RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

When I joined the service "Bren Guns" were being reissued to Army units in its re-engineered Straight Magazine 7.62 version,
It was a stop gap for the GPMG which was still being trialled,
The only thing I did not like about the 7.62 Bren was because the Factory modified any Bren it could get hold of the LMGs in a unit could have three quite different rear sights and confusing soldiers is never a good idea.
A very good section LMG which of course the GPMG was never designed to be.
Which I can only suppose is the reason why the SA80/LA85 was the first British army rifle with an auto facility and the LA86 light support gun to provide LMG support for the section.

How about this beastie?

Cuthbertson - not sure I'd want to take one on a cross slope!

Well, this is a bit of a cheat. Here's vehicle that might well have had tracks, if they hadn't fitted it with screws first. It's certainly very unusual, like some improbable machine in a cheap sci-fi flic, or a 1950s Jules Verne epic:

jarndice wrote: Which I can only suppose is the reason why the SA80/LA85 was the first British army rifle with an auto facility and the LA86 light support gun to provide LMG support for the section.

Not forgetting the matchstick conversion on the SLuR Jarndice

cashybai wrote:

jarndice wrote: Which I can only suppose is the reason why the SA80/LA85 was the first British army rifle with an auto facility and the LA86 light support gun to provide LMG support for the section.

Not forgetting the matchstick conversion on the SLuR Jarndice

Ahh the infamous matchstick on the L1A1 !!
Great to get it going, no way to stop it until it runs out of ammo !
The NZ Defence Force sold tons of surplus hardware, bits & pieces, and as it turned out, plastic 'tackle boxes' full of SLR/L1A1 AND L2 bits.
Triggers, interrupter sears, and selectors \
Safe to say there were a lot of matchstick conversions done.
All surplus SLR's had steel washers welded in the inside of the receiver where the sear would go. Once all these parts became available, those washers came out & the rest as is said is history.
I know, the barrels were too light for sustained automatic fire, but as we that owned said off the record items were not about sustaining, there was no metallurgical problem.!
Actually testing an SLR with a real matchstick over riding the interrupter was quite terrifying !
The rate increased uncontrolled until it ran out of ammo, or banged the 'mouse' out of the receiver cover !!
Great to watch from a distance.
Hmm, but I digress

I first fired a training L1A1 .22 conversion before the real one back in the 70's. Along with a real SMG.

My question is about the "terrifying." Did the matchstick alteration make the L1A1 more rapid than an SMG? Or was there another reason for the terror?

Uncontrolled rate increase and a much bigger round !

exactly that, squeeze one round and it dumped the mags worth with barrel rapidly climbing upwards, and the rate of fire increasing as it got further down the mag. Shame it was never officially taken on board in the proper auto version, unlike the opposition in the southern foray...
Herman, the aussies had the L2A1 with heavy barrel/selective fire and iirc used it to good effect in the Nam....

HERMAN BIX wrote:Uncontrolled rate increase and a much bigger round !

Thanks, been a long time, I guess it did have a kick not unlike a 303 Enfield if my memory serves me correctly, so, I guess firing overly fast would be a bit terrifying in a normal hand hold.