L85 rifle new manufacture receivers?

[Peter Laidler]

Hi Brent (thread 30). Not blind patriotism from me I have to say in my defence. I've fired a zillion SA80's of all sorts and can tell you some horror stories of the A1 rifle. But knew of some of the engineering trials and tests that were taking place at Shrivenham and involving another member of this forum whom I'm not at liberty to name/discuss. I should add that a lot, if not MOST of the re-design into the A2 was done there. H&K put everything into one tidy neat package and titivated some of the metallurgy. Incidentally, the conversion process wasn't difficult and ABRO (the new name for the big civilianised REME workshops) put in a bid to carry out the conversion process - and cheaper too.

I was invited to the very first field firing trials of the A2 rifle and at a prior meeting told the trials board people what my previous experience was. When you are an older 'junior' ranking Officer, you can do this without mincing words! But those few days firing trials converted me. I used to debrief men returning from ops during a relaxed group discussion(s) and they didn't really have or say much to complain about. Alas, they DID complain about the LSW variant! But that was soon to be slowly , er......... Anyway! Their greatest praise, without any shadow of doubt, was reserved for the GPMG.

I was often asked whether my views of the SA80/L85A2 were a case of 'well, he's got to say that.....' or singing the party line. But no. It was because the A2 rifle was as good as it gets. That's an honest answer. I think the desert cleaning regime should be totally dry and there are some other desert warfare things that could be done but that's only my opinion. As someone whispered into my ear just before I retired '......... we won't be fighting there again!' (the desert). Let's see.

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