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jon have you ever used anytype of weapon though? i use to shoot left handed but i now shoot right!

Jon wrote:Im not a soldier yet and have no experience of the SA80, however im left handed and can safetly say that im not looking forward to using my right arm to shoot.

Jon I am also left handed and thought it would be a problem but it isn’t, when I went to paintball I found myself automatically firing right handed and that was after just two weeks at pirbright...

It doesn’t feel that odd if you have only ever fired quasar guns before


lew

With regard to the French FAMAS, does it really matter if it works? It is a French weapon afterall and isn't very likely to see any sort of battlefield conditions any time soon lol.

Josh. I think French actually get way more combat experience than your army or nation.... your Australian right? Apart from East Timor and Iraq.. what combat has your army been in... in the last 10-15 years.

I did a bit of research once and I found that since 1945 France has had in all about 19 years of actual combat experience whereas the UK has had 103 years and the US surprisingly only about 20-30 (I think). Just thought I'd add a few statistics, this place needs more of them

France does get around a bit, though most of their problems seem confined to former colonies. They very recently saw action in the Ivory coast, and though the only engagement I've heard of involved over enthusiastic government troops ambushing a French vehicle, there well may have been more which didn't make it into the press over here. And don't forget they have been doing a number of international operations such as in Afghanistan, the Balkans etc.

And Also, is that 103 years including seperate conflicts being fought at the same time? 103 into 58 years doesn't seem to work very well otherwise .

It was only a joke mate, taking the piss of the French, nothing more. I respect the French soldiers themselves as much as the next bloke. I meant no offence to anyone.
As for the Australian forces, you're right, aside from SF, the rest really don't see much of the world at all. Which is why, being a Brit as well, I'm joining the RM next month, my testing starts February 2nd. The idea of spending a career at some middle-of-nowhere Army base in the Northern Territory wasn't all that appealing.
Cheers,
Josh.

And Also, is that 103 years including seperate conflicts being fought at the same time? 103 into 58 years doesn't seem to work very well otherwise .

lol yeah my maths ain't that bad. I got most of the info on Britain from Britains small wars. The france figure includes all operations that have seen actual combat and not peacekeeping (same for th UK and US) it also includes both Afghanistan, GW1, Algeria and a few others that I can't remember. Also I count all the conflicts as being at least one year long (it's easier )

what does evryone think of the lsw? and how does the a2 version of it compare to the original? i fired the first one but wanna know if the second is better?

Why is it that every new weapon seems to have the mag on the rear? Am I the only one that see no advantage to this other than saving space, thats a serious comment, inlight me, I want to know?

Is it true that in turning the FAL into the SLR they took out the automatic option, why? Was the folding stock option ever issued to British forces?

Why is it that every new weapon seems to have the mag on the rear? Am I the only one that see no advantage to this other than saving space, thats a serious comment, inlight me, I want to know?

That's pretty much what it does ...cuts down on length as most of the mechanism is in the butt. It's called bullpup design, SA80, Steyr AUG, FAMAS, Tavor are all bullpup designs. They're more maneuverable in confined spaces (read: CQB), because they're shorter, but that's negated somewhat because since the ejection port is so far back, if you need to shoot around a corner or obstacle with your rifle in your left shoulder you can't because the spent casing will fly into your face, so as a result you must keep the rifle in your right shoulder and move your whole body around the left corner, which isn't clever at all. Steyr AUG,SA80 and FAMAS can all have their ejector ports switched to the other side, but the FAMAS is the only one that the soldier can do it by himself in a combat environment, SA80 and Steyr need a conversion kit to do it.

oh god do i know that being a leftie, took me ages to learn the l98 right handed

Id still take an L85 though anyway, we used A2s on blanks on browndown and i had one stoppage ad that was because it was raining and id been walking round with the dust cover open. great fun to fire, not a lot of recoil and very light and holdable

It took me about 15 minutes to get used to it being a right handed weapon, and i can shoot well now.

I like the bullpup design, fair enough I haven’t used a conventional design but I find the SA80 to be very accurate and well balanced.

Point to note friendly, there is sod all kick from a blank round, you do get kick back from the 5.56 but its not enough to hurt your shoulder!


lew

we had to fire live before we can use them with blanks, also the cadet version uses 5.56 anyway

we had to fire live before we can use them with blanks, also the cadet version uses 5.56 anyway. Good point though