-
No sooner had they been issued, they were withdrawn, years passed, we got them back then they were withdrawn again.
This gives some idea of the problems: L81A2 Cadet Target Rifle - ARRSEpedia
The cadets referred to them as "Elephant guns".
-
I had previously read the L81A2 site you mentioned.
The only comment I have is I read that the Australian L81A1 rifles that were pulled down and the parts sold off in the USA were scraped not because of cracking but because of stretching or action body recoil surface set back. That would indicate the actions were too soft, not that they were too hard. Now I do not recall where I read that, but it would have had to have been around the time these rifles were being imported, say 2002 to 2004. If anyone knows the exact failure cause, please feel free to write in. I would be interested in knowing, since I am trying to get a M84 action body heat treated prior to assembling it into a faux L81A1
Many thanks to all who took the time to write in, my understanding of the Cadet issue of the No 4 has been very much improved. Of course any more details that anyone recalls would be of interest. Of course this has raised new questions, such as if the pre 1957 lots of RG and pre 1955 RL lots were still being issued in 1987, why were they not past their condemnation date? I ask as Major Reynolds in one of his letters to the NRA around 1968 spoke on the proof of .303 Mk VII cartridges and indicated that after 14 years of storage the cartridges were tested each and every year. From what I gather by 1987 the ammunition, at 30 years would have been kind of close to end of life. I know in the early 2000~2004 era, when I tried to fire some MK VII RL 54 and RG54 that came out of sealed cases that they did suffer from hangfires under cold weather conditions.
-
If the ammunition is stored properly, it will last for many, many years. In the 90's we were using some RG69 belted ammo in GPMG's that came from returned ammo stocks.
I fired a load .303" ball, recovered in belts from a crashed wartime fighter. While the tracer would only light occasionally, the ball and AP just sailed on into the target. We used the rest up shooting a Vickers MMG. As luck would have it, the event was being filmed by the BBC and in the last 50 rounds of the last belt, I put 4 ball and 1 tracer on a nothing lost nothing gained basis. And just when we really wanted it to all ignite - it did! Lovely sight
added next day.......
We used a Thompson on the range today with some 'found' ammo still in its wartime packaging and it was perfect. We also used an M1 carbine with similar ammo but not as much. No chrono of course so it could have deteriorated slightly but it all went well and hit the targets at 25 yards so made the day worthwhile.
