Just A Young Man And His Dad Who Appreciates An SLR

[BruceHMX]

My Son is 15 and shares my passion for collecting and shooting Commonwealth arms. Last summer we had the opportunity to take this SLR to the range. It started life as a Lithgow mixed in with some British parts and then ended up at Century Arms to be made into a sporter. ARS made it run the way it was suppose too several years ago. It has an Imbel metric receiver but alas I had sold my all British Law Enforcement sample years ago. I was fortunate in the early 80's to do one of the exchange shoots in Germany and loved them ever since. Never humped one like many of you on the forum but respect all who have.

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[Gil Boyd]

BruceHMX,

All credit to you for introducing your son, the BEST rifle we ever had in service which excelled in ALL conditions thrown at it.

[Eaglelord17]

BruceHMX,

All credit to you for introducing your son, the BEST rifle we ever had in service which excelled in ALL conditions thrown at it.

To be fair from what I have read on the SA80 (especially before the Germans fixed them), anything is basically a better alternative. They didn't call the FN the right hand of the free world for nothing.

[browningautorifle]

My Son is 15

He looks about as old as I did when I started shooting FN also...I was 17 going on 12...all he's lacking is the combat clothing.

[Brit plumber]

To be fair from what I have read on the SA80 (especially before the Germans fixed them), anything is basically a better alternative. They didn't call the FN the right hand of the free world for nothing.

Don't let Peter Laidler hear you say that! The SA80 was built to budget, had they been allowed to incorporate what they wanted in the first place, the HK update would not have been required. They simply put into practice what Enfield wanted to do from day one.

[Paul S.]

. . . They simply put into practice what Enfield wanted to do from day one.

More like what H.M.G., namely the sitting government at the time, wanted since they wanted to 'shift' ROF Enfield and get out of the weapons production business.

[mrclark303]

My Son is 15 and shares my passion for collecting and shooting Commonwealth arms. Last summer we had the opportunity to take this SLR to the range. It started life as a Lithgow mixed in with some British parts and then ended up at Century Arms to be made into a sporter. ARS made it run the way it was suppose too several years ago. It has an Imbel metric receiver but alas I had sold my all British Law Enforcement sample years ago. I was fortunate in the early 80's to do one of the exchange shoots in Germany and loved them ever since. Never humped one like many of you on the forum but respect all who have.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...qlhgrigr-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...wdtmwz8a-1.jpg

Well done Bruce, the L1 looks good! Are there any States where the law prohibits the ex law enforcement L1A1's ?

They do seem to be a rather grey area with some in the US regarding them as Machine Guns (due to the presence of the safety Sear).

[Gil Boyd]

I saw the progressive mods to the SA80 come in and each time something new developed after lengthy firing. It is a story all on its own and one I'm not going to lengthen by pretending it didn't cause grown men to cry in frustration, I'll leave that to those who got their hands dirty in quick time to try and resolve ALL the issues!!
I remember as if it was yesterday, handing in my issue SLR and drawing out an SA80 for the first time, and all the pain barriers of dry handling and lesson plans, completely foreign to many, even after they gave the lessons. It took a long time to be accepted as the replacement, so you can imagine what was being said when it started going miserably wrong, compared to my trusty steed the SLR IMHO.

[BruceHMX]

I saw the progressive mods to the SA80 come in and each time something new developed after lengthy firing. It is a story all on its own and one I'm not going to lengthen by pretending it didn't cause grown men to cry in frustration, I'll leave that to those who got their hands dirty in quick time to try and resolve ALL the issues!!
I remember as if it was yesterday, handing in my issue SLR and drawing out an SA80 for the first time, and all the pain barriers of dry handling and lesson plans, completely foreign to many, even after they gave the lessons. It took a long time to be accepted as the replacement, so you can imagine what was being said when it started going miserably wrong, compared to my trusty steed the SLR IMHO.

That had to be horrible to say the least. Going from a trusted weapon system to something that was totally different and unreliable. While we had some of those issues going to the M9 Beretta from the 1911 that was not your primary weapon system to most.

[browningautorifle]

They didn't call the FN the right hand of the free world for nothing.

I taught lots of lefties to use the FN without problem. They had no issues. We had the same problems stated by Gil changing over to the C7. Whether or not it fit the spot for the FN doesn't matter, the FN was gone and that was a done deal. It was foregone before they had been withdrawn, so when they say "Trials" it's a misnomer. They aren't even close, it's just how it is.