Gun clips - what sort of gun?

SA80 or SLR

As I assume it's your 101 we're talking about, I would guess the clips were probably designed for the 7.62mm SLR (Self-Loading Rifle) made by FN (Fabrique Nationale), as used throughout the UK forces before the introduction of the current SA-80.

Stuart. (Remove the badger's shorts before replying)

TVM, I will now at least feel a little more confident explaining this in the unlikely event I'm asked again :-)

I know this may sound a daft question, but how does a rifle 'load itself', or have I missed something elemental?

As the chamber of the weapon recoils it allows another round to enter the breach from a spring loaded magazine. The Chamber then assumes it's normal position ready ..quite literally for round 2 :-) It's all extemely finely engineered.. It's when the rounds are not quite correct or you get foreign bodies in the mechanisim that you get what is refered to as a "stoppage" or basically it all jams... as seen in most deserts.

Lee D

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Twas Tue, 24 Feb 2004 20:09:52 -0000 when "Lee_D" put finger to keyboard producing:

to put it more simply, you will have seen bits sliding back and forth on guns in the movies, well this sliding throws the emptly case out and pushes a new on into the breach, loading by itself.

-- Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.) ___________________________________________________________ "To know the character of a man, give him anonymity" - Mr.Nice.

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Twas Tue, 24 Feb 2004 20:14:46 GMT when "Exit" put finger to keyboard producing:

It's when the rounds are not quite correct or you get foreign

Unless you have an AK series weapon, because they chrome plate the receiver and have a slightly more tolerant approach to sloppiness, all you do is kick the bolt open work it a few time and hey presto off it goes. I've seen them rusted to hell but still function. Incidentally when the Uk goverment 'sorted ' the SA80 did'nt they chrome plate the thing as part of the job.

Ah, I see (I think) what you mean. I've no idea why, but I had strange visions of the gun itself doing something clevver with a box of bullets (alright, alright...). So the spring loaded magazine is filled by hand?

To follow on from my original question, how, or upon what 'bit' of the gun to the clips, erm, clip? They seem quite big - more shotgunish size.

Omigod - that's a fecking scary looking thing to be in a mild mannered gun tractor like a 101!

If we get really picky, the SA80 is not a rifle but a pair of weapons used by the UK armed forces. These are the the L85A2 (supposedly an improvement over the L85A1 which was found wanting during the 1991 Gulf War) and the L86 Light support weapon, which is extremely similar to the L85 and uses the same internal parts, but has a longer barrel, bipod and rear hand steady for use in the Sustained Fire (SF) role.

The L85 is issued to all personnel as their personal weapon, and is the direct replacement for the SLR.

The L86 is issued as a section support weapon and was designed to replace the General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG). Whilst it is a lot lighter to lug around than the GPMG for a weekend, I found it sadly lacking compared to the Jimpy.

One of the reasons for the change wasto keep the bean counters happy at NATO as it then meant that NATO was using the same size calibre weapon (5.56mm) to ease logistics, as the M16 is also a 5.56mm rifle..... think along the lines of one of the reason for changing the whole vehicle fleet to diesel....

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Whilst the SLR was general issue to infantry and all manner of mere mortals it was not universally used. Depending on the role of the vehicle before demob the clips could also have been intended for an SMG (sub-machine gun) which was fairly widely issued to vehicle crews due to it's shorter length.

Of course on a really old ex-forces vehicle the clips could have been for the Lee Enfield .303 ... oh happy days ;-)

HTH Steve G

The clips grip the stock (the bit that surrounds the barrel) and butt (the bit that goes into the shoulder when firing) of the weapon. Most are mounted vertically with the muzzle of the weapon pointing upwards (the preferred solution just in case the weapon goes off accidentally) and others are horizontal with the muzzle pointing towards the outside of the vehicle.

On some special forces vehicles the clips were mounted on the doors and angled downwards so that the crew could grab their weapons in a hurry when departing the vehicle ... in a hurry.

Regards Steve G

What cracks me up is when someone is firing an automatic handgun, with their thumb in the exact place that the recoil-reload will remove it at the root.....

Steve

Couldn't agree more ... I love the old .303 :-)

I've always been a big believer in that if I take the time and trouble to aim correctly at a target I deserve the pleasure of seeing it fall down when hit ... not keep coming towards me!

Regards Steve G

I quite like seeing replicas in there proper place..in fact about the only place for them.. What about one for bungle ?

Lee D

If your motor was a gun tractor then I think the crew were quite likely to have been issued with SMG's than the SLR - but I could be wrong. Wayne, do you know which it was?

Interesting point on the statistics on the URL above. The SLR was (in general terms) not fitted with en optical sight, whereas all teeth arm soldiers have a SUSAT sight on their SA80 so I'd expect the results to be better with this weapon. In fact, I'm surprised that they're not better than the figures show.

Regards Steve G

Or

for all the British forcesweapons