SA80: Is This The Worst Rifle Ever Made? 

Fun Fact: The L85A1 was nicknamed *The Civil Servant* because "it didn't work and couldn't be fired".

Private soldiers being rough on equipment is UNIVERSAL. I had a sergeant when I was an infantryman in the 101st Airborne Division that would always say, "If you gave a private three solid steel balls, by day's end, he would have lost one, broken one & impregnated the third..."

The contrast between the government made SA80 and the “built in a shed” L96 is absolutely stunning.

"Make something idiot-proof and someone will make a better idiot" 😂

Some say that it was a slight improvement over the front loading musket.

03:14 "Close your eyes and imagine the most indestructible item in the universe" Nokia 3310.

3:05 Actually, the SLR was not entirely squaddie proof.. whilst I was at Sandhurst, one of my platoon decided to see how far a twig could be fired if stuffed down the barrel on a blank firing exercise. To everyone's surprise, the twig shot just a few feet in the air, but the flash suppressor opened up like an umbrella. I don't recall how he explained the damage to the Directing Staff, but he's now a VERY senior British Army Officer!

I served in the Parachute regiment and carried both the SLR and the SA80 during my period of service. Being of Bullpup design the SA80 was difficult for me to fire as I am a naturally left side shooter, however the optic sight fitted to the SA80 did go some way to offsetting the loss of accuracy that I suffered when having to fire from my weaker side. Apart from the reported problems with the SA 80, of which there were many, we found further problems with the weapon particular to our specific role. When we packed our containers (CSPEP) prior to jumping our weapons were placed in weapon sleeves and strapped to the top part of our containers so that when the container was released the weapon was on the upper side of the container and did not hit the floor first. When using the SLR it was common practice to pull the container straps as tight as we possibly could to secure the weapon, anyone who has jumped will remember having a comrade sit on your container while you had both feet on it to tighten the straps! What we discovered was that after landing and taking the SA 80 out of the weapon sleeves, some of them refused to cock because due to the poor standard of materials used in the construction the straps would compress the weapons body to the extent that it deformed it making it impossible to pull the working parts to the rear! Prior to jumping we had to remove the magazine and the optic sight as these had a tendency to fall off during the jump! The Regiment trialled jumping in what was called 'Light assault order' which meant that we didn't use equipment containers but jumped wearing either webbing or an assault vest under our harnesses. The theory was that the SA80 would, using the issued quick release sling, be strapped in a barrel down position alongside the body and with the cocking handle pointing outwards using the issued sling across the body and secured under one of the reserve chutes hooks, the barrel would be secured to one of the leg straps on the harness using a quick release strap. The idea being that once you had exited the plane, use the quick release strap securing the barrel and release the weapon so it swung into a horizontal position with the barrel pointing forward! Before landing the drill was to put one hand on the weapon to secure it which required you having to take a hand off of the lift web! Also the sight and magazine had to be removed and the barrel cover taped in place! Despite the obvious problems of having to secure the weapon with one hand during a potentially rough landing a problem that came to light on the live trials was that due to the turbulence encountered in the slipstream, the quick release sling would er... quick release and the weapon would be flapping about all over the place! The research boffins came up with an ingenious answer to this problem...paracord! A doubled up length of paracord tied to the front and rear sling swivels in place of the quick release sling. What could go wrong? During the trials there were a number of incidents in which the rear sling swivel , which went under the rubber (?) butt plate, was ripped off by the turbulence in the slipstream and sent the weapon careering into the night sky! I don't think that the Regiment ever adapted to jumping in light order. I first used this weapon on a tour of South Armagh in 1988 and spent many a wet, cold and unnecessary night on cordons while search teams went out to find missing magazines due to the unshielded mag release button. Our remedy to the problem of missing mags was to tape paracord to the mag and tie it to the trigger guard! I used this abomination of a weapon in the jungle and we found that mossie repellent would eat through the plastic. As for the bayonets, best not to go there! In comparison to the SA80 the only design fault that I encountered with the SLR was putting the gas plug in the wrong way round could drop the spring loaded securing catch into the gas port or using the armourers loop on the pull through for the 4" x 2", both of which would require a trip to the armourer. The only reason that I can see for the adoption of the SA 80 was that it was Enfields last roll of the dice and guess what 'Snake eyes' came up.

Used the A1 and A2 of all variants. A1 was trash if you had the RG mags expect stoppages worked better with the colt mags. Had a few broken firing pins and a gas plug that yeeted itself down the range to leave a rather comical gas plug shaped hole in a target. A2. One stoppage in 12 years and it was my fault. The difference between the two was night and day. Fun story. On the iron sights all the sights were stamped by one guy that got told he was getting laid off. So he stamped them all 200 instead of 300.

"Never forget, your weapon was built by the lowest bidder" - Murphy's Laws of Combat

My time in the army included about 11 years with the SLR (or SMG) and about 5 years with the SA80 (L85A1). The SLR, being basically a FN FAL, was extremely robust, packed a serious punch and was and pretty much soldier proof; I never saw one break. By 1993 the L85A1 had undergone God knows how many in-service mods to try to fix it, but it still had problems. It is staggering how our R&D boffins could have designed such a piece of crap, & how it could have been accepted into service. We could have saved enormous amounts of time & effort by just buying the M16 or making it under licence. It is telling that the UK special forces NEVER used the SA80 (unless they were trying to pose as "regular" soldiers). How come H&K could solve the SA80's problems, but our own industry/R&D couldn't? The whole story is a damning indictment of modern British defence R&D and procurement.

I spent many a happy hour cleaning rust off my SA80. I remember the armorer constantly telling us not to turn the gas plugs too far or they will need to be drilled out. Wonderful.

As an American Infantryman, after a summer of training the Royal Irish Rangers in the US, we were trained by them in Folkestone. We were issued SA80's. It was different. But I didn't hate it. We had no problem engaging targets out to 400m. Though I do remember one stoppage (with blanks). And being chastised during the AAR for clearing it in the middle of the road instead of finding cover! LOL

To contrast the L85's development you should do a video on the L96, the sniper rifle made by 3 dudes in a shed

I’ve been in the army 15years, I’ve only used the the a2 and a3. Never had any issues. Field stripping is simple, it was fine in in Afghan in 09 and 11. The a3 is by far just a very competent, reliable and accurate rifle. The sight system and new hand guard are just a dream to shoot with and so easy to zero. Reliability has never been an issue as long as you give it a decent clean every once in a while. And the new magpul magazines are brilliant aswell

I was in the UK Army in the mid 80's, and trained with the SLR, that was a much better rifle. The other weapons around were the GPMG, LMG, 9mm Browning pistol, and despite being old, they were reliable and effective.

The pursuit of making something squaddie-proof is hilarious and reminds me of similar thoughts of US Marines. The joke is that if you put a Marine and a steel ball in a room with no windows or doors, one of three things will happen: he will lose it, break it, or get it pregnant.

If you want to know more about the different variants and such, forgotten weapons didba whole series on the sa80

I must have been a pervert. I loved the L85A1! Having had the SLR for so many years, the L85A1 was like alien technology! A rifle, with a multipurpose sling, and with selective, full auto fire, wow! I can honestly say, using it on and off ops for around 10 years, I never experienced anything dire with all the L85A1s I had as a personal weapon. I must have fired thousands of rounds down the range, the odd stoppage but again, nothing that weapon training couldn't solve. And I found it accurate. More accurate than the SLR. I placed my trust in it in Belfast and Kosovo (although never fired in anger) and it never let me down. Of course there was SA80s that caused problems for fellow comrades. Whether this was through poor handling or control issues when been made, I don't know. Overall, I was happy enough with it as a personal weapon. I only wish I was serving now to experience the L85A3 which I've been told by mates still serving is a fantastic weapon. PS: Before any of you have a go at my comments, I was and still am a gun nut hence I accepted and adapted to the introduction of the L85A1 into my unit many decades ago whilst the dinosaurs in the unit went on and on about the SLR and SMG. All good things come to an end.

As we used to say in the army "Have faith in your equipment but remember it was provided by the lowest bidder." Also make sure you know how to fix it because sure as hell when it goes wrong you will be as far as possible from workshop support. Anything supposedly squaddie proof is nothing of the sort. It's usually broken with no effort on its first field deployment.

I guess the engineers at H&K had a lot of fun while analyzing and fixing that thing.

Definitely want to see one on the EM2

I used the L85A1 SA80 and it was fine until the gas stoppages started. I have used and still do use the A2 version and I love it.

I was issued a new SA80 when I joined up in 1991, from the start I had a big problem as I’m left eye dominant and a left handed firer , the weapon was utterly useless, magazine would fall off, loads of stoppages . I was luckily made gunner and was given the amazing GPMG, but I was told it would be replaced with the LSW ( long silly weapon) . This was even more insane, a support weapon needs to be belt fed like the gimpy, I lost count of the times I shouted MAGAZINE, just as I was providing fire support on a section attack. More shockingly was the LSW could not sustain automatic fire for very long without the firing pin breaking, so all is LSW gunners carried a spare firing pin. As the second gulf war approached I was starting to get concerned, especially as I had been promoted to section commander and re issued a rifle. Luckily however Heckner and Cock had made an amazing improvement to the rifle and we were issued the A2 . Although it was such a rush we hadn’t even had time to zero then before being deployed,lol

Nicknamed "The Civil Servant" because it wont work and you can't fire it

An additional point about being forced to shoot right-handed is that handedness is not actually that important to marksmanship (at the end of the day the greatest extent of dexterity you need is twitching a finger) the main factor is which eye is dominant. when I coached scouts to shoot, we had a few kids that were right-handed but left-eyed, rather than let them continue to attempt to break their necks trying to put their left eye on the scope, we taught them all to just shoot left-handed

I loved the way you only had to say "water" and it started rusting

Friendly reminder whenever you’re in a outdoor store or something. “Military grade” means “mass produced by the lowest bidder”.

UK: We've created a new 7mm (.280in) intermediate cartridge, perfect for all non-theoretical battles. Also, this really cool new jet-age rifle to use it. US: No thanks, we see your research and the Soviet's new intermediate cartridge and we demand the .30-06 be "improved" to 7.62mm and you all have to use it. UK: Ok, our cool new rifle can't do that, but we've looked at your round and we accept we all have to use it, so here's this fantastic new rifle the Belgians have made based on John Browning's work. US: No thanks, we're going to adapt the M1 Garand rather than take a brand new rifle for NATO standard. Our bullet, our rifle. US: This 7.62x51mm has kind of a kick and way more range than necessary, what if we went to an intermediate round, say about 5.56mm? UK: We've developed a new, new intermediate round in 4.85mm. Very useful. US: No thanks, we like the Belgian version of our intermediate 5.56mm round. You all have to use it. US: 5.56mm isn't powerful enough. We've developed a new 7mm (6.8mm) round that we're going to use. You can all do what you like!

The title is so direct only people who know will know what they are going in for.

An American drill sergeant said, if you lock a new recruit into a sealed room with 2 solid steel balls, in one hour, he would break one of them and lost the other one.

I was in the army when we made the transition from the SLR to the SA80. The SLR 7.62 round was ballistically very powerful out to a long range. The problem was that the rifle opened up like a shotgun to remove the working parts for daily cleaning. It pivoted on a joint in front of the magazine housing. But the foresight was on the barrel end and the reassign on the button end. The slightest wear on the joint would introduce inaccuracies even after zeroing. The SLR had a long barrel and a heavy magazine in front of the pistol grip. None of the weight was near the shoulder or on the right arm that you could clamp into your body for support. The left arm took all the weight. So firing standing up unsupported took a lot of strength to shoot accurately. Weaker men and the majority of women would struggle to hit a target at even 100m. You would have to be lying down to stand a chance of hitting anything at 300m. Very few soldiers could hit a target over 500m. Enter the SA80. All the weight is near the shoulder and the balance point is at the pistol grip. Weaker people can shoot it more accurately unsupported, even with iron sights. As it was being introduced shooting competitions saw the SA80 units thrash the SLR units. With the SUSAT telescopic sight it was brilliant. If properly maintained you get very few stoppages, less than the SLR imo. It is a weapon for professional soldiers not 3rd World irregulars. The 5.65mm round is ballistically weak inviting your enemy to engage you from long range. But all in all, the SA80 is much easier to shoot accurately, you can carry more ammunition, it can fire full automatic and you get few stoppages.

The EM2 and the M16 story would be epic. The M16 story involves an aircraft manufacturer developing it, shooting watermelons on full auto at a BBQ by the General in charge of the US Air Force getting it adopted into military service, Navy SEALS, failures in combat, Congressional inquiries and much more.

“Military Grade” really means “your equipment was made by the lowest bidder”

I don't normally watch you about boomsticks. But yer backgrounder on this is effin' awesome! I found myself repeatedly chortling as an ex army reservist. TY.

Royal Marines mountain leaders trialled this weapon and basically said it’s shite, give us the m16, then politicians got their greasy little rat claws on it and hey presto! We got a piece of rubbish!

If anyone is interested in the development steps leading to the Sa80, Forgotten Weapons did an entire series on every step of the Sa80's development history.

Every former serviceman just audibly screamed when this uploaded.

Least when you hit somebody with the 7.62 they generally stayed the *%#$ down. 😂

To field strip the weapon, Fire half a magazine on full auto and it will do it itself.😂

The A1 had it's faults but it still did the job in GW1. The mags were a problem when intorduced but we used to wrap m16 mags with plumbers tape to solve the probs until the new mags were issued and the problem disappeared. The SUSAT was initially a little delicate but after it was realised it could be refined easily it was spot on for point and shoot. Once H&K got involved with the A2 it became a sturdy weapon and served me and others as well.

The American equivalent of squaddie-proofing is exhibited by the joke: Issue a squad of privates three solid stainless steel 12" balls at first formation. By lunchtime, one will be missing, one will be broken, and one will be pregnant.

If anyone’s ever built or repaired AR-15s will know that “mil-spec” always refers to the least expensive and worst actually usable parts

I have no intention to change anyone's mind, but... I trained on the SA80 L85 A1 in the late 1980s as a cadet. It was light, compact and deadly accurate. I remember the rumours of duct tape and jams, but I never saw any such problems. It didn't have the stopping power of 7.62 but really the only problem was you couldn't shoot it from the left shoulder or you'd lose your teeth. That meant you were exposed if you went round the left side of cover and also it wasn't ideal for me as I'm left eye dominant. That said, I won a shooting trophy at the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment so it wasn't that big of a deal.

Yet every VPN advert Simon says "military grade encryption" 😃

Imagine going through SAS/SBS/SRR selection just to get away from the L85.

Lolz Bravo Simon. This is the most hilarious video I have ever seen on RU-vid. I have viewed this video so many times. Absolutely hilarious video. Driving me crazy with laughter(Couldn't fire even if a grain of sand looks at it, etc)

26 years in the Army and had no problems with the SA80.

I once saw a promotional brochure for the SA80 where the headline read 'SA80 THE BEST OF BRITISH ENGINEERING. Under which someone had scribbled "so was the Titanic!

I was an armourer in the army during the first run of the sa80. We found the only way to stop a squaddie removing a screw was to paint the head red. It stopped it overnight!

26 years in the Mob. A1 had problems which i personally experienced like the mags falling out and the round not ejecting properly, but various upgrades during my time has made it into a solid weapon with a good sight for a standard all arms weapon. It's very accurate, short (which is good trust me), easy to clean and very hard to break. But it's heavy and without all the upgrades over the years, was unreliable in a sense that the round wouldn't eject properly, bounce back at you (getting burnt) and the mag falling out, which we really don't want in a standard weapon. Since the upgrades I hardly ever have problem with them, but without them it was a IMHO a subpar weapon. Having shot various standard rifles of other nations, in it's current state I rate it quite well but it's defo not one of the best, unless it's pure accuracy you are talking about in a standard rifle then it's defo up there. It's a shame it came out a tud but finally, at the end of it's life turned into a good solid weapon. The accuracy has always been a star for me, considering how short it is and a constant during it's life so wasn't a COMPLETE turd from the start (A1), it always had that.

I remember when we converted to the SA80 rifle from the SLR in 88. With an SLR my personal shooting wasn’t great but with the Rifle I became a marksman so even though we knew it was an inferior weapon to the SLR, the SA80 was easier to hit a target plus it is fully automatic. Anybody can get information from the internet to make a video but I actually used it, it was easier to patrol with in an urban area, it was easier to sleep with in a basher or trench and it was easier to stow away in an armoured vehicle. I never had a problem with it personally, with the SLR we had an iron sight and if you was lucky one or two guys had a SUIT sight but everybody had a SUSAT sight with the SA80. I was a Small arms instructor in the infantry (as is every infantry full screw in the British army) so a professional would be able to give you a better idea about the weapon. A lot of the faults got fixed and everybody was aware that the mag came off before they put a guard over the mag release catch. Nice video though, a bit inaccurate but still good well done.

I was working at Enfield as a summer job when Enfield Weapon System was handed over to the British Army and was tasked with organising the pageant of previous British Army weapons - procuring historic uniforms and film weapons - which was fun. I also worked on the machining of the bayonet. It’s fair to say that the issues with the A1 were known at that time. I also got to visit the Enfield “Pattern Room” - an Aladdin’s cave of historical weapons.

Never had a problem with it, to be honest. It had its weaknesses such as open perforations which could get sticks or mud in, but you learn to look for problems and anticipate them. It was so accurate, amazingly so. I quite liked it.

Used the A1 version doing my time and never really had an issue with it though too many parts for stripping and assembling and the only 2 faults I had with it were 2 broken firing pins which is never good. Also to note when my Susat got sent away for refurbishment somehow they managed to put it together sop that my range adjustment drum was to the front of the rifle, really doesn't inspire confidence when you get told turn it round only for the SNCO to twig that the rubber eyepiece was then to the front.

I've seen a lot of videos on the SA80, this one is a great take. Do cover more military failures!

On the Forgotten Weapons video of the SA80, there's a commenter who said in his service that a guy tried to kill himself with it but the rifle failed to fire. So then he had to complete his guard shift knowing his rifle didn't work but also that he couldn't report it.

Don't forget to check out Forgotten Weapons videos on this.

I think you're being unfair regarding the quality of Army equipment. Up until the abortion that was the SA80, we had pretty good stuff. The SLR/FN FAL was the free world's right arm, and as squaddie proof as any mechanical device could be. The Browning 9mm pistol was excellent, as was the GMPG and the LMG/Bren. The Sterling was crude, but it worked well enough. Before all those we had literal generations of Lee-Enfield rifles that were largely unbreakable, and the Brown Bess which stayed in service for over a century. The SA80 was a new development, which was not ready for service, but got foisted on the British Army because the government wanted to sell the factory into the private sector, and they could only do that if it was a going concern. So the Army got given the gun to make the factory saleable. We used to have an army to be proud of, but successive governments have starved it of funds until we can barely defend the Isle of Wight.

SA80 A1, utter gash. A2 and now A3, genuinely good kit.

Just a point of fact: Heckler and Koch were owned by BAE Systems at the time and the work was carried out by H&K Nottingham formerly the Royal Ordnance Factory. Having spent a lot of my time in the British military using the A1 i only ever saw problems with crappy mags and once broke a cocking handle. Whilst enthusiastically performing the iconic Forward Assist "karate chop". I will admit ergnomically its was and remains terrible but many of these issues are now grossly exaggerated for RU-vid clicks. But when you do a bit more research of talk to people that actually used the weapon you find the truth is not quite as fantastic or dramatic.

'You do know we're sitting on four million pounds of fuel, one nuclear weapon and a thing that has 270,000 moving parts built by the lowest bidder?' Armageddon

Used SA80. SLR and LSW but only one ever stuck in my memory and that was the GIMPY.

"Mum i want an Aus-Steyr" "We have Aus-Steyr at home" The Aus-Steyr at home -

I visited the Royal Ordnance L85A1 factory (Nottingham) right at the end of 1990. Trouble in the Gulf was a near certainty and RO were under huge pressure to produce large numbers of these rifles in very short order. They were really struggling. Many of the rifle components were subcontracted out, they were experiencing supplier delays and QA problems. They were required by then to operate 24/7 but actually only had enough skilled assemblers to operate a single 8 hour shift so they'd taken on a huge number of temporary workers which wasn't working out well. The whole place looked as if it was waiting to be properly established later and there was minimal automation to be seen. Everybody seemed half-mad with stress and my engineer guides were grumpy and distracted. Unwittingly, I started a conversation about the comparative superiority of L1A1/SLR which went down like a fart in a lift. My tour ended abruptly shortly after that.

I remember in training our instructor telling us how unbreakable the FAL SLR was as he threw it across a room. YEP, he broke it, the Armourer was not best pleased. 🤣

Remember that the Rifle your showing is the L85A2 and is much more reliable than most options out there as well as having amazing characteristics

2:05 - Chapter 1 - Background 5:45 - Chapter 2 - Development 12:05 - Chapter 3 - Failure 19:05 - Chapter 4 - Closing remarks

I remember the L1A1 SLR myself from Cadets as a teenager. I remember I had to learn to strip, reassemble and fire it to pass my Level 1 Arms certificate. Haven't seen one in years, but those pictures brought back memories. Including the one when I was practice stripping it, forgot to hold the main spring down and it ended up giving me a burst lip and scraped nose. Good times :P

Hi my friend, I used the SLR and it is stuck one of the best. It was particularly good because it was so re-bust. Your wrong about the date, the SA80 was used in the Falkland’s war in 1982 and was and had to be upgraded because they had to fire between 3-6 round to drop someone. I know for a fact because I was there, it was getting tried out. The SLR was used mostly but the SA80 was getting tested.

Very interesing peice. I served from 86 - 91 and for 4 years of that the SLR was my constant companion. It was heavy, brutal, often leaving you with bruised shoulders but as mentioned, squaddie proof. When the SA80 started dripping to the masses towards the end of my time (only the infantry had it before that and as REME we got it last) it was a breath of fresh air, light and modern looking with a “cool” sling. That all quickly dissipated on use. Cheap, plasticky and with bits falling off it (including the magazines falling off endlessly) we hated every second with it. We never even got the cool Infantry sights, just the standard iron sights. The kicker for me was always the coking handle being on the “wrong” side. After years with the SLR moving your hand to the other side of the weapon to cock it never felt natural. Wasn’t in for long enough after that for the improved versions, but long live the SLR, my maggot mate for many years.

As an infantryman in the British Army circa late seventies, early eighties I used the Self Loading Rifle {SLR}. It was rugged, stripped down very easily, was accurate - and quite difficult to render unusable. We knew that it was probably too powerful over the ranges we were expecting to use it, but it had been shown that an enemy when hit would be stopped! The twenty round magazine coupled with the size and weight of each round made the weapon a heavy one. And lastly, with a bayonet attached, the length of the enhanced weapon was good although in a limited environment could be restricting. When we received the SA80, which was lighter and enabled each infantryman to carry more rounds that the SLR, the immediate impression was its apparent fragility represented by the comparatively flimsy green plastic covering where handling would be necessary or likely. The gun was primarily sheet metal covering the solid firing mechanism/barrel, again emphasising its potential fragility. Its small size made it challenging to carry and with bayonet attached it did not seem either intimidating or potentially as fatal as the SLR plus bayonet. To fire, it was accurate when zeroed, but the sight {part of the weapon which had no iron sight} being large was easily knocked off zero. Inability to fire it safely left handed was an ongoing problem, and as the video says it couldn't be used safely by a right hander shooting round a right handed corner as the whole of the left side of the body would be exposed. The magazine held 30 rounds, but we never put more that 25 rounds in because of the danger of jamming. The plastic levers [safety catch] could 'fall off' and as the video says, it was not uncommon for the magazine to fall out. Incidently, the magazine was tinny possibly as it did not need to be very wide to accommodate the small round and easy to damage. Finally it was just to complex - even a field strip would involve breaking the rifle into what were small components, easy lost or misplaced in combat I'd imagine. Not a great weapon.

I liked it back in the day, was a pain to clean but it had a cool gas valve when you couldn’t (many missed this and it made it rugged used correctly). It rarely jammed for me or if it did you could clear it quickly. The site was innovative and effective when most were on steels. The use of plastics was well done. Easy to load, easy to make safe. Great sling system. Accurate too. This thing kills like it blows people to mush on full auto. It was heavy. The long barrel variant was too heavy and could not sustain fire. Had a few silly springs in it. All in all I preferred it to anything else in the 90’s. From desert, jungle to Scotland and everything in between it worked for me.

I always thought of the SA80 as a formula 1 car, on the range in the dry it was a fantastic weapon, put it in a typical British outdoor scenario and it was akin to putting that formula 1 car on the backstreets of Brum. Bits fell off, other bits melted with the mozzie "love juice" repellent, The SUSAT sight was pretty damn good but ironically had tiny little pins in it's body that broke easily buggering up zeroing with every shot moving it, and really screwed with the REME guys, until they had experience of fixing one. On Onion Range in the Falklands we had so much ammo to burn through (kind of like you'd need in a serious fire fight) but this amount of use melted the plastic and it fell apart, mud, dust, rain condensation wrecked it. Firing it with the sword attachment would see that flying off, magazines fell off and required constant cleaning to keep in working order.... It also hated squaddies, just seeing one upon opening the armoury would make it fail. (My experience: Early to mid 90s) We missed our SLR's...

Don't forget that the M16 was an absolute pig when it was introduced into service. The L85A2 I used in service was an excellent weapon - powerful, hard hitting and accurate at a range which would have made an AK user weep. I loved it.

Totally in favor of more weapon systems mehaprojects

I worked at Royal Ordnance in Notts in the late 80's early 90's and there was so much scrap from making this weapon that one guy took bits home and made his own. He only got found out because they counted the ammo you used at the range and he was caught smuggling rounds out. He got banged up instantly.

So glad that my cadet and BA Regular Forces life included WWII weapons, SLR, and Sterling SMG. In the Canadian Forces it included C1A1 (SLR) with the C7 which was okay, but I was always a fan of the 7.62 x 51mm round, and semi automatic rifles. My civilian rifles primarily are 7.62 x 51 caliber.

"...we'll fight on the beaches...if necessary for years...never surrender. But first, Fritz, ol' chap - could you fix that bloody rifle for us?"

16 years in the army and i love the sa80. The only issues ive ever had with it have been user errors (ie poor maintenance) or magazine feed issues ( usually the older metal magazines being bent). The rifle is accurate with proper training. A brief edit. I've only used the sa80 a2 but i know of the sa80 a1's horrendous flaws even though ive never used it. A second edit bullets arent ejected from the ejection port the cases are. A third edit. I used the a2 in Afghanistan so i am biased in favor of the rifle.

Only problems I had with the early A1 were the magazines falling off - it was rectified by an upgrade to the magazine release. Broke a few firing pins and you had to remember to forward assist but on the whole not a bad weapon. If you were a good shot with the SLR then you were even better with the SA80. SUSAT was good for it’s time.

And people talk about the Armalite/AR15/M16 teething problems! The SA80 was truly the British Leyland of the gun world!

Would love to see more videos on specific firearms Simon

Having used the A1 and A2, first was truly a pain in the arse, particularly when they were older and getting quite rattly. I remember being on a cadre at Catterick and having an old A1, it was so sloppy that after a few rounds rapid, the change lever crept onto auto! Got a bollocking from the DS the first time, then it happened again...A2 was a cracking bit of kit though and never had any dramas that weren't down to user error.

'Military Grade' to outsiders: "Oh wow, this must be really high quality!" 'Military Grade' to everyone familliar with it: _"Cheapest bidder, overvalued waste of tax dollars, skirting the line between acceptable and useless, probably went through 3 decades worth of maintenance in 3 months because Joe the overgrown Grunt tightened several bolts _*_off_*_ of the frame, if you're lucky it's not literally held together with recycled duct-tape, if anything goes wrong you're responsible for all the shit everybody else did to it and it's your balls on the chopping block if it finally commits seppuku out of sheer abuse-trauma."_ The Humvee is the greatest example of military grade. Humvees are amazing vehicles, you know, _for as long as you've never driven in one._ They're more expensive than a fully kitted out fifth-gen Dodge Viper (250,000$ ... The Humvee, not the Viper.), you've definitely sat on more comfortable plastic garden chairs, when you go onto the highway and you floor it you realize the gas pedal isn't actually for more speed, it's just a button that makes more noise if you push it, if you're lucky you can make it up a hill, if you're unlucky you're trying to drive an armored Humvee up a hill, which is 9000 pounds of a quarter of a million worth in dead weight powered by 140 horses _(Less than a 2020 Volkswagen Golf),_ and the real joke is the emphasis on trying there because that thing is not going anywhere, not even while driving down the road, because that little engine is so overdrawn that you're gonna have to stop about once every hour or two at a gas station, despite the 25 gallon tank. All this to say, ladies and gentlemen, i present to you, MILITARY GRADE! *_Still wanna buy a Humvee?_*

Actual comment I heard during the very last Bright Star exercise in Egypt in the Fall of 2001, from a Brit: "It's a piece of shit! But it's a small piece of shit!"

While in the US Army I learned that the average soldier could break an anvil with a cotton ball.

Any bullpup that is produced without the ability to accommodate left-hand shooters is extremely short sighted

To put it simply, as someone who has used the A2 and now the A3; The SA80 WAS the worst modern rifle ever made, but not anymore. There are still flaws don’t get me wrong, but it’s a good rifle and I will stand by it til the end of time.

As a gun nerd…this is fantastic. Have you thought about doing a weapons channel?

Somebody who's never even held a firearm before telling us what firearm is good or bad, that's hilarious.

I served as an infantryman in the British Army for 30 years, firing every personal & crew served weapon system throughout my career until 2013. I converted to the SA80 in 1985 from the SLR. Frankly I read & watch so much crap about the A1, I carried it throughout GW1, firing 1000s rounds through it without ANY issue whatsoever!! Yes, the magazine release catch initially wasn’t shrouded so it would release the magazine when impacting the body (due to the unfathomable sling!), it was a highly accurate & reliable weapon! The problem in the early days was the utterly sh!te M16 magazines that were issued! Within a year the Radway Green magazines appeared & stoppages fell off a cliff. The SUSAT increased 1st time passes of the Annual Personal Weapons Test by a factor of 6/7 compared to the SLR & despite the lack of punch from the 5.56mm the weight of accurate fire from the SA80 & LSW more than made up for it. The A2 is significantly better than M4, I tested it extensively on ops in Afghanistan in 2012 whilst attached to the 82nd Airborne. More love required for the SA80!!!

I put thousands of rounds through my SA80 over the years from the desert to the arctic and all areas in between. It only ever misfired or jammed when using blank ammo. Shooting targets at range got harder than it was with the old SLR and it didn't have the same punch. A 7.62mm version would have been nice.

The first time I fired the SA80, the dust cover on the breech flew off and hit the guy in the other lane on the firing range.

I carried an SLR through 5 yrs of service and it was reliable and never let me down. Just heard horror stories about the SA80 from the day it was first issued.Never fired one it was after my time.

"Mil-Spec" is code for "produced for as cheap as humanly possible while still technically functioning."

Im absolutely loving the fact that a civi knows what Military grade really means. 11 yrs in the Australian Army and I've seen a lot of "Military Grade" gear .

Video editor , Simon narrates five things the guns, shows a picture

This is the most comprehensive review of this weapon that I've seen. Thank you Simon

Imagine the irony if the L1A1 were to be chosen as a replacement