When did L1A1 wood get replaced with plastic?

[Charlie303]

Here's one for the armourers.

I found this pic of Sgt Watson of 3 Para escorting an Argentinean prisoner during the Falklands War.



What caught my eye however is that Sgt Watson's SLR has wooden furniture. Most SLRs in the Falklands were plastic coated.

When did the change from wood to plastic on L1A1s take place?

Information

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[Peter Laidler]

The very first plastic I saw was in or around the mid 70's, say 75 or 6 but I could be mistaken as it came through in dribs and drabs. But the old woodwork was never declared OBSOLETE, just obsolescent so while there was still wood in the system, it'd be used up. Waste not, want not and all that stuff. ON that basis, if the wood remained in good condition, it could have been there for ages. It was the same as the dark green nylon slings. The old cotton webbing slings were still around when the L1 was being phased out.

I see that common sense prevailed and when it REALLY mattered, he wisely took his SUIT sight off. Clever lad!

[Gil Boyd]

Peter,
I support you in that theory, we certainly didn't see the cheap old plastic till 1975 as a Battalion, it was on trial with us in MALAYA in 74 with all that rubbish plastic webbing too, that all the straps slid through the buckles, both were rejected unanimously I thought by Land, but heyho, there must have been a weak link in the food chain

[tankhunter]

I was with THAT particular Battalion as one of the Armourers. Right up to the very deployment to the Falkland Islands Campaign. I can state with Total Accuracy, that the Third Battalion The Parachute Regiment. Did, as Peter has stated. Have a mix of both wood & Plastic Furniture. On ALL of the Issue L1A1 Rifles within that particular Battalion. It is MOST unusual for a sling to be seen on an SLR in an Airborne Battalion! They were ONLY ever issued (With Maroon Coating colour) for Parade use ONLY.
The reasoning behind this was, that every 'user' of this class of weapon. then HAD to have to carry it in his hands. In the 'Ready' position, in expectation of a combat engagement. I would hazard a guess & say, this Senior NCO has 'Obtained' his sling from another unit member. With the real possibility, that he had spoken to a stores NCO onboard the Canberra ship. Which took the infantry Etc to the campaign by sea.
I have a later photo of some members of 3 Para, who deployed to the Sierra Leone campaign armed with SA80 (L85A1) assault rifles. they were part of a HMG team. they had Green Paracord tied to their respective sling swivels. as 'Slings', thus bearing out. That his practice of NOT issuing slings to Airborne Infantry (Parachute Troops) continues to this day!
Nice clean & undamaged sets of woodwork, was 'collected' by us Armourers. & held in the Armourers Workshop. These were reserved for the Battalion Shooting Teams. & fitted annually to SELECTED, Nice tight examples of the L1A1. For Military Competion use. After the six months of practice shooting & the Final Competion matches at Bisley. The woodwork was removed, & replaced with Plastic furniture,
& the rifles returned to their respective Rifle Company Armouries. The process, was repeated, annually.

[Gil Boyd]

Can't speak for 3 PARA but in shiny 2 we never saw slings generally, as stated above, and they only re emerged and issued for NI where we used to use the rear swivel with the sling fitted and make a loop at the other end and tighten that around your wrist, solely for demos or close quarter stuff with rioters. It saved you losing your weapon.
You are right about the blanco'd slings in maroon though as were our 58 Pattern belts maroon'd in the same fashion around our No2's for a period.
What a pain that was, never seen so much maroon paint. Thankfully that was only when the Queen came to Rushmoor Arena in Aldershot in 74 to Present the Colours and Fara the Para saw sense and got rid of them.

When plastic came in, there was a real sense of losing the "grip" on the stock by many, and no matter how much whinging was done REME Armourers had to slowly change them over from wood once they had them in their mits in the Armouries. If you held rank, you could put off the inevitable and retain the wood as Watson did.

[Peter Laidler]

The same thing happened with slings in all of the 3 Infantry Battalions (4,8 and a few months with 1) I served with in Australia. NO slings. Rifle carried at 'the ready'. There was a problem with 'snatchers' in NI when a group of women would try to snatch a rifle from the unwary - and probably weary too! Gil and Tankie might remember the snatcher who did the same with the GPMG............ What a soul destroying tour.......

[Gil Boyd]

Yes that brought back some memories 1972!!!Operation Motorman.........................NO ...................

I think most units were advised to do the same trick with the sling around the wrist, but I know on one really serious demo in a Protestant area, one of the lads got his rifle and arm into the back of the L/R and for whatever reason lost his footing let go of his rifle and got dragged along the back of the L/R for a while. We never had doors/tailgate or roof, and had the screen down and just the wire cutter sticking up with the A41 antennae.

That one incident showed me just how tough the sling was. He ended up with serious wrist burns and no break. The other tough strap in Army use was the old on G10 watch strap and fixed posts on the G10 watch when parachuting, but thats another war story, and seeings I haven't got a sandbag to pull up or swing the lamp, suffice it to say you could lose your wrist if snagged.................grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

[Peter Laidler]

I had a little vivitar 110 auto camera and when the time came to do what were/was probably my last parachute descent, a nice high one (by a bit of arrangement) and not weighed down with kit, I thought I'd get my camera out of my smock pocket and take a couple of pics. All went well with a few pics of Salisbury Plain/Evelegh, (probably included my boots too...) Slipped camera back safely under the risers. Hardish landing, dragged along a bit, collapsed canopy, grazed elbows and smashed camera!

[Fozzybear]

The Australian L1A1s had timber furniture until the end.

[Peter Laidler]

I wasn't on about the furniture Fozzy, I was on about the RAR 'no slings' rule. Or have I misunderstood your answer?