SA80 " The Reluctant Rifle"

[dave_303]

I bought it for Christmas, and absolutely loved it, great read with excellent detail, now looking to get the book by Peter Laidler on the Sten as preparation for my MA dissertation

[saddler]

Is it one of those rare beasts of a book, where it's only about 120 pages long, but £250.00 from Amazon Marketplace?

The SA80 book = NO (as per the link that has been posted - £35)
The EM-2 book = YES, very much so!!

...I lucked into my copy of the EM-2 title at a very good price - though it was a search of several years.
The smaller companion book on bullpup designs was easy(ish) to find - the main one, far from it!! (esp. when MANY dealers got the 2 titles mixed up & tried to sell the thinner book using cover images from the bigger version)

I'd resisted paying the £200 plus that most book sites listed it at, esp. more so in Dec. when a lot of the rare & exotic titles that I keep an eye on by adding them to my shopping basket jumped up from the mid-£100/mid-£200 mark to the wrong side of £1K.
There is also a HUGE margin if looking at a title on the USA sites then log on to the UK site of the same company to see the $/£ rate triple the real cost of the book (I've seen $60 books on the UK site listed at £150!!)
I'll not name the culprits as you already have done tongueout

As for the SA80 - we'd have saved a small fortune & a lot of lives if we'd done as several folk suggested & bought in M16A2's or similar instead...but the SA80 was NOT an exercise in equiping the forces with a battle rifle, it was a political chess game to sell off government assets to the highest bidder

[Sim G]

, now looking to get the book by Peter Laidler on the Sten as preparation for my MA dissertation

Is that the "Laidler" of No4T fame....?

[saddler]

, now looking to get the book by Peter Laidler on the Sten as preparation for my MA dissertation

Is that the "Laidler" of No4T fame....?

Of course it is!

He's preparing a new book that'll suit you down to the ground - it has pre-sharpened crayons taped to the front

[Sim G]

Of course it is!

He's preparing a new book that'll suit you down to the ground - it has pre-sharpened crayons taped to the front

In that case, as much use as anything else he's written, then.....

[Tower75]

I wonder how long we'll have it for.

Our yankee brethren have had their ARs/M16/M4 since the 1960s/70s, and they don't look like they're going anywhere quick.

We've had the L85 since the mid to late 1980s, and in recent years we've upgraded it buy smashed it with a hammer and giving it to H&K and saying "please fix", and recently the new A2s, or A3s (if they're called that) have the new black 'n' sexy lookin' forends with accessory rails and vertical grips, which apparently cost £3k each!

I wonder how long it'll take the MoD to finally say, we need a new one. And even then, what to have? And what benefits would it have over the "new" L85s?

[huntervixen]

, now looking to get the book by Peter Laidler on the Sten as preparation for my MA dissertation

Is that the "Laidler" of No4T fame....?

Of course it is!

He's preparing a new book that'll suit you down to the ground - it has pre-sharpened crayons taped to the front

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[saddler]

Of course it is!

He's preparing a new book that'll suit you down to the ground - it has pre-sharpened crayons taped to the front

In that case, as much use as anything else he's written, then.....

Sez you, only 2 more romantic novels under your "pen name" & you'll have more books in print than Barbara Cartland - and yer dog has a more squished face than hers did!


...so there!!

[saddler]

Hi Saddler,

It has been on my wish list for a while now...just ordered "The fal Rifle, classic edition", all 3 volumes bound together, costing me a lot, but it's nearly unavailable now, so the price will sky rocket when supplies are exhausted...can't wait!

CHEAT

Ya have to do it properly!

I have the 1st 2 of the paperback volumes, need the 3rd in the series & I'll have the set then!

[huntervixen]

I have spoken to Peter on a number of occasions to ask his advice on various fireams quandary's, nice chap and hugely knowledgeable with (until recently) the best job in the world....he got to play with the toys belonging to the SASC collection!