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If you are really unlucky you could become Mr Bigs "favorite Girl" and find yourself going steady!!!!

Curious thing, the Imbel SP fals have receivers originally designed for the US market, so lack the Safety/Auto sear or the provision to fit one (the cutout is simply not there) in order to comply with ATF regs regarding Class3 weapons.

The converted SP L1A1 receivers I have studied, all seem to have the cut out and the auto sear present. I would have thought it would be good practice to at least cut the arm off the sear, if it can't be removed completely.

huntervixen wrote:If you are really unlucky you could become Mr Bigs "favorite Girl" and find yourself going steady!!!!

Curious thing, the Imbel SP fals have receivers originally designed for the US market, so lack the Safety/Auto sear or the provision to fit one (the cutout is simply not there) in order to comply with ATF regs regarding Class3 weapons.

The converted SP L1A1 receivers I have studied, all seem to have the cut out and the auto sear present. I would have thought it would be good practice to at least cut the arm off the sear, if it can't be removed completely.

So does that mean the SP L1A1's are made with already assembled milspec receivers rather than bare receivers that have never been Issued/assembled?.Could it be that they are infact section 5 L1A1's that have been re-barreled?.

No mate, no one would deliberately flout the law like that....they would have to insane!

All the UK legal SP L1's have come from various sources, my Rifle (receiver) is ex British war reserve and came to Neal as part of batch of components, or parts kits.

The TMH, bolt and carrier have been re numbered to match the master number on the receiver.

Regarding the sear:

My rifle was built by Suffolk Rifles and has the sear present.

The Anglo Custom L1's (rebuilt and proofed in Germany) also have the sear present, the other example of SP build I have seen are the Tony Buckland rifles. again sear present.

So we have two UK and one German company rebuilding L1A1's into SP's (there are more, but these are the examples I have seen), all leaving the sear in position.....question is why?

I am no gunsmith, but I would surmise that the fact the receiver is already "searcut" and the sear is located as part of the body hinge assembly, the engineers in question probably thought there may well be detrimental effect in removing the sear, taking into account the recoil forces involved........just a theory though.

The sear was always a redundant part in the L1A1 and was only retained because the ABC (Australia, Britain and Canada) Rifle committee decided that it might be required at some point....it never was, except for the tiny number modified for SF use over the years.

Best example of this being the Australian SAS Lithgow examples, heavily locally modified/cutdown and referred to as "Bitch" or "Break" rifles during the Vietnam war.

These were used by the point man in an SAS patrol to break contact if they were compromised. Lots of noise and the muzzle would climb like a homesick angel!

Sorry to go off topic!

huntervixen wrote:
Best example of this being the Australian SAS Lithgow examples, heavily locally modified/cutdown and referred to as "Bitch" or "Break" rifles during the Vietnam war.

These were used by the point man in an SAS patrol to break contact if they were compromised. Lots of noise and the muzzle would climb like a homesick angel!

Sorry to go off topic!

Also sorry to go off topic, but a slight correction to the above comment about the SASR/NZSAS in the Vietnam war. The L1A1 and the L2A1 versions of the SLR were issued during the Vietnam War, of which the L1A1 was the standard rifle. The L2A1 (or AR as it was known) was usually carried by the last man in the section - "arse end Arnold" - if it was carried at all. The No1 Scout (not point man!) usually carried the M16 when it became more available.

The SASR/NZSAS being who they and how they operated did things their own way - the cutting down of SLR (and modification of other weapons) was down to the individual trooper. It's from the L2A1 the SASR/NZSAS obtained 30 rd magazines for their SLR's. Chopping the rifles was to improve handling and to increase the noise and flash to enable the patrol to break contact (as stated by HV) - adding the flash suppressor from an M3 SMG was said to sound and look like a .50 HMG being fired!

A SASR/NZSAS 5 man patrol would have been armed with a variety of weapons based on the mission and the make up of the individual patrol members but would have had at least two SLRs, two M16's with XM148/203 GL and a M60. Some SLR's were modded to take the XM148/203 GL as well.

HTH

I have some Bitch rifle pics somewhere on my computer (you got any Sandgroper) I will dig them out, start a new thread in the right place......I think I have hijacked this thread better than a Somali pirate!!

Does anyone have any pictures of the AR Buckland SKS? He doesn't seem to have a website.

The only picture I have seen was an advert in Shooting Sports magazine last month. They are around £900 if you are interested...