L42A1 Condition Question.

[Brian Dick]

Michael, Your 1970 rifle was what I would call "the cream of the crop" and one of a half dozen I had in my personal collection for many years. Hang on to it. They don't get any better! Brian

[DanL96a1]

Peter tell me about the handgaurds…. After DRP and yourself had done an excellent job resorting my example of this excellent rifle. I too was on the range and the original handgaud split as described shown below.
Attachment 69647
After sourcing another (no easy task) it happened again!! This time I was prepared and hand a third “spare”, I was lucky as someone “older and wiser” in my family, made me one to fit, and it has never broken since and looks like it grew there!

[newcastle]

The one I got from Brian about 10 years back still shoots better than I can with run of the mill NATO Ball ammo (actually its not run of the mill - it's Hirtenberger which is teh bets I've found - but still its NATO SPEC Milsurp).

[DanL96a1]

One day I was browsing through a book on the British Special Forces I have here in my small library. Low and behold, there were photos of soldiers on the sniper courses with L42's.

Brian do you have the pictures you refer too, or the name of this book?

[Gil Boyd]

Brian,
Hated having all those squares stuck to my face, they call it pixalation these days

[DanL96a1]

Peter I would like to think the supply and demand for parts, has got better in our modern army but …I must assume that the same situation with regards replacement chests, and ancillary equipment was worse. Them not being as critical as barrels, bolts, woodwork etc… or was there plenty spares chests as reality new manufacture? Compared with cheek rest, and for ends

[Peter Laidler]

As I remember it, chests were an item that couldn't be written off as it was always repairable at a 2nd line workshop - as many were after operations. Hence their sometimes weatherworn or repaired condition that you see. It wasn't demandable under a part number so was deemed to be a 'starred item'. That didn't mean that you wouldn't occasionally find a 'loose' one somewhere for the usual unexplained reasons.

You asked about the handguards in thread 12. They were made or modified to clear the barrel but the specified clearance was greater than necessary. Realistically, so long as the barrel did not touch the fore-end or h/g at any point was sufficient. There was a little test used to confirm all round clearance.

I have mentioned before but it was the use of the sling against the reduced strength fore-end and h/g's that caused the problems. There was a suggestion submitted by a pair of Armourers (probably totally fed up with patching and the situation in general) that things would improve if a butt sling swivel were recessed into the fore-end at that point would be a better and stronger answer. But by then the rifle was close to the end of its life. So while the two of them got a monetary reward and a glowing endorsement on their personal file for their time and effort, it was kicked into touch.

[DanL96a1]

Interesting repair on the fore end of this L42 as you mentioned
http://www.armeetpassion.com/l42a1.html

[Brian Dick]

Dan,

The book is called "SAS, The Illustrated History" by Barry Davies, B.E.M. There's only one photo showing a sniper trainee in the low crawl with an L42A1 but it says a lot about the original question asked in this thread by Roger. I'm not sure how I can post it as it's a fairly large book and not easy to copy.

[vintage hunter]

The snipers would pull down and backwards on the slings during the course and crack the sling band in the handguard (reading from old papers now.....) which would loosen the band which then pulled even further rearwards, damaging the fore-end.

I'm reluctant to even carry my L42 using a sling for fears of this happening. In light of all the problems the fragile handguards caused I often wonder why they weren't phased out during the L42's service life. Truth be known I often wonder why they had handguards in the first place. They serve no real purpose other than allowing the use on the existing band/swivel for attaching the sling that I can see. Had a sling swivel similar to that of the U.S. M14 with it's through bolts and backing plate been used a lot of headaches could've been avoided.