Well, here's another piece of creative fiction!

[Woodsy]

This is a 'shorty' FAL I made in 2015.

Attachment 77903

[CINDERS]

Try shooting and being next to someone with a TRG-42 338 LM with a muzzle brake on it shooting factory rounds..... certainly tests the hearing protection

[browningautorifle]

Regarding the NZ SAS use of 'shorty' L1A1 SLR's, it did occur but on a very limited basis. I have made a few for people

To who do you refer though, made for whom?

[Woodsy]

Not the NZ SAS, they made their own! I made them for various NZ civilian firearms owners, mainly for 3-gun competition, and sometimes for close bush hunting.

[mrclark303]

Try shooting and being next to someone with a TRG-42 338 LM with a muzzle brake on it shooting factory rounds..... certainly tests the hearing protection

Its certainly difficult to concentrate on your target when you are anticipating the pressure wave to rattle your eye balls!

[browningautorifle]

I made them for various NZ civilian firearms owners

That's what I was thinking, not what we're referring to.

[Peter Laidler]

The SVN and shortie L1A1 connection has been puzzling me for a while.......... Call me an old cynic and all that stuff but.............. The facilities with decent machining down square and re-threading a muzzle and over-boring the gas block and moving it rearwards and turning the barrel to accommodate same and pressing and pinning same and then line drilling the re-positioned gas port and sleeving/blocking up the original now-exposed gas port up and........... and......... didn't (?) really exist at Nui Dat where these units and the Battalions were generally based (not strictly correct as the situation was fairly fluid at the time) had unit based LAD's (light aid detachments). The only decent sized facility with full large Field Workshops that could do this in-theatre was at a place called Vung Tau. And they were generally up to their bottoms in alligators as they say . Anything that couldn't be done there, usually armour and vehicles was either written off in theatre or shipped down to Singapore (or Australia of course) where it was magically repaired by what was called at the time 'mutual allied aid' by those nations that were politically 'neutral'.

So who did these rifles? Local chop jobs just like the one that started this thread?

[Woodsy]

So who did these rifles? Local chop jobs just like the one that started this thread?

Peter, as I understand it, the NZSAS shorty L1A1 conversions (there were only 2 or 3 of them) were done by Base Armourers in Singapore. All that was needed was a lathe and an electric drill. These rifles only had the barrels shortened and threaded to refit the flash hiders, and the gas port tickled out to give reliable cycling. It was done in a 4 jaw chuck with the barrel still attached to the body, and the gas system was left full length.

The short gas systems that are now popular came from somewhere else. I know that commercial short gas/short barrel FAL conversion kits are offered in the US.

[Peter Laidler]

That'll be the small NZ detachment at 40 Base Workshop then Woody. Shame Major Kim W isn't still with us! I'm sure that when the whole story is finally exposed there'll be red faces from all those nations nearby that were politically neutral. Tanks and 113/armour rebuilt/repaired there weaponry sent there '.....for onward transmission.....' as well as ammunition supplied from there and Malaya when the dockers in Oz went on strike as I seem to recall...................... But least said, soonest mended.

[CINDERS]

If I am correct in the literature that I have read it seems weapons that SEALS (can have within reason) had the weapons modded from as issued or brought off shelf to suit their individual style requirements for missions (personnal choice) could one surmise that this was the same for the SASR and the NZSAS. The modifications of certain weapons platforms to fill a need was carried out well before VN and probably dates back to WWII with the USA Rangers, British Commando's and the LRDG.