1 was designed to be vehicle mounted or barrier mounted.. it likely had to be changed to be used on the ground with the change of the stand to a bi-pod made it deployable on the ground.. I would of expected if it was developed further we would of likely had a proper scope mounting and magazine on the bottom

I can hear Ian's voice but I cant see him.... Oh there he is! He's just visible behind those huge guns :)

Ian, I couldn't help but notice that you left out a lot of the details. Is there perhaps a video where you talk about the rifle in more detail?

funfact: Disney actually made a tutorial movie for the Boys rifle

I don't really understand why they increased the caliber to .55. They just made the bullet heavier and slower and both US 12.7x99 and French 13.2x99 had better armor penetration capabilities. Both US and French guns fire a 52g projectile at 800 to 860m/s with similiar barrel lenghts. While the .55cal weighs around 60g and only has a velocity of 740-760m/s....

Swedish volunteer groups who participated in Winter War also brought these with them.

You've covered a few anti tank rifles so far, which one is in your mind the best designed/most practical? (vs light armor etc) The Lahti L-39 comes to mind but there's so little on the actual operations that another I've not heard of could beat it out.

Nice

Would this be effective for a modern, armoured money truck? I'm just asking for a friend... :P

The boys MK1 bipod seems to be more suited to been mounted on vehicles with those holes in the feet

One of em seems to be an vehicle mounted on thats been retrofitted for ground infantry use, Huh.

I've never heard these being brought to Finland.. Perhaps during the thirties before Lahti developed his 20mm L-39.? A couple of examples to evaluate the concept.?

Ian hanging out with da Boys.

“We dem boys!”

It's a beast.

The USMC did use these weapons in the Pacific war. In fact they shot down a Japanese sea plane.

Do the black curtains travel with Ian?

There's a great training cartoon for this on KZfaq.

so can you get ammo for these things?

"The boys are back in town..."

Hi, is that the Firearms Licensing Unit? I would like to add a rifle onto my Firearms Certificate, yes .55 inch. Thanks.

If Inglis is a Canadian company, and the Boys was manufactured in Canada, why was it considered "Lend-Lease"? Did the US purchase them for the British Gov't, or was it because they passed through a US port? Inglis made Hi-Powers & Longbranch No4s didn't have the same markings.

Marine Corps Raiders carries a few also. During WW 2. Not to be confused with the resurrected name used by USMC Special Operations.

Those are some mean Boys.

Was there a Girls' version too?

I saw a one of these with an SMLE attached to it with a bracket mount. Is that a thing?

That bipod looks like the grandfather of the Atlas bipod! Lol

Is there a Mates anti tank rifle

Please review the 2019 unisex AT rifle. Half my army is transitioning and I need a more universal option.

The talk about the Mk II Boys being lighter makes me wonder, has there ever been an infantry weapon that had the ability to natively accept ballast? I assume the purpose of making the Mk II lighter was mainly to make it jumpable, so to me it seems like there is perhaps some merit to a gun of this type that had a hopper sort of thing to accept some kind of weight (e.g. sand or water) in order to help tame the recoil when it was expected to be used, but the hopper could be emptied for easier transport. There are obvious practical problems with this, I'm just curious if anybody has tried it.