Tiger 1 Concept

[Wardukw]

Yeah in the world of SMG the F1 is a funky looking weapon and its funkiness is probably why you guys call it your own as i dont think anyone else uses it..i know i haven't ..never had alot of call for SMGs but we were all trained on a variety of them..MP5s were the mainstay but Sterlings were in the mix and a few others of the H&K world..HK53s and the like.

I think you blokes had either well worn out or very old or both in the M16s as the M4 is just a shorter verison .same lowers are used and the amount of death ours took we never had much issues..never a mag dropping mid use and damn near zero jams..the odd one here and there but when ya do the math on how many fired to how many jams..numbers a super small .
One weapon we didnt like or except even thou the bosses in the head shed tried was the Steyr..the biggest issues were the mags..when we worked with other teams we would have had no mag commonality or parts commonality and as for mounting anything to it ya couldnt back then cause of the lack of any rail system and we all had our own likes for optics..mine was a 4x8 ACOG which is sweet but now theres dozens of choices and some are surpurb.
If any M203s were needed a Steyr couldnt mount one and the biggest issue was none of use liked the way it felt..with the differences in height and build it is to small for me and not being able to adjust the stock lenght is a major pain.
Now their time is getting close to the end ..even the NZ Army is slowly getting rid of them as there slowly upgrading to a M4/M16 based weapons platforms.
Ya right about the Churchill connection with the L1a1 even tho the bullpup rifle was a very good weapon it didnt use the now then standardized 7.62mm rd which the other rifle couldnt use and ill bet some good cash that there was a political reason as well and it alot of under table stuff going on to as i believe the British Army didnt even want the L1 but there ya go .
Oh dont know if you ever have but firing the L1 on full auto is like firing a M14 on full auto..absolutely bloody impossible to keep rds on target but great fun trying 

[rickshaw]

A bent matchstick can achieve wonders with an L1a1.     I have fired one or two on full auto.  Didn't like it all that much.  First two rounds were on target and the rest went over.   I used to carry a thirty round magazine on mine.  A bit heavier but used to surprise the bad guys who liked to count rounds and then would expose themselves when you reached 20.  The F88 could have had more Gucci stuff even with the lack of rails if the army had made an effort to get them.  They didn't.  I know you Kiwis have abandoned the weapon unfortunately but that is due, I understand to cost.  You were apparently offered a good deal on the M4 and took it.  I am suspicious of any M16 based weapon.   

[Wardukw]

Oh the bent match trick 
The ones we used to play were the full auto verison..just flick over the selector and away you go..we did manage to put all 20rds onto a target on full auto my strapping it to a anvil  ..worked a treat but its not the only 7.62mm weapon with is a beast on full auto..the G3 was not much better..the Galil was the same but a right sweetie was the 5.56 version tho rather heavy but damn accurate.
When you guys played with the 16 were you ever told to smack the mag once you had loaded ? ..they can fall out if you dont .
It would seem me good mate that you blokes had a bad run with the 16 family yet we had no real issues at all and when we got the new steel cored rds damn things changed..500 m targets were not a problem and neither was penetration.
We were at a unnamed place where they experimented with weapons right up to 155mm ..they had a whole pile of rifles which were shot to death ..thousands apon thousands of rds put thru this lot but sitting in a office in a display case is thei grubby as hell M4 ..under it was a little metal plate ..7000 rds..3 barrel changes..no fails..original bolt...thats damn impressive no matter what it is shame some bad ones ruin the name of the good .
Like ive seen and held AKs that looked beyond repair or even use but still worked ..one with a bent barrel ..still fired 
I like ya 30 rd mag trick  we did a similar thing we copied from the US blokes in WW2 with their M1s ..their 8rd clips and the "ping" at the end a dead give away they were out of ammo..we did the same one guy fires while one holds back..not much of a problem with belt fed which i like very much.
We got out of all sorts of trouble thanks to belt fed weapons   

[rickshaw]

We were taught to never smack the magazine on loading.  It causes all sorts of malfunctions.  We were taught to firmly seat it and then leave it.  The M16 was a nasty weapon for the user, prone to spitting the magazine out when firing blanks particularly, stoppages and so on. I say M16 but I mean XM16/M16/M16a1 which were the various versions I tried.  It was a nasty weapon.  It was a dirty one as well, with a lot of carbon build up very quickly which had to be cleaned regularly or you'd get the stoppages.  Let me guess you were SAS?  I was initially infantry and then I transferred to Ordnance.   

[Wardukw]

Man you got taught wrong on the 16 on so many levels ..your instructors needed to talk to some of the guys we worked with..we always gave our mags a smack to make sure they seated and as for your other issues especially with carbon build up thats dirty ammo and buggered gas settings ..ya we'ed clean ours regularly but thats normal practice and yep they did have a big problem with them in Vietnam as the grunts were told they didnt need cleaning so not cleaning kits were supplied ..we all know what happened there 
But we've been thru mud and sand and crap and even dropped them but mags never feel out and they always worked and as for blank firing..well thats dirty anyway as blanks are not even half power of a normal rd so ya gotta run a BFD or it wont cycle the bolt ..not enough gas in the tube to move the bolt backwards..BFD does that and like i said dirty..its all low grade powder.
Its kinda funny Rick but it sounds that the dudes in charge didnt want the 16 at all so a wee bit of sabotage to make them run bad ..then you guys have nothing good to say about them..the word gets into the right ears about how bad these rifles are and then all of a sudden ya get Steyr ..probably not ture but political tossers being what they are ya never know.
I cant tell you what i was dude but i can say i wasnt SAS  ..did work with them thou..awesome blokes 
Since im not involved in that world anymore and havent been for many yrs i can do something now ive wanted to do ..im going to post my mug in our ..well post ya mug on here section the next time i post pics which will be of this thing and in that pic im holding something quite special back then ...standard issue now   

[rickshaw]

What you say may be correct about the dirty ammunition powder but it is made to the specification promulgated by the US Army when we first purchased them back in the 1960s.  We have continued with the specifications.   However, we have never slapped the magazine on any weapon when we load them.   We find it unseats rounds and damages the magazine catches and I suspect it is considered "untidy" to do it. 

I've know quite a few ex-SAS diggers, one who was a real cobber who recently died.  He served in Vietnam, Borneo and New Guinea and had some interesting stories to tell.  He become a PSO'ed officer in the Army Reserve (roughly equivalent to the UK Territorials) and finally involved in the local army museum.  I first met him as a wargamer when I was a teenager.  I did a couple of army exercises with him.  He was as tough as nails and always wore the same set of greens, much to the consternation of all his diggers cause they could march across a room by themselves.  They used to stink!  Smell was a key to him and he used to talk about it from Vietnam where Australians and Americans smelled distinctly different to Vietnamese.   

[zenrat]

Mrs z used to work with a bloke who was ex 2 para and ex SAS.  He had been invalided out after he did his knee during a jump.  He went into IT and became another overweight businessman with a briefcase and a laptop bag.
Which is exactly what the five brave lads who jumped him one night outside Euston station thought he was - an easy mark.
He left three of them clutching themselves on the ground and two legged it.
He suffered a broken watch strap but told me that he didn't remember the action - his training just cut in and he defended himself.  He thought that if he had been in his prime he might have killed them.

[rickshaw]

Mrs z used to work with a bloke who was ex 2 para and ex SAS.  He had been invalided out after he did his knee during a jump.  He went into IT and became another overweight businessman with a briefcase and a laptop bag.
Which is exactly what the five brave lads who jumped him one night outside Euston station thought he was - an easy mark.
He left three of them clutching themselves on the ground and two legged it.
He suffered a broken watch strap but told me that he didn't remember the action - his training just cut in and he defended himself.  He thought that if he had been in his prime he might have killed them.

Something I never considered trying with any of my ex-SAS friends was to take them on in a serious fight.  I know one digger who was a bit of a problem in the mess after hours and he ended up with a broke leg because he thought he was a better man than one of them.  Served the silly bugger right.  He was warned.   

[Wardukw]

Even tho in my time i was quite skilled..strong and good looking  theres this intensity about many of those lads and straight away you know ..or should know messing around with them is not a good idea ..it leads to things getting broken or dead.
Like ya said guys its their training..ours was deadly for sure but theirs is a couple of levels above us and every single bit is ment to kill..as one cadet said me once..they are the masters of death..seemed quite accurate a description and i havent heard better a better one.