The authors have made a preliminary study of several allowed M1 transitions within the 4f⁶6s² ground state configuration of samarium with the aim of observing enhanced parity non-conserving (PNC) optical rotation. No evidence for R=Im(E1)^PNC/(M1) greater than 10^-6 has been found. They conclude that, although opposite parity states are comparatively close (ca 200 cm^-1) in the cases studied, the strength of the admixed E1 transitions is low thereby reducing any potential enhancement. This also complicates any theoretical analysis since there is no single dominant E1 component in the admixture, and in any case calculations of oscillator strengths for samarium with its complicated level structure are notoriously difficult. Finally, the reactivity of metallic samarium poses considerable experimental difficulties in achieving sufficiently high vapour pressures.