L96a1

[chosenman]

The flash eliminator section is a screw on affair with a quirky left hand thread presumably so the gases exiting through the swirl openings don't unscrew the thing. It also appears to be made from a lightweight material possibly aluminium and is anodised in a very dark green.

[Peter Laidler]

There were also 3 patterns of magazine for the L96 series too....... Without any doubt, the best sling of the lot was the narrower Belgian Army/made cotton weave loop-buckle sling based on the earlier nylon sling.

One muzzle protrudes about 1.2" from the foresight block while 744C protrudes just over 1"

The man (forget his name now, but one of the DD chaps!) from AI told me that because the L96 was to be fired off the bipod* they tried an open butt configuration based on the butt of the Soviet PKM. It was just too fragile.
* not always though as they were also taught to shoot over cover without the bipod during one phase of field firing

[Gil Boyd]

Peter,
You mean Seyntex of course
Gil

[m4carbine]

Peter,
Its simple, Its made with a dovetail cutter, a large one, I would guess 60º

CMan,
A couple of European rifles have left hand threads on the muzzles, L96A1, Metric FALs, I believe that its an artifact of the manufacturing process but no proof.
I am certain that its not an Unscrew issue, we had a big go around with a mil contract over here. The project manager wanted left hand threads on a muzzle device because he was sure it would unscrew.
Think of it this way, if its screwed on with 50 ft-lbs of torque, it will take more than that to brake it loose. NO ONE could hold a rifle if you put 50 ft-lbs on it every time it was fired.

We did a test of 10,000 rounds with no movement of the device, then we leased a solid modeling program and figured out how much torque a bullet puts on the rifle, answer is "A 175 gr. .30 cal Sierra matchking at 2550 imparts 18.2 ft -lbs of torque but for only 2 miliseconds."

This whole thing was predicated by an internet post that suggested torque was an issue and thats why Enfield receivers have LH threads, and this got the Col thinking...all down hill from there...Ruperts!!!

[Peter Laidler]

Good thinking about the LH muzzle threads Marty. I never thought about it from a maths point of view.

[Peter Laidler]

A further bit of info on the swirl type flash eliminator thanks to S/Sgt Geordie XXXX who I was speaking to this morning. We did have a few of those threaded barrels in the spares system and the rifles but the barrels went back as rejects after the rifle spec was codified. They came back modified by being sleeved at AI. The only way you can tell these modified barrels (if you think that you might have one) is that they have been proofed twice. That's if you can identify/see the old original proof and if you are very careful, a fine line where the sleeve joins the barrel.

Hope that has clarified that barrel querie. Sorry if I confused anyone. To be honest, I was a bit confused myself! Mind you, that's not difficult!!!!!

[Roy W]

Has anyone ever seen a three thumbwheel scope mount for an L96?

Apparently this is a Belgian picture. I have a two wheel one, but never seen a three?

Attachment 70070

[Peter Laidler]

Ours were all two wheel. Maybe it's to keep their rail from slipping forwards on recoil. Ours had a little stud of course, with an alignment mark. The alignment mark was an early modification to prevent idiots from, well....., misaligning something that is REALLY difficult to misalign in the first place!

[muffett.2008]

That pic looks familiar, is that a Royal looking at that rifle?

[Roy W]

Yes, must be, obviously a Royal in normal 'out on the town' civvies