Commercially Retailed L96A1 Rifle

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I recently obtained in Germany what was not only a bit of a mystery to myself, but also to Steve, who I had consulted for verification. The weird aspect of it was that the rifle is military L96A1 marked, but has a 90 PM serial number, that Steve told me:

90 PM 0704 was supplied as part of a batch of 4 rifles titled "job 832" and sent to Mr. W. Spindler 1-3-1990

Being a bit clueless on this information I researched this name a bit, only to find a gun dealer in Germany named Wilhelm Spindler. Calling him answered the question - he was very proud in that he told me he was the very first person to get an export permit for these rifles to be retailed in Germany and had since then frequently imported AI rifles to Germany.


While this is a bit in contrast to the fact that AI never offered PM/L96 to the general public (until 2000 with the AW), it therefore indeed seems that this particular rifle must had been one of the very first ones ever sold commercially, and this one even to abroad.


I had wondered whether this rifle came with scope or without. Mr. Spindler had told me that there was no rule - either with or without scope (+ mount). Therefore I actually had considered putting the Military L96A1 scope I have (currently sitting on the Police PM rifle that I own) on this rifle, once I instead get ahold of a Police contract 2.5-10x scope on mount that I can use on my Police rifle.

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