I like the SA80

[mrclark303]

To honour our proud tradition of going off on a tangent and in the spirit of the previous fascinating post by David, showing what used to be available here in the UK, here's a couple of AR15's that survived the gas torch and passed through my hands about 5 years back now.

The AR15 sporter was used for a few years by its owner at Bisley and when the ban came in he had it very carefully deactivated and kept it as a reminder.

The second is an AR15 A2 HBAR, this came from a chap (A true gentleman if there ever was one) who used to import AR15's and M1A's to the UK before the ban, it was absolutely mint and un-fired bar factory test and UK proof...

It hung around a Sec 5 armoury for many years before finally being deactivated in 1995, the owner again keeping it to remind him of happier times.

That one came to me with everything Armalite related (unresticted) he still had in the back of the stock room, hammers, trigger sets, go, no go gauges, cleaning kits etc etc.

All just thrown in, a really nice guy!

It's a shame both got the chop, but its better than facing a cutting torch! Today, the HBAR is in a Museum collection and the A1 Sporter is in a private collection.

I shot a HBAR A2 a few years back, I thought they might shoot well and I wasn't wrong, superb rifles, I would dearly love one!

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[bigduke6]

With trying to keep within the tangent, Regarding Davids posts on Pat Walkers adverts, I was doing a search and found something related to them, it involved a lad who had a 7.92 mm rifle on his ticket, I suppose back then it didnt raise too many eyebrows but the Said "rifle" was in fact a MG42....... I cant find the page were I read about it, but he come to renew his ticket and the routine security check the MG42 stood out...... All his stuff was seized etc, but his dad was a top Judge..... The Firearms dept was trying to get the MG42 working on full chatter, but little known to them the owner had never shot it as he couldnt get it working from day one.... In the end the Cheif Constable took caution regarding the Judges letters etc, so his stuff was returned, the owner being the kind of bloke he was sent a letter to the Firearms dept thanking them for the return of all his firearms and a big thanks for getting his 7.92mm rifle working again.........

[mrclark303]

With trying to keep within the tangent, Regarding Davids posts on Pat Walkers adverts, I was doing a search and found something related to them, it involved a lad who had a 7.92 mm rifle on his ticket, I suppose back then it didnt raise too many eyebrows but the Said "rifle" was in fact a MG42....... I cant find the page were I read about it, but he come to renew his ticket and the routine security check the MG42 stood out...... All his stuff was seized etc, but his dad was a top Judge..... The Firearms dept was trying to get the MG42 working on full chatter, but little known to them the owner had never shot it as he couldnt get it working from day one.... In the end the Cheif Constable took caution regarding the Judges letters etc, so his stuff was returned, the owner being the kind of bloke he was sent a letter to the Firearms dept thanking them for the return of all his firearms and a big thanks for getting his 7.92mm rifle working again.........

That's hilarious Geoff, I would pay good money to see the FEO's face hit the floor when an MG42 buzz saw was produced from the cabinet!

[David TS]

I just found this - apologies if it has been posted before:

British Enfield SA80 Part 2: XL60 series Armament Research Services

[Flying10uk]

David, do you think that there is any likelihood of your deactivated SA80 ever being returned to you or of you receiving compensation for having it taken away from you? Has it been destroyed now?

[bigduke6]

That's hilarious Geoff, I would pay good money to see the FEO's face hit the floor when an MG42 buzz saw was produced from the cabinet!

When I read it John I was in stitches.......of course this was the early 80's........... it really has brought some memories back reading the adverts in David's posts, the 86 date was something else as I was counting the days until I was 17........ ready to start driving, get the bike test done and to get my Shotgun Cert.....

[David TS]

David, do you think that there is any likelihood of your deactivated SA80 ever being returned to you or of you receiving compensation for having it taken away from you? Has it been destroyed now?

F10

It wasn't a deact...........

[Nick S]

F10

It wasn't a deact...........

What was the basis for taking it? The L98 would never have been a S5 firearm.

[desperatedan]

What was the basis for taking it? The L98 would never have been a S5 firearm.

I think we should appreciate someone not wanting to go into detail on something such as this and I can imagine it's not a section 1 vs section 5 issue but following the gist of the thread, how an allegedly only military owned firearm made it onto civvie street.

I think the previous posts illustrate how that's perfectly feasible. Makes you wonder how far such illogical thinking could go? Reclaiming L42's?

Hope it all gets sorted for you David.

[David TS]

What was the basis for taking it? The L98 would never have been a S5 firearm.

Way too long a story to even scratch the surface of, and much of it is sub judice.

---------- Post added at 09:08 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:02 AM ----------

I think we should appreciate someone not wanting to go into detail on something such as this and I can imagine it's not a section 1 vs section 5 issue but following the gist of the thread, how an allegedly only military owned firearm made it onto civvie street.

I think the previous posts illustrate how that's perfectly feasible. Makes you wonder how far such illogical thinking could go? Reclaiming L42's?

Hope it all gets sorted for you David.

Kev

There's talk that some of the more 'interesting' L1A1 straight pull conversions have now been investigated.