Scotsgun and Sandgroper, thanks for your comments!
Looks like at least one of you was on the Sherry at the time of posting. Nothing wrong with that of course....
Scotsgun wrote:
Slathering a gun in oil, in the grit and sand conditions we experienced in Gulf 1! What sort of dick wouldn't realise that it would become a sand magnet?
Actually you are both wrong: counter-intuitive as it may seem, liberal oiling of the SA80A1/2 working parts in desert/dusty areas is the official ITDU solution to the issues with the rifle jamming in dusty conditions. This solution - along with the MoD actually buying a cleaning kit that cost more than 50 pence - was the outcome of the (in)famous reliability trials conducted after all the A1 issues came to light. As far as I am aware, it is still the Training Small Arms Pam whatever instruction - so still current practice.
Scotsgun wrote:
Only issued a handful of rounds - what was this craphat operating, a typewriter? There was bloody mountains of ammo. And as to running around with a kits-parts AK.....no-one would appreciate an AK letting rip nearby. You listen out for the distinctive AK in order to locate the direction of in-coming fire. Someone's been taking a leaf out of an episode of 'Dads Army.'
Scotsgun; you seem to be commenting with authority, but on the wrong war. During Gulf1 you had the benefit of the entire 1 (BR) Corps being cannibalised to produce the Div(-) that took the field. At that time, UK still had large stocks of ammo and material. Unfortunately, by Gulf2 (Op Telic), the mob stocks had been disposed of to save money, and Bliar's government had deliberately not allowed MoD to build up war stocks in the run up to the war. Consequently, British forces went into the invasion chronically short of all types of uniform, armour, ammunition & equipment. The regiment I attached to IIRC had received about 100 rounds of 9mm, which was distributed to those officers and medics carrying pistols. As I had joined late from another task where I had de-bombed, it was necessary to take two rounds of 9mm off each medic in order to give me one mag of ammunition. As I regarded this as insufficient firepower with which to invade a hostile country, I borrowed a rifle from an RTA casualty. At this stage, there was only about 20 rounds per man available for late joiners. There were only a handful of grenades and illum per sub-unit. Luckily, it was only the Iraqis we were up against... Your later Telic tour will have been after the MoD belatedly started buying in kit, so you would have been flush by that stage.
Re: AKs: rowlocks. There were about 40x in use in the above-mentioned unit alone. Different war, different means, etc.
Re: Typewriter: also rowlocks - I can't type. I'll give you a couple of combat indicators: I crossed the Iraq border at about H+30 mins as part of USMC 1 MEF spearhead, or about 24hrs ahead of the rest of UK 1 Div. In fact that was actually the third time I'd been across the border that week - not bad for a combat clerk. BTW, none of my berets are craphats..... LOL
The A2 is a reliable and accurate rifle. It just took about 20 years to get to that point, and is now a rather heavy and unwieldy rifle when all the current UOR bits and/or UGLs are added on. Things have moved on, and rifles like the 416/417 & SCAR-L/H are a significant ergonomic improvement. Only a personal view, but telescopic stocks and conventional lay-out work better for me than bull-pup configuration. Evenso, I think it will be a shame if rifle design gets stuck in its current AR rut, as I feel that push-in mags - especially in 7.62mm - are a serious drawback over hook-and-lock design such as the AK and L1A1 types. Lets also hope that USA don't take the route of choosing a new round dimensioned to fit all their old AR lowers - then they might finally look at the sort of high performance round that others have been experimenting with for about a century.....
....My personal dislike of it stems from its issues in combat...mainly furniture and mild reliability issues in the desert (A2 specifically....A1's were canibalised for parts as I recal) but for civvie use it should have no problems :)...if a company could make sum alternate furnitures and extra attachments for it 
....it could be pretty sweet....some nice walnut furniture would give it the EM2's appearance 
Selling a straight pull version to civvies could generate cash for the next standard rifle :)...D-acs and selling A2's to Jamaica/Bolivia and Sierra Leone could make a tidy profit too...I'd suggest all three methods and then get sum really hig spec stuff 
