You’ve got your hands full driving your truck ? so when they toss you a Springfield rifle about eight yards long, weighing 60-70 pounds, it’s kinda hard to figure out what to do with it. They might just as well give you a dozen loose eggs to take care of.
Of course, if they issued you an extra lap, you could just lay it across that while driving. But with the lap situat ion what it is today, they had to figure out another angle.
The other angle is a new Universal Rifle Bracket which will be mounted in convenient and sometimes bizarre places on our various trucks to take care of daddy?s rifle while daddy is busy driving his truck (See pix).
The new rifle bracket ready for a quick snatch by the driver of the 1/2-ton Dodge.
The new Universal Bracket replaces the old leather boot which has been annoying truck personnel since World War I. The old boot could be attached to a truck only after a struggle and could handle only one type of rifle. It was reckoned by many to be good for only one thing.
The rifle bracket safely out of the way of the hard head of the 4-ton, 6×6 driver.But the new Universal Bracket clings easily to the nuttiest places on a truck, and handles any one of five standard rifles with the greatest of ease: the Springfield; the U.S. Caliber 30. Ml Garand; the U.S. Caliber 45; Thompson Sub-Machine Gun; the Browning Automatic; and the carbine.
They all fit snugly in the bracket thanks to a simple leaf spring at the top of the bracket and two other leaf springs at the bottom. These compensate for the difference in shape and size of each of the rifles and keep them from rattling loose. A small latch catches the rifle at the underside of the hand guard and holds it against the springs.
Although the new bracket offers very little in the way of weaather protection for your rifle, it will usually be mounted in the truck cab out of the way of wind and water.
Suggested mountings for the new rifle bracket are contained in a Technical Service Bulletin which is on the verge of being released to the field. According to the bulletin the bracket is mounted by means of nuts, bolts and washers through holes punched in both sides and the back (thus it can be bolted at either of the sides or the back).
Ihe bracket may be mounted horizontally, vertically or in the late afternoon.
What vehicles are going to get the new rifle brackets is a little secret to be revealed by the Tables of Basic Allowances. But an informed source tells us that two each of the new rifle brackets have been specified for late-model vehicles with open cabs
From Army Motors Vol 3, page 205 (October 1942)