Fn mag 58

[Peter Laidler]

The new wooden butts we're currently fitting are identical (?) in shape/format to the lower black plastic one in the picture. Remember ours Gil.......? Not exactly air soft but you could say they were powered by explosively powered air! Made by FN and Enfield!

We were initially taught to hold the L7 with the left hand on top of the butt - as we did with the Bren - but the under-the-grip hold took hold so to speak and is now the norm. Reminds me of the first time I used an L86/LSW/machine gun variant of the SA80 rifle. Sat at a table during my first familiarisation shoot I cocked the gun and put my left hand over the top - as I'd done for years with L4 Brens. Set the change lever to Auto to fire off a few short bursts and fired it. Cocking handle came back with 'some force' and took half the finger nail off my left little finger nail. Ho, ho, ho..... the DS (directing staff) thoiught it was a great little wheeze as quite a few others had done the same thing.

In these cases, rank has a few privileges and if you bide your time, you can always make sure that the penalty WILL be repaid - in full!