The most profound alteration is the removal of a significant amount of material from the receiver, in particular a long section of steel from the left side of the receiver, a deeper milled-out channel behind the safety lever, an aluminum alloy trigger guard assembly and the deletion of the buttstock socket. While the Lightweight is designed to use a number of off-the-shelf #4 SMLE components, some radical changes were made to the configuration. In a technical bulletin published on the subject, it was called out as being of interest both as a general issue item as well as for the "Far Eastern Field" in particular, a niche that would later be targeted by the more famous Number Five Jungle Carbine. Developed in Canada about 1943, the Lightweight Number Four, or Long Branch Light Rifle, comes in at 42 inches in overall length and weighs only 6 pounds, 10.4 ounces, a notable reduction in combat load for the Commonwealth rifleman.
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