Lithgow Model 1B

About the Lithgow Model 1B

The Lithgow Model 1B is a single-shot, bolt-action .22 Long Rifle rimfire rifle, the final and most refined member of the Lithgow Model 1 series manufactured at the government-owned Lithgow Small Arms Factory in New South Wales, Australia. Produced from 1949 to 1961 for Slazenger Australia Pty Ltd, it retains the series' distinctive one-piece barrel-and-receiver machined from a single piece of ordnance steel, a manual-cocking rear-locking bolt, and a two-piece wooden stock. As an affordable postwar 'bunny rifle', more than 104,000 Model 1B examples were built, making it the most numerous of the three variants.

Together with its Model 1 and 1A predecessors, the little single-shot .22 Lithgow 'put food on the table of many Australian families when times were hard following WWII', earning its place as a quintessential Australian 'bunny rifle'.

Lithgow Model 1B specifications

The Model 1B updated the earlier Model 1A, which had moved the trigger assembly from being pinned to the stock to being fixed to the receiver. Serial numbers were stamped on the barrel near the rear sight. Dimensional specifications are approximate and vary slightly between individual rifles; barrel/overall length and weight figures are drawn from the closely related Model 1 series and not independently confirmed for the 1B specifically.