SA80

[DM]

An interesting article on the SA80 here......

http://www.quarry.nildram.co.uk/SA80.htm

 

[darth_azabrush]

Ah yes called the civil servant by the British Army

Why?

You can't fire it, you can't shoot it but it doesn't do any work!

 

[DM]

But now regarded as one of the most reliable and efective weapons in its class, way better than its US equivalents, but apparently thats not saying much given the (lack of) reliability of the M4

Of course it helped getting some good old German engineering involved

 

[katadder]

as long as you look after it then its fine, never had any of mine jam either A1 or A2. its like anything else, keep it in good condition and you wont have a problem, let it get filled with all sorts of crap and thats where you get your probs.

 

[Lord David the Denied]

The consensus of opinion from my time in the Army was that the SA80 was too maintenance-intensive for realistic use in the field. It's fine for the RAF ground people, they don't need to get as dirty as the Army or Marines. The British forces really need a more robust rifle, though.

 

[katadder]

hardly takes any time to clean really and maybe maintenance intensive for usual (dumb) squaddie but the rest of us find it ok
also if you read alot of the quotes from that link most people are happy with it.

 

[emperorpenguin]

I knew Royal Marines who complained about it (and those guys know about keeping their weapons clean), it was never a case of "clean it and there'll be no probs", that was the bureaucrat's way of avoiding the problem

 

[Mr Evil]

lets not get the A1 and A2 verions of the SA80 (l85) miked up...

second generation was far superior to 1st generation.

IMHO still one of the best weapons ever for an infntryman, also the aug styre is a another fave of mine...

As for hrd to clean !!! has all the tools in the pistol grip for pulling it apart!! such a nice design.. ive noticed some have ris rails on the front as well now !!!

British are great to complain nd find it hard to praise there stuff, wich is daft why we pull apart one of the best guns going our boys use !!!!

 

[DM]

Well said Mr. Evil. The original version was indeed a bag of rats. The reengineered A2 version is a world beater.

 

[Lord David the Denied]

That's not what I hear, but soldier's opinions vary. I've been told at times that we'd be better of with AKs than with SA80s, but that may just be the thing's bad rep...

 

[emperorpenguin]

but the AK can barely shoot straight, while the SA80 is arguably the most accurate assault rifle in the world

 

[katadder]

Aks are ok if you have untrained troops that dont bother cleaning their weapon. L85A2 is a perfectly fine weapon as long as you look after it.

 

[BuShips]

From scanning the link, it looks like they have worked most of the bugs out of the weapon. As always, real life use and time will give the full story. It will be the same for the VM-22 Osprey, just deployed to Iraq. :shock:

 

[mike403]

i was shooting mine last week and didn't have one stopage. The A2 is better then the A1