L85 rifle new manufacture receivers?

[bigduke6]

Got to love wondering threads, we have gone from new manufacture L85 bodies, to ration packs and cooking in the field

I know John, totally out of character, but at least it comes with pics, just a few below showing the old petrol cooker which was only for camping grade fuel, low grade UK petrol, says not to use USA or Canadian fuel ? The Hexi cooker and the latest ( none issue ) yet to test it but seen them in action and they are quick,

The Hexi cooker shows the base that the metal cup for the 58 Patt water bottle fits, the last pic shows the more modern version of gas cooker, folds away into a 3" x 2" x 1.5" box.

[mrclark303]

Its alright for some Geoff, out in the sunshine, cans of beer and looking for bargains (good luck with the bike parts hunt), stuck in my bloody office!

Did you catch up with Tankie, give Mike my best mate..

[bigduke6]

Thats an empty from the early hours, if i'd have known that the wild west was not too far from Abergavenny I would of dropped in....................... picked up some kids chairs and tables for the boss who got them off ebay..... I've restricted it now to a 50mile radius, my mistake as I thought it was before Hereford.

Not heard from Mike as yet, sent him a PM last week also.

[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.

[Flying10uk]

So how much of the A2 version of the SA80 rifle was/is new parts and how much of the old A1 version of the SA80 was modified/reconditioned and then put into the A2, SA80?

[Peter Laidler]

It'd take too long to detail the new parts, modified standard parts and the remaining original parts is the short answer. Unless anyone wants to try. Then there's the original parts and the pre-A2 upgraded parts and the .................

[Flying10uk]

What I'm getting at is that the A2 rifle, when it first came out, wasn't a completely brand new rifle in that at least some of the parts it contained came from the A1 rifle?

[mrclark303]

Among the new parts, bolt assembly, extractor assembly, hammer, FP, gas cylinder and plug, new improved springs throughout and magazine.

Many mods and tweaks to the original receiver (don't know about the TMH).

Further changes incorporated, piccatiny adaptor rail to fit new optics, railed forend etc

[Peter Laidler]

Directed feed, enlarged ejection opening, breech locking etc etc..........

[David TS]

Is it a hard fact that HK are remanufacturing L85A2's?

If it isn't, then I can't see why it might be true, for one simple reason - 21,707 L98A1 Cadet rifles were originally produced, and X amount (the suggestion is around 15,000) of reserve L85A2's were converted to L98A2's and reissued to Cadets as self loading rifles.

Why then, if stocks of L85A2's in reserve were short, would 15,000 or more of them be converted to L98A2's for Cadets. I just can't see that would have happened.