ANZAC SAS L1A1 recreation..

Afternoon all,

Heading off to the workshop this weekend to re-create a display example of the fabled SAS selective fire Vietnam L1 specials.

I was very kindly sent a number of detailed pictures of an original example to assist in this and will be basing my reproduction as close as possible to that example right down the colour.

The rifle I am using is a welded up and rusty old deactivated Malay contract Lithgow L1A1 complete with battered Brit plastic. A truly beaten up old warrior that looks like its gone 10 rounds with Mike Tyson.

Woodwork put aside and ready to go

Before and after pics next week guys..

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Originally Posted by mrclark303

its gone 10 rounds with Mike Tyson.

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how are you going to put the ears back on?

btw its SASR if you dont mind.

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Originally Posted by mrclark303

Before and after pics next week

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And...we'll be watching.

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Originally Posted by Mr E

how are you going to put the ears back on?

btw its SASR if you dont mind.

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Very funny.....

Evening all,

I spent the entire (extremely enjoyable) dreary wet weekend in my mates engineering workshop working on a few projects, first off the deactivated display reproduction of an ANZAC SASR, Selective fire L1A1.

As mentioned in my first post, I had been waiting for some really clear images of an example of these rare rifles in order to re-produce one as accurately as possible. I was very fortunately (and generously) sent a lot of pictures of a very rare surviving original example in a collection.

Enough information to give me the "green" light and to crack on with the project. The rifle had a pistol grip mounted on a laminate forend (via two screws attached to the lower left half). the FE cut back with the bayonet boss and key cut away, leaving the remains of the FE, re-crowned and mounted on the barrel as a sort of break.

It had a selective fire L2A1 safety (and obviously the shortened trigger plunger), then it was painted an overall olive green (no camouflage pattern), little of the original paint remained, but there was enough to reasonably closely gauge the colour for a match and allow me to make a small amount for my re-creation.

The rifle I used for the build was as I said, a rather down trodden miserable looking Malay contract L1A1 that had had the arse used out of it, like so many Malay contract examples it had been flogged to death!

I bought this rifle at an arms fair a few years ago, it was new spec deactivated, no bolt and carrier welded into the receiver, though the safety and the trigger worked, the hammer was welded to the back of the carrier and to the sides of the TMH, in short a mess!

It gets better, when this rifle was deactivated ( by a large UK dealer who will remain anonymous), they cut through the pivot rings in the TMH and broke one clean off. While this is repairable and it still went to the Proof House for its cert, the profit margins were so tight they eventually decided not to sell it, but use any parts they could retrieve and eventually just cut the remains up for scrap.... or desk ornaments!

So this beaten up old war horse was stripped of useful parts for the other deac L1A1's in their stock. It lost its gas plug, top cover, pistol grip and had most of its FE cut off to be mounted on a block of wood as a pen holder .... I kid you not, I think I can remember it on ebay a few years back!!:madsmile::rofl:

It was however saved from the final chop by me buying it to use it as a clothes horse while restoring L1A1 wood work, perfect for the job! Well, I happened to have a spare laminate forend and various cracked and split butts and pistol grips that weren't suitable for repairing, but they were perfect for this..

I adjusted the profile of the original safety to match as closely as possible the L2A1 example and set about the remains of the FE (bloody hard material to work with).

I mounted the modified pistol grip (modified by gluing a block of wood into the grips cavity and shaping to profile) to the forend exactly as per the original rifle, its a surprisingly solid feel in the laminate forend and I must admit the rifle "points" very well with the extra grip, I can see why they did this...

So here she is, I am pleased with the final result, a bit of fun was had and a basket case of an L1 was resurrected to boot!


Cheers, John

Another nice job John, one of them busy weekends with no interruptions I guess.......

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Originally Posted by bigduke6

Another nice job John, one of them busy weekends with no interruptions I guess.......

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Had last weekend in the diary since last year mate, I told my wife I would be heading off on a Milsurps retreat for the weekend..

Very nice they certainly did not leave you much to work with MC303, it is important these (tailored field mods) are not forgotten to show that special forces troops soon learn what works and what does not work.

Looks like my post and pics dissapered into the ether!!

Doug, help! What did I do..

It was there hence the reply....... have you edited it ?

I wondered what I was missing...

Did you move it to another forum!

Morning all, it's odd, I corrected a spelling mistake and the whole post dissapered, I obviously bugged something up! Just waiting to hear back from Doug to see if he can sort it.

Otherwise I will repost the pics and blurb later on guys

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Originally Posted by mrclark303

Morning all, it's odd, I corrected a spelling mistake and the whole post dissapered, I obviously bugged something up! Just waiting to hear back from Doug to see if he can sort it.

Otherwise I will repost the pics and blurb later on guys

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Found a post in this thread that had pics uploaded with it... :thup:

If it's the one you're referring to, it had been "soft deleted", so perhaps you hit the "delete" button by accident instead of "submit" after your changes.

I've restored it now.. :cheers:

Regards,
Doug

Thanks Doug, you are a star, I work with computers every day, so you would think I would know better, what a dumb ***!

Cheers mate

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Originally Posted by mrclark303

ANZAC SAS L1A1

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Interesting concept rifle...

Not to be a pooper in regard to Mr Clark's excellent re-creation, I am one of those who who doubts the reliability and/or ruggedness of the front grip fixed to a set of plywood handguards via a screw and block of whatever and with handguards fixed to the front and rear inserts by alloy rivets. And those rivets would often need swaging to tighten up the front inserts........ They were a bit of a handful fired from the standing position (especially for me, as a lightweight scrawny 20 year old wearing jungle greens and webbing). So imagine firing one holding that pistol grip holding the rifle DOWNwards and rearwards as it's trying to follow the laws of physics and rotate UPwards. And then in the automatic fire role. Nope........ My views are well known.

AS a matter of interest clarkie, why didn't you replace the chopped-off flash eliminator as per the 'standard'

Evening Peter, I agree the pistol grip isn't what I would call robustly fitted, but I fitted mine exactly as per the original rifle.

I was provided with a picture of the handguards stripped to enable me to re-create the pistol grip fitting as per the original.

With regard to the Flash eliminator, it's modified in exactly the same way as the original rifle too, why was it done this way, I am not qualified to say, must have been bloody loud though on rock and roll!

Very nice looking rifle, now all you need to do is tie a rope to it and tie the rope to the back of the car and then take it for a spin around some gravel to give it that 'used' looks.

The pistol grip works well, and dose keep the muzzle from rising when on full auto, so I've been told.

The flash eliminator has been cut down and acts as a bit of a muzzle weight, but it also protects the threads and without the bayonet lug there is less chance of it being snagged in dense undergrowth.

Cheers Cinders, I would agree this interesting side story of the Inch pattern rifle shouldn't be forgotten.

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Originally Posted by nzl1a1collector

Very nice looking rifle, now all you need to do is tie a rope to it and tie the rope to the back of the car and then take it for a spin around some gravel to give it that 'used' looks.

The pistol grip works well, and dose keep the muzzle from rising when on full auto, so I've been told.

The flash eliminator has been cut down and acts as a bit of a muzzle weight, but it also protects the threads and without the bayonet lug there is less chance of it being snagged in dense undergrowth.

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I'll drag it round the town behind my Land Rover Kev, that should raise a few pulses !:lol:

I was surprised how well the rifle points with the extra pistol grip and loosing a few inches from the barrel certainly helps too. I guess its what Archaeologists refer to as "Experimental Archaeology" , sometimes you have to make these things to really understand the logic and purpose of the original users..

I can quite understand why the British went on to field modify some L1A1's in Northern Ireland with the front mounted pistol grip.

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Originally Posted by mrclark303

must have been bloody loud though on rock and roll!

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My rifle was always able to fire auto, against regs...and yes, they would roar.

Was the front pistol grip an optional addition? What was the best way to attach it to the rifle.
Reading about these various projects has made me dig out my stuff and look at it. It's to bad
the Canadian Crown decided we weren't to be trusted on the firing ranges or in the bush.We
used to have fun with surplus.

There are a few threads regarding the why's and wherefores and other aspects of these rifles, such as......... anyway! There's quite a bit about them and other opinions too.

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Originally Posted by can14

Was the front pistol grip an optional addition? What was the best way to attach it to the rifle.
Reading about these various projects has made me dig out my stuff and look at it. It's to bad
the Canadian Crown decided we weren't to be trusted on the firing ranges or in the bush.We
used to have fun with surplus.

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The front pistol grip was a completely unofficial field modified adaption, I should think fitted in whatever way the Armourer carrying out the mods thought was best.

These modified rifles can be seen in period pictures,in a variety of flavours, some modified from L2A1's some L1's.

As Peter said, plenty of discussion on the subject here in the past and lots of pics and info to Google.

Very few survive today as I believe quite a few were turned over to US special forces teams when the Australian/New Zealand SAS Squadrons rotated out of the country.