L96A1 Archive

[chosenman]

Gentlemen,

I'v noticed from time to time when the subject of the L96A1 rifle rears its head it always attracts a great deal of interest and often heated debate.
It's has been commented that whilst the rifle is still relatively young in comparison it would be good to start documenting them, and, my name was thrown into the hat. I have spoken with my contact at AI and he is willing to help. I would therefore be happy to start documenting as many rifles as possible and if you are an owner and would to know the date your rifle left AI then please feel free to send me the serial number. Please watch this space I'll list the details I would like to record later.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Peter Laidler]

Better(?) still, and to preserve the anonymous nature of their ownership, what about a general list like this
UA86A 0001 to 0063 Feb to june 86
0064 to 0146 June to Dec '86
PM 1 to 106 Oct 87 to Jan 1 88 .......and so on. That way it is useful to ALL and not just individuals.

I'd start by asking other owners and interested parties who are going to buy the booklet what THEY think ought to be included, such as variables overall, variations in parts, MoD spec requirement, UK Police requirement. There'll be a hundred others.......... But MOST importantly DON'T be fooled into going to one or two sources. You won't believe the amount of so called authors who would spend 2 days at the P-R and that'd be it and write the same old mythical incorrect rubbish! Look at the Bren, Sten, Patt '14, SMLE Mk5 and EM2 info and trials examples we had that was totally overlooked........

And remember that two heads are better than one and many heads present wisdom

[chosenman]

Cheers Peter, however if the estimates relating to the number of rifles in circulation are correct then this will be a relatively small archive.

Initially I would ask that owners PM me the serial number so I can supply it to AI who will in turn supply the year and date it was delivered to the police or MOD I will ask anyone who participates a few questions regard the rifle's current specification and such so there are some details recorded against that specific rifle. This information will be published here on the forum without the OWNERS IDENTIFICATION.

In time a picture will build as to how many rifles are out there and to whether they are L96A1/PM, military or police and the current specification. Hopefully it will act as a register many years from now which will help future buyers navigate the mists of time as the less scrupulous try and cash in as is currently the situation with the 4 T and L42. I'm sure as the ball starts rolling there will be some development of the archive and it will be tweaked so as to better its effectiveness.

Please participate so an effective register can be built archiving this relatively young but historically important rifle!!

[Gil Boyd]

Pays to throw hats in to the ring and drop names from time to time, look what happens!!!??
It is though, a relatively small database to many other manufacturers and I know it will be treasured mate. I was throwing the latest AI rifle around this morning and looking forward to a shoot at Lydd in the New Year, cut down barrels and all!!

I take on board Peter's comments and fully understand and can relate first hand to the sometimes devious dealings by a very small minority, who rely on some of us to provide missing links. Albeit, I have always been one to say disclose facts for histories sake, as I have also known a lot of history to die with individuals, or NOK dumping Rocking Horse poo in the Council skips............heart breaking!
We are big and ugly enough to give these abusers a hard time if we see things copied without permission, and with the support of intellectual property rights, it has a far greater clout in court then most comparable laws.

Copyright laws are a minefield, but in short, they are there to protect writers and publishers, and I wish more people were taken to task, especially those within the shooting lobby itself who get paid for articles or snatched segmenst they poach from others.

A lot of what is written by Peter/Ian and others, is learned as a trade and gleaned from thousands of hours of graft in cold locations, making love to weapons systems to get the very best from them!

In relation to AI and the proposed database, telescopic sights numbers might be worth recording to if supplied, as I know many packages leaving AI as they did at PH, included a proven sight which had been zero'd before departure.
In some ways, this applies to the 4T, and how I wish rifles and scopes and brackets/tins/chests all stayed together and sold or destroyed together, how easier life and collecting would have been.

[bravo2zero]

Hi, well my L96A1 serial number is 89PM0580 which came from Beds Police,

[chosenman]

Cheers Steve, its with AI.

[chosenman]

First off the blocks is:

1) SN. PM47140
2) Date Shipped out of AI. 16/01/1987 to Northumbria Police.
3) Designation. PM
4) Spec. Police
5) Location. UK
6) Additional Notes. Fitted with a heavily worn L13 scope, black receiver body and barrel, fitted with swirl flash eliminator, early magazine and has a hand engraving of 0131 in front of the SN. At the point of writing this the rifle is on offer with Devizes Gunsmiths @ £15,000.

1) SN. 89PM0580
2) Date Shipped out of AI March 1989 to Bedfordshire Police.
3) Designation. L96A1
4) Spec. Currently Military
5) Location. UK
6) Additional Notes. Original police barrel is still with current owner, fully converted from police to military specification.

1) SN. 89PM0576
2) Date Shipped out of AI March 1989 to Bedfordshire Police.
3) Designation. L96A1
4) Spec. Currently Military
5) Location. UK
6) Additional Notes. Original police barrel is still with current owner, fully converted from police to military specification.

1) SN. UA86A0044
2) Date Shipped out of AI September 1986 to MOD.
3) Designation. L96A1
4) Spec. MOD Military
5) Location. UK
6) Additional Notes. One of the first 100 rifles which were all personally built by Dave Walls before Pylon Eng took over the contract. Has at some point undergone a sand paint job and subsequently been retro painted back to green. No "C" suffix after the serial number.

[Peter Laidler]

Car analogy time again.......... As a bit of an amateur regarding the non UK Military type L96 rifles, it would appear to me that when a customer went in and bought one, it was a bit like buying a VW Polo. You wanted a Polo then specified the colour, trim spec, wheel and tyre option to suit your needs. Whereas the 'original' design spec was the basic UK MoD version, an outside buyer could have different telescope, mount, exterior barrel spec and even different colour - green, sand or black - and so on. We had some L96's that were painted sand colour on Gulf 1 although I never discovered whether this was a local ops requirement or 'as ordered' although a colour change was quite a simple thing for Field Workshops/ABRO to do

It's these variables that could be interesting......... And at what point did the case get extended by a few inches? We had/I have two different lengths. I can give the late modifications to the internals.

The original tools and some of the kit in the CES (Draper I seem to recall) were crap but the defect reports were not pursued fully but rather as a '.....on the grounds of minimum cost, repair is by replacement from Ordnance re-issue' meaning that to keep costs down, just replace with decent stuff as issued from Ordnance.

Another L96 resides in Gladstone, Qld, Australia.

[Gil Boyd]

Hope Ian enjoys it

[chosenman]

1) SN. UA86A0242-C
2) Date Shipped out of AI September 1987 to MOD.
3) Designation. L96A1
4) Spec. MOD Military
5) Location. USA
6) Additional Notes. Believed to have entered the US as a "bring back".