Browning Automatic Rifle M1918A2, New England
Official wording
Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), Model 1918A2, mfd. by New England Arms Corporation, prior to 1946.
What this entry requires
- ATF REQUIRESMade or imported as stated: “mfd. by New England Arms Corporation”
- ATF REQUIRESMade 1945 or earlier (ATF’s dates)ATF: “prior to 1946”
- INFOStill an NFA firearm; only registered examples transfer, with ATF approval (26 U.S.C. 5812, 5861).
Editorial facts · Our research
- Country
United StatesBasis: no citation - Manufacturer
- New England Arms CorporationBasis: the ATF wording
- Type
- MachinegunBasis: the ATF wording
- Action
- Select-fire / autoBasis: the ATF wording
- Caliber
- .30-06Basis: no citation
- Service
- Military
Source
- Official wording
- ATF P 5300.11, April 2025 edition · Section IV · PDF p. 82 ↗ · ATF original ↗
- Entries
- 1 line
- Verbatim check
- Checked against the PDF text before every release
- Editorial facts
- Confidence: Medium · Last revised 18 October 2026 (Evidence pass) · How we rate confidence
- References
- 1. historyofwar.org ↗, years (estimate: derived from related facts): 'later during the Second World War, production of newly-built M1918A2s was undertaken at the New England Small Arms Corporation and ... IBM'.
- 2. shootingillustrated.com ↗, years (estimate: derived from related facts): 'New England Small Arms and International Business Machines produced 188,380 M1918A2s during World War II'; with ATF 'prior to 1946', the 1943 start is our estimate.
- Fact tags
- ATF the ATF wording states it.
- REF ¹ an outside reference supports it; the number points to the list of references.
- ESTIMATE an approximate or indirect reading, for example the production range of the base model.
- NO CITATION we haven’t attached a reference for this fact; it’s our editorial reading, not ATF’s.
- Source checked
- 20 October 2026: ATF’s page still lists the April 2025 edition
- Corrections
- None
Historical context
Image: Wikimedia Commons, “Army Heritage Museum B.A.R..jpg” by United States Army, Public domain. Retrieved October 2026.
Summary: Wikipedia, “M1918 Browning automatic rifle”. Text CC BY-SA 4.0.
FROM WIKIPEDIA
The Browning automatic rifle (BAR) is a family of American automatic rifle used by the United States and numerous other countries during the 20th century. The primary variant of the BAR series was the M1918, chambered for the .30-06 Springfield rifle cartridge and designed by John Browning in 1917 for the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe as a replacement for the French-made Chauchat and M1909 Benét–Mercié machine guns that U.S. forces had previously been issued.