L1A1 Musings

[Charlotte the flyer]

For me this rifle is my favourite in my collection, I managed to get a 1959 Enfield from the guy that did the first batch of them. It's all matching but has American repro wood rather than the original British (It's OK but that may be a future upgrade). It has its faults though and I was thinking about the viability of some upgrades, your comments and ideas are appreciated.

Extraction isn't an issue as long as you feed it correctly. On a cold soggy day at Sennybridge I tried Prvi, Prvi Match, RG, R1M1 and MEN. It didn't like any of them, they were so stuck that each time it was a case of mag off and either stick the butt into your tummy and pull hard or worse, bang it on the wood of the front of the fox hole with your hand on the cocking handle (best avoided). I eventually settled on GGG which has absolutely no extraction issues at all but I still get 'SLR hand' in the form of a bruise/blister each time I use it for any great length of time. For this reason I was thinking of improvement 1 which is a larger cocking handle. To my mind this would be removable and clamp over the existing one to give you more to pull on when you're cocking it each time.

For me improvement 2 would be the addition of last round hold open. Has anybody fitted this to their L1A1? I believe that FALs do this but L1A1's don't. I've seen a 'Do not mix inch and metric parts' warning though so I'm hesitant at the moment to progress this.

The last improvement that I would make is to get the SUIT working correctly. At the moment I'm using a dust cover with a picatinny rail on it and a standard scope, the SUIT is just too wobbly. Elevation is fine but at 25yds it has about a 10 inch spread laterally, it's clearly not usable. I don't know if the springs are readily available or mine is rescuable, does anybody know if there is a secret stash of spares anywhere? Mine seems to have less bends in it than others that I have seen, it has one big loop rather than multiple smaller ones.

In terms of Bipods, I have experimented with a home made stud that sits under the barrel and tightens against the wood. This allowed me to use a Harris which worked OK but it doesn't really look right. I can hit the driver ETR in the "Kebab Van" at Senny on my elbows so I figure that's good enough for me at my ability level now, it's a battle rifle not a target rifle after all. I tried an STG58 bipod first but managed to snap the front sling swivel ring when I was mounting it (anyone know where I can get a spare from?), they don't really fit the SLR so it will be up on Ebay soon.

As I said earlier, with the right ammunition it's a great rifle and I would recommend one to anybody.

Thanks for reading

Charlotte

[daryldiane]

Hi Charlotte,
I also have one of Anglo Arms L1A1s and also find that GGG has no extraction problems, also 41grns of Vit N140 behind a Lapua 155grain.
Use a glove on my left hand when shooting a lot then no pain!
Have fitted an FAL last round hold open and it works perfectly.
Have fun,
Daryl

[MartinS]

Very very nice! Enjoy

[ovenpaa]

I do like the look of these things, how do they perform accuracy wise? Given that they have new barrels and the benefit of some very good reloading components that are now available I would have thought they shot well.

[daryldiane]

They do shoot well, not up to TR standard obviously but will certainly hold the Inner at up to 600yrds. Haven't taken mine further yet.

[Charlotte the flyer]

Thanks for the replies everybody.

Accuracy wise I can hit a fig 12 ETR at about 600yds. It hasn't been to a gallery range yet, I need a better scope really. Has anyone thought about a 308 ACOG for theirs? I have a 223 one and like it. I'd sooner use one than have to keep adjusting scope turrets for drop all of the time.

[PaulR]

Nice looking Rifle Charlotte, I do like them in wood but despite having had the chance (thanks Huntervixen) I haven't bought a set yet.

I have it on good authority that the folding charging handle is a straight swap with the fixed round handled one off either an FAL (metric so not sure about that) or one of the other foreign made imperial SLRs, Australia, India perhaps?

The still serving armourer told me that a few L1A1s came through with this modification, presumably done in the feild with scrounged bits.

I too use a glove so don't get 'SLR Hand'.

Reference the hold open on last round mod, where are people getting the parts for that from?

The same armourer told me that another favourite scrounge was for the clip on Vietnam era bipod. I bought one of these in the US for $15.00 including nylon webbing pouch. Makes a really stable platform but you do need to pad the jaws in some way as they will remove/damage the finish.

[daryldiane]

got my bolt hold open from http://gunthings.com/ he seems quite happy to send small bits to the UK

[huntervixen]

For me this rifle is my favourite in my collection, I managed to get a 1959 Enfield from the guy that did the first batch of them. It's all matching but has American repro wood rather than the original British (It's OK but that may be a future upgrade). It has its faults though and I was thinking about the viability of some upgrades, your comments and ideas are appreciated.

Extraction isn't an issue as long as you feed it correctly. On a cold soggy day at Sennybridge I tried Prvi, Prvi Match, RG, R1M1 and MEN. It didn't like any of them, they were so stuck that each time it was a case of mag off and either stick the butt into your tummy and pull hard or worse, bang it on the wood of the front of the fox hole with your hand on the cocking handle (best avoided). I eventually settled on GGG which has absolutely no extraction issues at all but I still get 'SLR hand' in the form of a bruise/blister each time I use it for any great length of time. For this reason I was thinking of improvement 1 which is a larger cocking handle. To my mind this would be removable and clamp over the existing one to give you more to pull on when you're cocking it each time.

For me improvement 2 would be the addition of last round hold open. Has anybody fitted this to their L1A1? I believe that FALs do this but L1A1's don't. I've seen a 'Do not mix inch and metric parts' warning though so I'm hesitant at the moment to progress this.

The last improvement that I would make is to get the SUIT working correctly. At the moment I'm using a dust cover with a picatinny rail on it and a standard scope, the SUIT is just too wobbly. Elevation is fine but at 25yds it has about a 10 inch spread laterally, it's clearly not usable. I don't know if the springs are readily available or mine is rescuable, does anybody know if there is a secret stash of spares anywhere? Mine seems to have less bends in it than others that I have seen, it has one big loop rather than multiple smaller ones.

In terms of Bipods, I have experimented with a home made stud that sits under the barrel and tightens against the wood. This allowed me to use a Harris which worked OK but it doesn't really look right. I can hit the driver ETR in the "Kebab Van" at Senny on my elbows so I figure that's good enough for me at my ability level now, it's a battle rifle not a target rifle after all. I tried an STG58 bipod first but managed to snap the front sling swivel ring when I was mounting it (anyone know where I can get a spare from?), they don't really fit the SLR so it will be up on Ebay soon.

As I said earlier, with the right ammunition it's a great rifle and I would recommend one to anybody.

Thanks for reading

Charlotte

Hi Charlotte,

Welcome to the L1 Club! Great fun aren't they, I put 90rds of GGG through mine yesterday...coudnt stop shooting... I didn't even get my other Rifles out of the car!

My Rifle is slightly different than yours as it was re-built by the Suffolk Rifle Company, instead of using Walther Barrels they use a barrel of their own manufacture.

Very pleased to confirm mine also runs without fault on GGG...it's as if the Rifle and GGG were made for each other, perfect results, very consistent and absolutely no extraction issues!

Can't recommend the GGG enough, it's great to see it runs without fault through Anglo and Suffolk L1's

[Burner]

What do They do?
Leave the entire bolt hold open assembly out when they rebuild the SLR to a straight pull?
If not, just replace the pin that rides the mag follower on the hold open itself.
Costs pennies to do.
I know the Commonwealth had a automatic last round hold open in the design of the rifles, then removed it after building by removing the pin.
My 1965 Lithgow SLR was the same way.
I took a 5 penny roll pin, tapped it in, and problem is all fixed.