How Britain Made the L1A1 SLR: Archive Film with intro by firearms expert Jonathan Ferguson

[Liveonce]

stumbled on this, enjoyed watching it, hope you do likewise.

 

[Morkai]

He make goods videos, also made a smart move by teaming up with GameSpot/IGN and reviewing guns from computer games.

Exposed lots of people to the Royal Armories Museum in Leeds.

Also weote a book about the history of the bullpup etc.

 

[EdgarF]

Thank you for posting this. I spent 3 months at RSAF Enfield in the early 1980s as part of my professional engineering training. The main effort at that time was development of the SA80. But there was plenty of other work, including making barrels for the G3 rifle. Production techniques had moved on, and they used cold hammer forging to make the barrels. A great factory and I felt very sad to read about it closing down.

 

[Bavarianbrit]

Man, my mother stank of suds oil when she came home as she was running such capstan lathes all day must have been cancer causing, H&S what's that?

 

[alberta boy]

I carried the Canadian version ,the C1A1 , which I loved , and was forced to carry a C2A1 , which I hated , for a number of years . I've also owned a few British , Australian and Isreali versions in civilian life . One of my favourite battle rifles , they worked quite well on Moose and Bears too lol . Definitely one of the best designs of the twentieth century . Thanks for posting .
AB

 

[alberta boy]

Thank you for posting this. I spent 3 months at RSAF Enfield in the early 1980s as part of my professional engineering training. The main effort at that time was development of the SA80. But there was plenty of other work, including making barrels for the G3 rifle. Production techniques had moved on, and they used cold hammer forging to make the barrels. A great factory and I felt very sad to read about it closing down.

I was born in Enfield Lock, about a quarter mile up Ordnance Road, my family all worked at the Royal Small Arms in one capacity or another, you probably met a few of them. If you went for a pint at Rifles or the Railwayman ( aka, The Germans lol) at the far end of Ordnance Road, you definitely did. As a matter of fact , I was there in the early 80s , we may have met .Small world brother .
AB

 

[enfieldspares]

The Enfield scandal was that Thatcher privatised it, sold Enfield Lock as a going concern to her cronies in the city for £6m* whilst saddling thr poor British Army with the SA80 so that the now privatised firm had a captive customer.

What then happened was that her cronies closed Enfield Lock sold the land off for building for £36m and moved production to Nottingham. I never visited Enfield Lock as I thought it'd be "always there" so any visit could wait. I went to Nottingham however two, three or four times.

Lastly the Jamaica Defence Force who were given their weapons, supposedly, were given the SA80. The Jamaica Police who spent their own money on ther weapons bought the M16. I don't think any other force or body anywhere actually freely paid their own money for the thing? Ever!

The Falklands Islands Defence Force when they gave up the SLR that replaced their No4? They didn't take up the offer, supposedly, of free SA80 rifles but paid money for the Steyr AUG.

The whole thing was a scandal that only further contiued when later millions would be paid again to further Thatcher cronies to fix all the SA80 problems from the original version poor Tommy Atkins was saddled with. So UK taxpayers were ransacked not once, not twice but thrice.

* The figures may be not quite right but the "multiplier" is. That once privatised the site was closed and sold off for housing development for six times what Thatcher's cronies paid for it.

 

[alberta boy]

The Enfield scandal was that Thatcher privatised it, sold Enfield Lock as a going concern to her cronies in the city for £6m* whilst saddling thr poor British Army with the SA80 so that the now privatised firm had a captive customer.

What then happened was that her cronies closed Enfield Lock sold the land off for building for £36m and moved production to Nottingham. I never visited Enfield Lock as I thought it'd be "always there" so any visit could wait. I went to Nottingham however two, three or four times.

Lastly the Jamaica Defence Force who were given their weapons, supposedly, were given the SA80. The Jamaica Police who spent their own money on ther weapons bought the M16. I don't think any other force or body anywhere actually freely paid their own money for the thing? Ever!

The Falklands Islands Defence Force when they gave up the SLR that replaced their No4? They didn't take up the offer, supposedly, of free SA80 rifles but paid money for the Steyr AUG.

The whole thing was a scandal that only further contiued when later millions would be paid again to further Thatcher cronies to fix all the SA80 problems from the original version poor Tommy Atkins was saddled with. So UK taxpayers were ransacked not once, not twice but thrice.

* The figures may be not quite right but the "multiplier" is. That once privatised the site was closed and sold off for housing development for six times what Thatcher's cronies paid for it.

The SA80 , in it's original form, was not a good weapon .
AB