British L1A1 snow camo question

[jeff hamerstone]

Hey Longshaor; any luck on finding those pics on winter camo'd FAL's

[Longshaor]

Hey Jeff,

It seems photos of NATO exercises in Norway are somewhat hard to come by. Bloody annoying really... Anyway, this is the best one I've been able to find on the web.



If you have access to The Commandos (Uniforms Illustrated #20 by Derek Oakley) there are several photos that show this clearly. IN particular, page 26 plate #45, page 66 plate #123, and page 67 plate #124.

[my72jeep]

best I could find is a C7 with field winter cam.

[Longshaor]

Yeah, that's the funny thing, I've found tons of pics of L85s (stands to reason since they're current issue) but I've found more pics of the M-16/C8/L119, the L4, L7, even mortars & the Carl Gustav than I've found of the L1! You'd think with all the times the Brits deployed to Norway & how long the L1 was in service there'd be a few more pictures of it...

[jeff hamerstone]

Yep; I havn't seen one except for those that you chaps have posted. If you find anymore please send them my way. I'm thinking of doing one of my L1's in winter camo, just want to keep it real.

[Longshaor]

In that case I'd definately reccomend you pick up The Commandos. The three plates I mentioned above each show distinctly different patterns, and the last one also shows the same treatment on an L4.

[harry mac]

We used to get rolls of white sticky tape issued to cam up our rifles. There was no official pattern to follow, you just stuck bits on 'til it looked "good".
IIRC, the sling attachment points were modified accessories for the Norwegian issue H&K G3.
If I had a scanner I could post pics of a very much younger Harry Mac dashing through the snow on his trusty NATO planks.

[jeff hamerstone]

Thanks Harry; I'd like to see the pics you have.

[Peter Laidler]

HarryMac is right about the special sling hooks and loops for the L1A1. There was a special band with a hook that went around the handguard (only the plastic handguards though) and a side mounted sling loop that fitted to a special butt plus a rubber muzzle cover.

I think I might still have a few of these bits................

[jeff hamerstone]

Peter; I take it that the purpose of the revised sling swivels was for easier carry whlie on skis, is that correct ?