My Enfield holy grail.......

[Laurie]

Surely as with all the AR/ AK builds, I assume someone could build a civilian version commercially if they so wished?

Absolutely......but, setting up the tooling for the sheet metal stampings would be eye wateringly expensive, and wouldn't warrant the limited numbers that would sell. It would be a complicated rifle to build from scratch, and I would say it would be impossible to ever make a profit on one in the low volumes that would result.

Just so!

The 'prototype' that Vince B. tested was to be the first of a run assembled out of ready to hand parts left over from the UK MoD order. It would presumably have been a limited number of rifles had the project ever got off the ground. (On thinking further on this, maybe this was a rather clever way of BAe getting HMG to buy all its remaining bits ........... Take them off our hands or we turn them into L89 lookalikes and sell them to civilians. Or, is that thinking a bit too Machiavellian?)

[David TS]

There is another way...........

When the cadets converted from A1 spec (single shot) L98A1 rifles to semi auto L98A2 spec, apparently they were issued with rifles previously issued to the Army, taken from MoD reserve.

All the cadet L98A1's then went back into reserve at DSG Donnington............

So, there is a ready supply of L98's, but not an easy way of getting hold of them!

(mind you, now I have one, I have a vested interest in them never coming on the market!!!).

[Blackknight1974]

Also didn't H&K do a straightpull g36 a few years ago? I suspect they would probably give permission if
they got profit of it.

HK made two variants of the G36 - the SL8 which was a semi-auto version, presumably for the US and the R8 which was the straight pull version you mention. This was originally intended for the Australian market and was abandoned when our Australian cousins decided to ban weapons on how they look.

I had a conversation with HK regarding getting an R8 in the UK some years back and was basically told that it wasn't worth their while.

[Ares590]

I had a conversation with HK regarding getting an R8 in the UK some years back and was basically told that it wasn't worth their while.

I suspect if someone wanted to produce straight pull Sa80s HK would be happy to licence them out if they got a royalty on each one.

[Charlotte the flyer]

So, there is a ready supply of L98's, but not an easy way of getting hold of them!

How did all of the SMLE's and No4's get into civvie hands. There must be a way, someone must know where the strings that can be pulled are.

[David TS]

So, there is a ready supply of L98's, but not an easy way of getting hold of them!

How did all of the SMLE's and No4's get into civvie hands. There must be a way, someone must know where the strings that can be pulled are.

They were sold out of the MoD, but things are different now politically. I suspect there is no appetite for selling ex military weapons after Hungerford and Dunblane, and the L98's in store will get cannibalised for parts for SA802's if required, or ultimately destroyed as there probably aren't many overseas markets they could be sold in. Certainly the ex owner of mine (a Brit that has moved to the USA) tried and failed to import it into the USA last year, which is how I acquired it.

[Sandgroper]

Also didn't H&K do a straightpull g36 a few years ago? I suspect they would probably give permission if
they got profit of it.

HK made two variants of the G36 - the SL8 which was a semi-auto version, presumably for the US and the R8 which was the straight pull version you mention. This was originally intended for the Australian market and was abandoned when our Australian cousins decided to ban weapons on how they look.

I had a conversation with HK regarding getting an R8 in the UK some years back and was basically told that it wasn't worth their while.

I read somewhere that the R8 was made for markets like the UK and Australia in mind. IIRC it was the Victorian Police that killed off the R8 in Australia by claiming it was readily convertible and as a result reclassified it to a higher category of firearm and most likely other States followed suit. Higher category firearms are granted on the the basis of good reason and need - this would have severely restricted the number of people able to acquire one in Victoria.

[Ares590]

So, there is a ready supply of L98's, but not an easy way of getting hold of them!

How did all of the SMLE's and No4's get into civvie hands. There must be a way, someone must know where the strings that can be pulled are.

I think its been said but,
"EX MOD gun used to kill 10 school children"
"Madman bought gun from Army"
I suspect the public inquires and PR would cost the MOD so much it wouldn't be worth the money they gained from the sales in the first place.
Also I think there are UN rules as well about selling surplus guns and ammo which is the reason the MOD gave for not selling L98's when they were taken out of service.

[David TS]

Following on from my last post, the last service rifles sold as surplus by the MoD were the L1A1 SLR.

I think of the SLR, and it always reminds me of 'Operation Barras'.....

In 2000, 11 soldiers of the Royal Irish Regiment on patrol were captured by the West Side Boys, a notorious Sierra Leone militia group, famous for wearing bizarre outfits such as women's wigs and flip flops, and being perpetually drunk or stoned. They were armed with AK47's, FAL's, and L1A1's, the latter stolen from the Sierra Leone Army.

Six soldiers were initially released, but five remained captured.

The West Side Boys' worst mistake in this was when the SAS and 1 PARA were deployed to go and release the five soldiers in a heli borne operation. In the ensuing operation most of the WSB ended up dead, with some bodies being rumoured to have mysteriously fallen out of helicopters into the Rokel river or into the jungle as the rebels death toll was somewhat high, which might have been a political hot potato........

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Barras

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -Boys.html

[Gaz]

Wasn't Op Barras the one where someone recognised the serial number format of one of the recaptured SLRs and ran it through the UK ordnance system, only to discover it was on charge to 1 PARA at time of Bloody Sunday and had been written off as "lost" by the Army shortly afterwards? Or was that an urban myth?