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I was a sgt , but once had to eat a pound of butter with a spoon!
Not-so-interesting interesting fact is that the "detuned" SA80 (L98A1 in my day) was actually more powerful than the SA80 as it had no gas parts - nothing to take away some of the recoil.
I remember tinkering with an SA80 and a LSW (the one with a bipod) with some of the ruffty tufty army types (I was RAF CCF) and finding them ridiculously easy to shoot at 300m.
Was always funny with first timers cutting their eyebrows first time they fired an L98 with iron sights! 8)
[i]Not-so-interesting interesting fact is that the "detuned" SA80 (L98A1 in my day) was actually more powerful than the SA80 as it had no gas parts - nothing to take away some of the recoil.[/i]
Ah yes, the L98A1 general purpose cadet rifle.
On the range at Manston once, some genius of an airfield designer had sited the range at one end of the runway with the target area in the same general direction as the little Chipmunks that were busy ferrying other cadets around. One of the younger female cadets firing was a) too weak to cock the rifle properly so it jammed every time and b) too weak to hold the rifle into her shoulder. Every shot was kicking up dust and brick chips from the top of the range wall. I had visions of her bringing down a Chipmunk on take off as it buzzed along only 100m or so off the end of the firing range. 😯
Everyone slagged it off cos it was manual cocking but if you could handle it properly it was actually amazingly accurate.
Was always funny with first timers cutting their eyebrows first time they fired an L98 with iron sights!
Sniper's eye we used to call it. You could always spot someone who hadn't fired an SLR before, as half the range staff would be watching to see them:
a. Pull trigger
b. Close eyes when rifle goes bang
c. Receive rearsight in right eyebrow
d. Wonder who'd just kicked them in the shoulder
Nobody ever told them about eye relief prior to their first range day. The SA80 just wasn't as much fun!
Depends how idiotic the firer is.
Cadet had just passed his WHT and was very enthusiastic, so enthusiastic that he really looked down the sight (almost touching his eye). He was not expecting the recoil.
The angry black eye didn't go down for weeks.
Definitely bent