Parker hale m85

[Peter Laidler]

The Lt Colonel running the trial will readily confirm that the P-H was more accurate in every respect and at all stages of the trial - but only marginally so! It was the easibility of maintenance that won the day for the A! but it did have major design/metallurgy flaws that we're all now familiar with. Mind you there were steel quality/consistency issues with the P-H bodies that were apparent even on the little L81's
L96 arrels could only be changed with special tooling at big Base workshops incidentally and internal collars caterered for CHS adjustment - which was VERY tight. I'm not sure that the average crunchie was allowed to upset the trigger mech - god, you'd never know what you were going to get! It was bad enough when they removed the side plates to 'clean' the rifle. You could almost guarantee that one side or the other would catch on the frame or one of the long screws would hold and the side plate would snap.
Another good competitor was the Armalon variant of a US rifle but we/politics dictated/wanted UK or EU made. There was a straight pull 'thing' that simply wouldn't tolerate dust.

All in all, the L96 was a worthy winner