British Army 7.62 mm L1A1 Boresighting Device

[Gil Boyd]

Blimey............that re envigered my memory banks, yes totally forgot all about yet another piece of crap we had ha ha!
Lots of good stuff came from the Trial and Error unit at SASC thats why Benny left us and went over to the dark side with you

All joking aside, if it wasn't for you guys many a battle would have been lost had we stuck ridgidly with the bondooks as they were issued. So much was learnt in addition to the manufacturers issued "guide book" on every single weapon, from total experience in the field.

Just take the SA80 as an example and how it has evolved to what it is today, from such early disastrous operational days..... days I shall never forget, however, all the info gathered by you guys made it what it is now, how you found the patience I'll never know, I would have stuck it up someones area where the sun doesn't shine at Royal Ordnance at lot earlier than when it did finally get inserted

[tankhunter]

I'm not sure that it was called the Mk2 version. What happened was that the kit came as an assembly and replacement parts were not easily available so the kits fell by the wayside through lack of use. After that, there was a suggestion (called GEMS) doing the rounds that used a spent case with the primer and pocked bored out but you still got parallax at the muzzle. The sub-cal idea camwe on stream and the barrel was an available spare part via Ord so that's what we used thereafter.

Is that about right Tankie. Feel free to correct me re the sequences. The good thing about the kit was that you could do it in any 15m(?) distance/space such as a warm classroom

Sorry for the late response Peter. I knocked a cup of Coffee over my laptop a couple of weeks ago. & yes, it is buggered! Writing this on my newly delivered an hour ago. Laptop, via house & contents insurance!

Yes, you are quite correct with your comments above. When I left Warminster, there were TWO of these borsighting MkI aids. Sitting on the dexian shelving, in the Armourers Shop. They never left those shelves in the 2 years I was on attachment there!.........I have one in the Collection myself. Acquired approx. a year ago.

[nzl1a1collector]

Thanks for the replies guys, I will make a note of the latter 'corrected' method of boresighting with the .22 Conversion Kit barrel. Was the boresighting chart still used with the new method or was something else used?

While were looking at some unusual training aids, here's another that I'm looking for the 'bracket' for.

[tankhunter]

I assume that this is in .22" for mounting on the exterior of an Anti-Tank Gun. Or Tank main Armament. For interior 30 Mtr Range practice?

[Peter Laidler]

Definately a .22 by the absence of the gas block and return spring tube. Also the cut-off pistol grip thinggy. I would say that it was to replicate the or fit into the M8C rifle mount on top of the wombat. It wouldn't sit inside the main armament barrel as the mag would foul the chamber.

All this sub-calibre training and electronic laser simulation - they were just starting to do simulation training with hand grenades too - is really no substitute for the real McCoy

[Gil Boyd]

As you say an indoor substitute for the .5 on the Wombat

[Peter Laidler]

Simulation grenade throwing, like the simulated laser golf course....... Everyone will agree that there's nothing like the first time you threw a hand grenade. Our Military Training instructor told us that nothing would match it and we all kept the first ring and pin as a souvenir.

[nzl1a1collector]

Its the sub-cal unit for the CRV(T) Scorpion as per the EMER D119, Misc Instr No. 19, Iss 1, Mar 73; RIFLE 7.62 MM L1A1, Technical Handbook - Miscellaneous Instruction - Conversion of rifle for use on CIM's and gunnery training turrets.

[Gil Boyd]

Yes Peter, and still dons the zip as a pull, on my original PARA smock.
Great Pics there Kiwi

[Peter Laidler]

Yep, makes sense and when I look, there it is in my EMER copy!

It's even stranger because at one time we had a load of Australian made .22" semi auto sportco rifles designated the L19 as I seem to remember. They did the same sub-cal job in our Centurion gun tanks. The L19's were stripped of all the superflous crap and fired down the main 105mm gun barrel at solid rubber tanks.

The 'target' tanks at 25yds away were made from very hard compressed rubber and lasted a fair while. But when you hit them they just sat there. BEST was to hit the sand just below them which sent them flying. In much the same way as the Iraqi T72 turrets did in Gulf1

The sportco's....... yes....... Even though they had no woodwork the sights were still on them. So whenever a Centurion was taken out across Salisbury Plain for a REME track-test (after a new set of tracks was fitted), the commander would take a sportco and take pot-shots at the zillions of peasants that littered Salisbury Plain. Did I say peasants......... I meant Pheasants as we didn't have too many illegal immigrants then!