The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

I heard a rumour the other week that LEI are doing an SA80/L85 in 22. Anybody know anything about it?

The masochist in me wants one , or an STG44 (but not at £700!). The sane part of me says that I should have a V22 or CMMG. But the threads not about that, so anyone know about the SA80?

Thanks

Charlotte

Was shown off at the shot show a few years ago, I presume it's still in development!

That's been doing the rounds for donkey's years. Sounds like a marketing teaser that never made it beyond the "ooh shiny" stage.

I did have a half-assed idea of mating a 10/22 with an airsoft L85 body, but that never really got anywhere.

Again, as Gaz. I heard that rumour when I started shooting, and that was 10 years ago. Chriiist, has it been that long? wtfwtf

To be honest, I'm surprised there's never been a straight-pull L85 in 5.56/.223 produced for the civvie market. The tactikool boys would love that, when they turn up to the range in full military webbing, equipment and uniform, and packing an SA80, it'll really look like that just did a stint over in The Troubles... :roll:

Gaz wrote:I did have a half-assed idea of mating a 10/22 with an airsoft L85 body, but that never really got anywhere.

It has been done, I remember reading a DiY article on the work a few years ago and I must admit it did look the part at the end. The author was going through the process of fitting a 10/22 into a variety of cheapie airsoft bodies and was making a good job of it as well albeit with lashings of body filler.

Tower.75 wrote:Again, as Gaz. I heard that rumour when I started shooting, and that was 10 years ago. Chriiist, has it been that long? wtfwtf

To be honest, I'm surprised there's never been a straight-pull L85 in 5.56/.223 produced for the civvie market. The tactikool boys would love that, when they turn up to the range in full military webbing, equipment and uniform, and packing an SA80, it'll really look like that just did a stint over in The Troubles... :roll:

I have a friend with that very thing and he's considering selling it , what do you think it might be worth ?

Eons ago there was a chap who worked for BAE who campaigned a "works" L98 fitted with a LSW barrel.

The SA80 has its charms, for all its cheap plastic and pressed metal Baikalness, sorry I don't buy into the A2 being best in theatre. Why any civilian would want to own one I don't know.

The L98, the original cadet rifle, was awful too. And that was without all the fun of gas parts. I saw a rifle that had been serviced on Monday by the armourer on a Saturday not making through 10 rounds.

I was in the ATC in the late 80's when the L98 came in. I'd just missed the SLR so my shooting was No8, L81 and L98. It was the first full bore rifle that I had ever fired and not knowing any other I thought that it was OK. All of the older kids who'd had SLR fun anbsolutely hated the thing. We would invariably break at least one, usually two or three each time we went out. Normally the cocking handle failed, the long bar into the bolt carrier would shear. Not very good, couldn't fit a BFA on the end either so using blanks was supposed to be Verboten.

Charlotte the flyer wrote:I was in the ATC in the late 80's when the L98 came in. I'd just missed the SLR so my shooting was No8, L81 and L98. It was the first full bore rifle that I had ever fired and not knowing any other I thought that it was OK. All of the older kids who'd had SLR fun anbsolutely hated the thing. We would invariably break at least one, usually two or three each time we went out. Normally the cocking handle failed, the long bar into the bolt carrier would shear. Not very good, couldn't fit a BFA on the end either so using blanks was supposed to be Verboten.

While I was instructor with my old cadet unit we were fortunate to have an ex-Royal Marine join the staff. Our unit was in the grounds of TA unit which was also home to the HQ for the ACF. The ex-Royal persuaded the ACF and TA to let his section borrow the L98s for instruction and things sort of snowballed from there. His cadets went from shouting bang with LE drill rifles to being quite expert little marksmen within the space of the year. The kids thought it wonderful as they were using real rifles to practice their skills. I was dragged out on a number of occasions to help him because the other instructors in his section were, to use a technical word, crap.

Back to the SA80/L98. I must admit I wasn't too enamoured with the SA80 or L98 the first time I saw them or took them apart. I recognise those failures you list. Firing them was far,far from unpleasant which made up for the material failings. And my failings too as a crap shot. (Somebody said something a bit rude about shooting SA80s which I won't repeat being new.) Anyway one weekend the ex-Royal takes his lads down to Lympstone for the weekend. They spend some time on the range and an AR or two was produced which they all shot. At the next parade I asked them how they had gone on and to a man (boy) they raved about the AR and from then on the L98 lost its lustre. The fact that a bunch of inner city kids can tell something has serious quality issues indicates a lot.

rocket-dog wrote:Eons ago there was a chap who worked for BAE who campaigned a "works" L98 fitted with a LSW barrel.

The SA80 has its charms, for all its cheap plastic and pressed metal Baikalness, sorry I don't buy into the A2 being best in theatre. Why any civilian would want to own one I don't know.

The L98, the original cadet rifle, was awful too. And that was without all the fun of gas parts. I saw a rifle that had been serviced on Monday by the armourer on a Saturday not making through 10 rounds.

Nothing amiss with Baikals, if they don't go bang you can use them to drive nails in, no problems. Actually mine has always done the going bang bit, not so keen on ejecting sometimes.