y'all may call it a long stupid weapon or crow cannon, i still miss playing with one, especially ripple fire when we were short of blanks, and all the stopages. yep I miss it even more than the 9mm I miss my SA80, I miss my SA80 A2 even more. :bang: seriously i miss shooting
I love shooting too, and handled the '80 plenty of times in the army. But honestly man, it's crap compared to the M4 in terms of performance, practicality and even looks.
I had to look up a photo to see what you were talking about. I've seen them before (didn't know the nomenclature). Did you ever find that the rearward magazine interfered with your mobility or usage? Did you find it harder or clumsier to reload under pressure (or in a prone position) I've heard that the magazine setup allows for a longer barrel that actually feels shorter as far as mobility goes. Opinion? That said, I was a soldier in the 80s.... I generally carried an M16A2 (had an A1 for a bit) - very accurate but had to be kept oh-so-clean... or it would jam. I had a M-203 attached for a bit... I bet I would have preferred the separate M-79 instead - the M-16/M-203 was a bit clumsy in my opinion. I also was the M-60 gunner for a bit.... and I LOVED that weapon. I got a bit of training on the M-249 SAW and was fairly impressed. I much preferred the M1911A1 colt .45 to the Berreta 92 as well... I was fortunate to try out some German weapons... the Panzerfaust (fun) and the G3 - which seemed pretty awesome for the combination of firepower and smoothness.
the SA80 was very convenient when working out of warrior or for urban environments like Ulster. It is also very accurate, i much preferred using the SA80 with SUSAT to the M4 with ACOGS, but the ACOGS sights did seem very good, with a finer recticle than the SUSAT's big pointer, i would assume thats why they have them on the upgraded SA80 being carried today. magazine changing, was ok but admitedly slower than on M4/Demarco type rifles, but we did tend to tactically reload, not waiting for an empty magazine. reliability; all guns with moving parts will suffer in environments with fine sand or dust. before deploying in Kenya, Cyprus and places like that on ops or training we would strip down and leave the early SA80A1 out to 'sweat' then dry clean and very lightly oil metal bearing surfaces. I never had a problem with stoppages, except when i had been slack with maintenance. They then started getting refitted with new recoil rod and springs, gas rods with different coating and a different filing pin marked HK. these were apparently more reliable. Just before i left the A2 arrived in service, better magazines, the A2 was all upgraded working parts and a different cocking handle and noticeably stronger springs. the A2 magazines were much better than the old RG ones, a lot of people had previously obtained Colt M16 metal magazines and French 25 round FAMAS magazines as they were thought to be more reliable. the GPMG was a good powerfull work horse of a gun, the LSW was a very accurate and fun toy that was never suited for its intended roll as a section automatic and on both PCNCO and SCBC we had GPMG at section level, despite at the time it being a platoon weapon with one or two gunners knocking around a platoon and being moved from section to section as required back in battalion.
actually point on the GPMG, big beastly thing that it is, it wasn't taught used or anything during Infantry and Para basic training at one point. It was classed as a specialist weapons system along with Milan and Mortars and only used and carried (in theory) by the SF (sustained fire platoon) who would often be deployed along side rifle platoons in the light role (sans tripods and C2 sights) or as separate fire support with tripods and C2 sights. so when the MOD / brass realized they taken a battle winner off the guys and sent it back there were loads of happy newbies thinking they would avoid the pain of carrying it by quite rightly claiming they didn't have a scooby doo how to use the things. They then sulked when they were trained up on it inhouse. there was also an element of 'i don't care if you can use it really, its an exercise with blanks, your new, you carry it I'm bigger than you and have rank'
I played with the Dragunov and AK47 when I was in Korea.. The 2nd ID guys had a lot of the COMBLOC weapons to play with when it came to weapons familiarization.. Of course, my favorite weapons is the FN-FAL and the 1911
I know a lot of ex British service men of a certain age idolize the Commonwealth version of the FN FAL known as the L1A1 SLR due to its range, accuracy and the pure stopping power of 7.62 NATO. I know one guy who was upset that during rural ops in Ulster in the old days they were often kitted out with M16s instead of the SLR, hes adamant the one he hit, wounded who then escaped across the border would of been stopped or killed had he of been armed with the SLR. lots of people also said it made a better club than an armalite or SA80 and was more intimidating in the towns and the fact it had a massive firing report made them feel more confident with it.
Well the whole theory behind smaller rounds was to injure not kill to take more people out of the fight. Then they train you to win the firefight before tending to wounded... :bang:
Yeah but if you were fire support with the gimpy you didn't get to assault fight through and act as grenader, I honestly preferred doing the rifle assault
