froggy wrote:Silly question from a Johnny Foreigner, but why was it made straight-pull & not semi-auto in the first place ?
Take a seat froggy, its a long one. Essentially Pre 1988 they used to let cadets use practically anything including full autos and SLR's (though full auto use on a sterling was discourages, once had someone tell me they were ballocked once for doing that).
Anyway Post 88 act and center fire semis going into section 5 it was thought that being a civilian Organization with mere military links rather than full incorporation it would be illegal to use anything section 5 (not withstanding the previous use of full autos that still continued). Anyway it turned out that the use of center fire semis ban allowed an exemption for all the cadet forces...... They just didn't act on it for years (I believe when the second gulf war started the British army was even taking back LSW's for use that they had given to cadet forces due to how little they had prepared in a crap attempt at trying to not let anyone know there was a build up to invasion and the results showed afterwards). A few years back the straight pulls were replaced/modded to be like semi auto versions of the SA80A1's (minus the bayonet lug, apparently some cadets actually went and made private bayonet purchases and someone got hurt, H&S crap later, you get the picture, what a world we live in ).
Or it could have been for other reasons, but a misunderstanding of the legislation is the story often told to me froggy.
A common theory but one that doesn't quite fit the historical facts. The Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988 was passed in November of that year, while Enfield's first L98A1s were coming off the production line in mid-88. Cadet units had them on issue by November/December.
Unless the government told RO far enough in advance that it would ban semi-autos for civilian use for RO to design and build a mostly new rifle...
The L98A2s, though they have the A2 monicker, are in fact L85A2s with a new trigger mechanism that won't let it do full auto fire (the port for the change lever is blanked off and I think the sear arrangement has been changed so the semi-auto sear is permanently engaged). In every other respect they are identical to the IW. I have a photo of one of the first L98A2s ever issued where you can clearly see the old L85A2 markings that had been overpainted on the TMH. The A2 also differs in that the TMH and the body are both serial numbered, whereas all other SA80 weapons are only numbered on the TMH.
I remember being told at the time that because the rifle was shorter than 'that rifle' we weren't trusted with semi auto and had to have straight pull instead.
As well as being bayonet less, the strange thread cover on the end of the barrel also meant that you couldn't fit a BFA which was a pain.
In terms of which has more value, a used cadet one or a new parts gun, I seem to recall that on any cadet range day at least two rifles ended up broken and so I'd say that an unused one would be more desirable. That said they are so rare that it's more of a case of "do you want it or not" when one becomes available for sale.
The above post probably contains sarcasm or some other form of attempted wit, please don't take it to heart.
I distinctly remember being told that we (Air Cadets) couldn't have blanks for the L98 for safety reasons but it was all a looooooooooooooooong time ago.
You know how rumour turns into truth, it was probably just a cadet rumour linking it to the BFA.
The above post probably contains sarcasm or some other form of attempted wit, please don't take it to heart.
I always thought it was because many Cadets used the SMLE so transferring from a manually operated rifle to a gas powered semi rifle would have caused issues.
Charlotte the flyer wrote:I distinctly remember being told that we (Air Cadets) couldn't have blanks for the L98 for safety reasons but it was all a looooooooooooooooong time ago.
You know how rumour turns into truth, it was probably just a cadet rumour linking it to the BFA.
With no BFA the rifle spat all the gunk straight out the front. It's surprising just how lethal a blank round can be at short range - ever seen the watermelon demo?
IIRC the safety distance was 50m. The air cadets had a massive sad-on about fieldcraft in my day so we never did anything like that.
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