This is a beautiful example of a very rare Pedersen Self-Loading Rifle designed by John D. Pedersen, manufactured around 1930 in England by Vickers & Armstrong. In 1923 the Army hired J.D. Pedersen to design a semi-automatic rifle as a replacement for the Model 1903 and Model 1917 rifles. The first Pedersen Self-Loading Rifle was chambered in .276 caliber and was approved for testing in 1924. In 1927, Springfield Armory manufacturing twenty Pedersen rifles for initial field testing with these rifles intended to run concurrent with the .276 caliber semi-automatic rifle developed by John C. Garand; as a potential candidate for replacing the 30-06 cartridge. The Pedersen rifle performed well in the initial service tests; in 1929 Pedersen contracted with Vickers-Armstrong to manufacture the Pedersen Self-Loading Rifle in England. English-made rifles were used in the final Army tests between the Pedersen rifle and the new M1 Garand rifles. In 1932 the Army selected the Garand rifle in 30-06 for limited procurement and consequently the Army stopped all further development of the Pedersen rifle. It is estimated that approximately 200 Pedersen Self-Loading Rifles were manufactured by Vickers-Armstrong for testing by China and Portugal. This example is chambered for a .276 caliber cartridge as tentatively approved in 1927 by the U.S. Army and features a delayed blow-back action with toggling breechblock design that uses a 10-round, enbloc clip similar to that used in the M1 Garand Rifle. The left side of the receiver is roll stamped "PEDERSEN SELFLOADER PA/VICKERS-ARMSTRONGS LTD", with a small "Thai or Chinese" mark towards the rear of the receiver. The serial number, "203" is located on the right side of the receiver, and the top of the receiver ring is stamped with a circled "C2" marking. The rifle has a distinctive half round barrel with spiral cooling fins that are covered by a steel handguard/heat shield with fourteen cooling holes on each side and is fitted with a Model 1917 type pattern upper barrel band. The bolt toggle has a sliding bar safety marked "REDY" on the left side of the bar and "SAFE" on the right side. The rifle is fitted with a one-piece walnut pistol grip stock with finger grooves on the sides of the forend with a series of cooling holes on the underside of the forend that extend from the upper barrel band to the trigger guard. The rifle is equipped with a unique, fully adjustable rear sight, that uses a rotary-drum mechanism for elevation adjustment with a sliding-bar/rear sight aperture for the windage adjustments. Both are graduated in half-minute of angle adjustments. Any examples of a Pedersen Self-Loading Rifle should be considered very rare and certainly a center piece of any British or early U.S. martial rifle collection. This beautiful rifle comes with one enbloc magazine clip and the manual entitled, "The Pedersen Self Loading Rifle".

Excellent with 97% plus of the original finish overall with minor edge and high spot wear. The stock is in very fine plus condition with its nice dark red oil finish showing minor handling marks and light scratches on the sides. Mechanically excellent. Manual is very fine. A very rare and historic semi-automatic rifle, that is in excellent condition and would be a center piece of any rifle collection.