L96a1

[KIMBO65]

How many L96a1 were issued to the army?. Do members have any good pictures of issued L96's.

Information

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[Peter Laidler]

A couple of good pictures of the rifles, to CES have appeared on this site. The actual CES was updated/improved over the years but only by the addition of some items and change in style/type of other bits The numbers issued to the Army are still restricted - so far as I am aware although the last 19 were withdrawn from the training role about 2 years ago

[KIMBO65]

Thanks for the reply peter, i suppose their all going to be cut up when your finished with them?

[Simon]

Quite a famous pic, or maybe infamous.

I've had it straight from the Horses mouth that "That F***king picture haunts me"

There's a story behind the subjects expression that I won't go into, but lets just say he wasn't particularly impressed with the photographer.

Cheers,

Simon

[KIMBO65]

Thats a nice sling on the lads stick!!!!!

[Peter Laidler]

Yep...... UN policy. Weapoms to be disposed of by destruction

[KIMBO65]

I brought one of the police issued l96's when they were released. shot it a few times then had the bright idea of selling the l96a1, l42a1, winchester m70, m85 & various no4t's i had....... boy do i regret that now !!!!!

[chosenman]

By the time the L96 went out of service in 2010 it had gone through one or two changes over its 25 year service. It lost its battle sights and the scope was upgraded to the black 3-12 x 50 S&B which in turn had its own padded DPM carry case added to the CES. Other changes included a new more tailored valise to cater for the new scope opposed to the old elasticated wrap around, the cleaning kit and associated tools received a DPM carry case and the sling went from the wide nylon L42 type to the narrow web L42 type. Towards the end of its service life most of the side panels were battered with splits and cracks which is why you wont see an L96 post late 90's that isn't covered in sniper tape! Other supplementary issued kit went through some changes as well such as the spotting scope which early on was partnered up with the swift scope but due to the problems encountered particularly in the first Gulf War was rapidly dumped in favour of the US M49 with its M15 tripod, the brit version had an integral sun shade.

[Peter Laidler]

There was no reason for the cracked and split sides to have remained on a rifle Chosenman. They were readily available from Ordnance right up until ours left the sniper div in the training/familiarisation role in 2012. And simply changed over in 5 mts or so. My LAD/Armourers had sets covered in gaffer/tank/sniper tape that were left soaking in the degreasing tank just to get rid of it! I SUSPECT that the sniper tape wrapped everywhere ploy was the same as the tank/gaffer tape ploy on the old L85's. It just looked a bit warry! I know....., I know....., but that's how they were....... Ours came with a green KOWA scope at the end that was incorporated as an issue item along with the CES. A FAR better scope than the big swifts. My very late CES still specifies the backsight.

I seem to recall that the only reason the Police got 'L96's' was because of an 'administrative' error somewhere along the line because the IPR of the true L96 belonged to the MoD. Anyway, they were sold to the/some Police forces (before the practice was halted.....) but the serial numbers were changed to some other format and one (?) force specified a special san-fandanglio swirl type magic flash eliminator - that the ITDU repaort said was a frill, if not a total fraud! Wiltshire came and tested some on loan from Warminster - as you would as we knew their ex REME Armourer Ken xxxxxes.

[chosenman]

I believe the police version carries a "PM" prefix to a two digit year date then a four digit SN number and I think it was Bedfordshire police who ordered the Rambo flash eliminator. My statement ref sniper tape and knackered side panels comes directly from a good friend in 3 Para who claims some of the side panels on their 96's were held together with sniper tape. He claims when the AW came into service in tandem with the 96 it suffered cosmetically and was soon treated as the "poor relative". They took L96 rifles to Sangin in 2006 which barely had any of the green paint finish left on them after being desert sand blasted on two previous tours of Iraq. Its interesting the late CES still lists the rear sight as it doesn't physically fit with the black S&B upgrade.