L1A1 BFA troubles

[Peter Laidler]

The 'choke', the stainless steel bit that goes into the muzzle was 'roll' rivetted radially which made it more secure. Thinking on my feet here, but...... I'm not sure that if the detached choke (para 2a above) fell into the barrel it'd be dangerous as such because if you did fire a blank after wards, it'd just fire the choke up into the remains of the still attached BFA.

Added later: Just read the old EMER and the choke of the A2 version was roll rivetted over a larger dia washer too to presumably give it more strength

The bit at the front they talk about (para 2b above) would fracture due to it being subject to extremes of instant heat/cold/heat cold. As it fatigued it fractured. The rear end was attached to the bayonet standard while the fractured/detached front end went whizzzzzing off down range........

Someone remind me.... Didn't the early type have a longitudinal recess in the spring loaded part of the strap while the later one didn't have the recess making it stronger but still prone to fatigue and recognisable from the earlier version. Memory is failing.

The problems - if they were ever REAL problems that is - were never really resolved until the overly complicated last design came on stream due to the advent of ar5e covering and health and safety. Think SA80 BFA's and magazines..........

There's probably more to it than that of course but certainly, fractures of the spring steel retainer was a problem.