L25A1 (L1A1 instructional action)

[mrclark303]

Morning all,

Bought myself a very nice and I think very rare L1A1 based L25A1 instructional action last week, BSA 1962 based rifle (no serial number or proof marks anywhere) but 62 dated barrel cocking handle and gas block.

It was cutaway early on its carrier I should think, as it lacks the usual "mix and match" Enfield,BSA,Fazakerley parts mix and has a uniform chemical oil black type finish rather than layers of Suncorite.

This rifle is all BSA except the fire selector, which is Enfield marked. The quality of the work is truly exceptional, cut with the skill of a surgeon, even the rear sight has been bisected !

All pressure bearing parts have either been cut or adjusted to make them unusable in a live rifle.

Barrel (cut away in four places, breech, chamber,mid bore and gas block), BC and Bolt cutaway and FP hole welded up, receiver, gas block, tube, piston and plug all sectioned and now effectively deactivated.

She is now the centre piece of my L1A1 based collection, so very glad I managed to land her....like most things in life, it really is down to who you know!

A big thank you to Pete, for his advice on this piece, as ever, you knowledge and guidance is always much appreciated.

Cheers, John.

Information

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[limpetmine]

Great find. Nice addition to anyone's collection.

[browningautorifle]

We used to use those for instruction...wonder what happened to ours?

[Peter Laidler]

We used to do these as projects during your apprenticeships. Ours were all the early FN's as the L1's were still coming on stream. They were done in groups who had a sub-part to investigate and section - or whatever. Unless you had a VERY deep and almost intimate working knowledge of your part, you could fall into a trap. For example, to show a spring operating on a plunger you had to be careful that any machining just EXPOSED the spring and kept it captive. Not easy!

It is a classic example of how a picture describes a thousand words WITHOUT the picture turning the student a monkey see - monkey do merchant!

The best one - or worst one to undertake, one which I never did nor really never understood if the truth be revealed, was the No8 rifle. Apparently there was no way that you could skeletonise the trigger mechanism to show the double sear springs AND the spring and ball loaded spring cup. So they used to say! But only a couple of months ago I blustered/flustered my way through 8 of them for my sons old school Cadet Corps

The sad part about these SKN type rifles and MG's is that during the 80's, when the big Command Workshops (or small Base - depending on your point of view......) workshops became heavily civillianised were run by the accountants. Lots of these SKN 'weapons'* were to be found in the large training wings and units such as Cadet Forces etc etc where they had a hard life in the training wings. The University OTC training wings were a good place to find them!. As they were sent into workshop for repair the time factor came into play after the weapon was fully 'repaired', phosphated, black painted etc etc. It meant that things like the SKN's were timed-out as beyond economic repair or BER and therfore sentenced Z-BER and scrapped because the painting of the red cut-away parts virtually double the repair time! One of my colleague made a written report about this state of affairs but by then the old SKN kit was a thing of the past. That's why a lot of these things ended up, unloved, forlorn and generally in poor condition in dusty old cupboards

*The nomenclature was changed in the 80's too, from the generic 'weapon' to that of training aid just to reflect their downgraded and innoxious category/status. That's why you see some DP kit re-engraved from the usual GUN M/C BREN Mk2/1 DP or whatever
to read DRILL MACHINE GUN L54A1 or DRILL RIFLE .303" L55 etc so that security was also downgraded to that of 'good secure housekeeping'

Where was I..... Anyway, another useless bit of Enfield info!

[browningautorifle]

I blustered/flustered my way through 8 of them for my sons old school Cadet Corps

But of course...no pics.

[Gil Boyd]

Much sought after items the SKN's with no serial numbers and a bane in the side of "some" Firearms Departments who still insist they are Section 1 weapons.......unbelievable and defys all logic and rational IMHO, wheres that expert witness when you need one???

[Peter Laidler]

I have found cases where the Police 'experts;, those who go around renewing the licences know more than the real, long serving, ex apprentice graduate engineer enthusiastic amateurs among us. But like I say, if everyone ends up happy then what the xxxxxxxxx

But back to the SKN L1A1. I had a chat to another Carlisle apprentice yesterday and he says that his batch were taught on the old FN's simply because the L1A1's weren't about in sufficient numbers. His little section were told to skeletonise a trigger mech housing '...... in order to illustrate to a Board of Enquiry* investigating a fatal accidental shooting of a trigger mechanism and all of the safety features incorporated within it' Or something like that. Obviously a fictional board of enquiry and fatal shooting but it sets the scene..............

It was quite difficult I'm told because they had to allow the safety sear (it's nothing of the sort....., it is an automatic sear!!!) to fully function and allow the hammer to come forwards but not let the hammer spring and plunger fly out. They did it but had to resort to collar (to hold the safety sear in place on the body axis pin) little brackets (to support the safety sear spring and a rubber lined stop for the hammer). Clever eh! He still has it and is going to bring it over next time we meet

That was an interesting one. He managed to 'liberate' the now scrap test piece after passing a small bribe to the tech storeman who reduced all of this stuff to salvage afterwards! The instructors took all of the woodwork home to use as kindling wood on their home fire! Mind you, that's all a lot of mine were any use for afterwards! Thanks Pete McDonald for that

* Board of Enquiry. Military investigation to investigate and prove guilt so that when someone does eventually face a charge or worse, then regardless of habeas corpus or the Magna Carta or other legal niceties enshrined since before time began, they are guilty