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Unfortunately, BM59E barrels will not work on other BM59 models such as this one.

They chose the 7.62 NATO round as the standard rifle round, and the various armies set to producing weapons in the new caliber.

Italy, being a former Axis nation, was not overly affluent after the war.

They chose to convert the M1s they had been supplied immediately post-war, rather than make whole new weapons, at least initially.

Beyond the caliber conversion, they were converted to use a detachable magazine, and (for most models anyway) a combination muzzle brakegrenade launcherflash suppressor was added.

Some unique features added to the BM59 were geared towards fighting in extremely cold weather.

The Italians added a foldable winter trigger that can be used without the removal of heavy mittens and a bipod to make it easier to shoot while lying in the snow.

After Italian experiences on the Eastern Front in WWII, and the Carpathian Campaign in WWI, (both brutal, cold weather campaigns) its hardly surprising that they would add cold-weather features.

I bought a very nice Pre-Ban Springfield Armory example (SN 0000663).

Unfortunately, it was stolen along with a number of other firearms I had, and it has not been recovered to date.

Fortunately, in the last few years, BM-59 parts kits started becoming available in the US.

I was excited to see this, as I could finally replace the rifle I lost.

I bought the parts kit from Centerfire Systems some time ago, but theyve been out of stock for a while.

However, Numrich currently has parts kits in stock as does Bowman Arms, and I have seen them available elsewhere.

As it turned out, the parts kit was the easiest thing to acquire.

Here is the starting point for the build: receiver (not yet converted in this picture), barrel, and parts kit.

The BM59 rifle is based on the M1, and the first examples were actually converted M1 rifles.

So it is quite possible to modify an M1 receiver to BM-59 specs.

I personally find the idea of cutting up an original, functioning M1 rifle to be something of a travesty, and I didnt find any stripped receivers for sale at the time I was looking.

So I bought an M1 Drill Rifle (which I discussed in a previous article) to obtain a receiver.

I did the conversion work myself (which is detailed in a separate article), but its a fairly complex project.

There are gunsmiths who do this work if you dont have the means to do it yourself.

Its what theyre calling an ITAL model barrel, which is the right barrel for this particular BM59 build.

M14 Parts Kit