British Issue Weapons

[Shawn Mulock <01340743@xxxxxxxx>]

> > At least the L7s(?) worked... damn far sight better
> > than those horrid SA80s...
>
> *Cough* IW/LSW
>
> FEAR the way this is going (again)! =)

Don't worry about it going that way.... there may be a few people here who
became all to familiar with the aforementioned weapons... the L85A1/L86 and
the beloved L7A2. The L85A1 aka SA80 aka IW and its very similar cousin the
L86 aka LSW (the pair have been called the "Enfield Infantry System" by
some) were both less than admirable weapons (In my opinion, of course). As I
have said before the early SA80s had little problems like magazine catch
failures and being prone to runaway (not to mention the trigger piston rod
breaking). While they looked cool (compared to the L1A1s) and the SUSAT
(Sight Unit Small Arms Trilux) was handy, looking cool meant nothing if the
weapon was unreliable. As the two weapons share an 85% commonality of parts,
you can see where we are going to get into trouble with the LSW as well. The
only real blessing was that an opposing force sniper looking to hit the
support weapon first had to do a serious double take to pick out the support
gunner. Which always bought the lads a few more meters...

As for the L7s.... they were a wonderful piece of kit. The ones I used had
three gas settings, removable fiberglass stock, bottom dropping shell
extraction, quick change barrels, excellent fire rate (three in fact),
simple operation & field strip, scope and pintle/heavy tripod (nod to Lee)
mountable... the works...  the only real drawback was the 7.62mm Belted
Disintegrating Link being bastard heavy. (I got to be the gunner with an L7
in the medium support role once and had to drag about 600 rounds of the
stuff as well as the gun and my pattern) and the subsequent lower field time
with the gun and less time deployed until re-supply. But being able to start
hitting light infantry at 800m on preset lanes with a laid in gun was always
VERY reassuring.

Although loosing the Gas Regulator Plug always makes the Armory Staff turn a
wonderful shade of scarlet...

SLR..... My Lee, you may have just dated yourself! (Got out in the midst of
the new issue, didn't you?)
S.