Stay Safe !
Stay Safe !
Squantos, I've extensively wrung out the L85/SA 80 several times, carried one *for real* a couple of times when my life stood a better than even chance of depending on it, and used the similar L86 LSW on one similar occasion, all with no particular problems. My experience is that the things are nowhere near as bad as their reputation, earned in large part from stories repeated by journalists and those who've never so used them. Certainly the Gurkhas haven't been heard to whine or complain about getting them, though they were as happy previously with their L1A1 SLRs and the hodgepodge of M16A1 rifles they'd previously used, but now have happily been soldiering along with the SA80 after using them successfully on numerous real-world operations. And when something eventually does replace SA 80, as it finally will sooner or later, the Gurkhas will make do just fine with that.
I hardly think of the things as my first choice of those novelties that come in handy during spirited debates, but they're not my last pick either- and I'm much fussier about the condition of the individual example I get from the arms room rack, be it L85A1, M16A2 M4A1 carbine or AK 47/74/103.
I almost wonder if H&K didn't make any incipient problems worse, but in any event, I flat cherish the use of the steel SA80 magazines for use in my own M16A1 as the best examples around of 30-round mags for the Armalite family. Of course that'd be one way H&K could sell some more G36s, which BTW, I'm not at all fond of. I'd rather haul a L85A1, or better, an L86, though the old HK33 is okay and reliable, if, like the Galil, a bit heavy.