The chalk practice No. 94 grenade was known as the Grenade, Rifle, Practice L1A1.
Here's and image milsurps member breakeyp posted of his.
https://www.milsurps.com/attachment....5&d=1267580934
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The chalk practice No. 94 grenade was known as the Grenade, Rifle, Practice L1A1.
Here's and image milsurps member breakeyp posted of his.
https://www.milsurps.com/attachment....5&d=1267580934
Many thanks for the info Kevin, an L1A1 rifle grenade still eludes me it seems.
I would guess they aren't commonly encountered items that's for sure.
It'd be simple to turn one up from a bar of nylon. We used to have packs of spare fins and 'powder puffs' for the replaceable noses.
I let my son fire practice grenades at a target Land Rover hulk from the underslung grenade launcher (the UGL's) when he was about 13. Very little recoil and he got the hang of distance/trajectory/wind formula within a few minutes. To be honest, after the M203 and the UGL's I wonder why anyone even thought of continuing with muzzle fired rifle grenades. The UGL's are so versatile too
There were quite a few of us there and we had a bit of a small competition with the last of the practice rounds. Unbeknown to me, they'd arranged for son Robert to win the few ££'s prize money. Happy days
Little addition....... Laughed about the UGL range day with practice ammo to son Robert (now 25) yesterday and of winning the prize. He's still got the engraved 40mm shell case they sent him afterwards! And he didn't realise it until I told him that they'd aimed off a bit to ensure that he won! Happy days.
I don't know whether you could do these things now - or even then really - but with close supervision and practice ammo, there's nothing that could really go wrong. So better not mention the live firing days......
Can/do these things happen now Skippy? Sentry Duty? BAR? Muffer?
Both yes, and no.
In my area the army would sell "Soldier for a Day" experience vouchers on occasion, these vouchers would be sold or raffled to civilians as fund raising efforts for various charities. Each experience would differ but would consist of temporary issue of some clothing and equipment and usually buggering about with us while on Exercise. I understand there was a weapons experience aspect, but I unsure if they were permitted live use, or just regulated to blank firing. There are some other "dog and pony show" meet the army events which again vary a lot in their scope but did include some manner of weapons exposure.
I do not believe that officially sanctioned events like you describe are all that common, but on the other side, it also depends on who you are and who you know, if you follow my meaning.
While not a live fire, a friend of mine, (now retired) used to run the SAT Range (indoor laser simulators) and his 10 year old son was PWT "qualified" on everything from the Sig P225 up to the C6 LMG. That was a very fun system, all real service weapons that had been converted to laser and compressed air blowback for recoil and cycling, tied to a computer for scoring, stoppages and magazine changes.
Waaaaay back in time we did those things, had some very big businessmen on a range once with the BDE Comd and they were construction CEOs, THE "T Eaton" of the store by the same name...others... I had two Construction company owners and two SMG C1 9mm for the use of. They asked if they could be fired one handed like a pistol, so I fired them auto, one in each hand...and no one got killed that day.
We don't do most of that any more for money reasons, political reasons and the tempo of training taking president...mostly. Most of that happened during a cold war when we had time.
Good Day,
I have one of the No94 Practice Grenades and one of the Marker Grenades. I have an additional loose practice grenade head and would like to find a tail assembly if anyone has a spare.
https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=47182
Thank you,
Michael
There were a number of rifle grenades procured for SF use and to cover the lack of an HE round for the 51mm mortar as the existing design was having serious production and procurement problems. A number of variations were purchased from both MECAR in Belgium and IMI in Israel. They were all designed to be fired off the built in discharger on the SA80. None as I recall were anti tank as this was covered by the 66.. They were all HE AP frag designs, mostly for assault and ambush use..
As has been pointed out, the 5.56 blank solution is somewhat weedy, and prone to mishandling accidents. The bullet trap variant was the one eventually selected, however this looks like one of the other designs which had a booster charge in the tail tube, somewhat reminiscent of the PIAT round.. The red ring on the tail tube indicated the presence of a live component..
I will need to poke through my archives to identify this one.. It is apparantly showing Brit markings, however I seem to recall it was made in Israel and "badge engineered" by a UK supplier on an UOR contract...
These rifle grenades were made obsolete when D INF finally agreed to give up the 51mm mortar in place of the 40mm underslung grenade launcher.. (amid some considerable wailing and knashing of teeth, however what was left of the Ordnance Factories found it impossible to manufacture a reliable 51mm HE bomb, although the smoke and Illum bombs worked..)
Thanks for that Bombdoc. Seems to be the answer. There was a lot of gnashing of teeth when the 51mm mortar was declared obsolete after a short life. It really was 'section artillery'.