Generally, it is to teach the basics of skill at arms (rifle handling) and marksmanship principles (shooting).Blackstuff wrote:Forgive my ignorance but what is the actual purpose of this rifle? Is it literally just to teach the basics of marksmanship?
I would've though a .22lr SA80 A3 would give the same and a more natural progression to cadets going into the full services
I think cadets started with the No8 just after WWII because the service arm of the time was the No4 and it was a good tool to familiarise the cadets with the bigger calibre version, all the controls and sight picture etc were virtually the same. As the standard rifle changed to SLR/L85 etc .22lr wasn't used as widely as a training aid for the military (although 22 barrels and bolts were available for the SLR and the 22 insert for the L85) the .22lr initial training rifle stayed the same for the cadets, maybe there wasn't the funding or the time to change things, it is not just the rifle that would be changed, all the manuals and staff would need to be trained as well and that all adds to the costs. These calibre conversions were rarely issued to the cadets as they had the No8 if they wanted to shoot indoors (and besides the 22 kits for the L98 were/are notoriously unreliable you'd be better off with the No8)
Yes, what the cadets really need is a reliable .22 version of the current rifle, whatever that is at the time.