Original Item: Excpetionally Rare; Who would have believed it? At the height of WWII the British War Ministry ordered, on an experimental basis, Bronze/Gun Metal Bolt Assemblies. Amazing in that, as an alloy, the material cost was many times greater than that of steel. The reason however was machine-time, which was a valuable commodity in 1943 (see "The Sten Machine Carbine" by Peter Laidler page 250-51. The Bronze bolts could be cast and then required only slight machine finishing; whereas regular steel bolts had to be cut from solid. The use of Bronze bolts were abandoned as soon as machine-time pressure was alleviated. Now, we have discovered a small quantity of these original rare WWII Bronze Assemblies each complete with extractor (no bolt handle included) and bearing British WWII Factory Codes.