Yes, English firearm enthusiasts do exist and Bloke on the Range is one such gentleman. Here he has borrowed an actual factory semi-automatic L85/SA80A1 (Yes, the goofy one with all the ergonomic issues that H&K later fixed).
I’ve said it before, the A1 was unfortunately put together but a group with good intentions and no experience. The team didn’t know the problems that a rifle in the field faces, a rifle that needs to work under harsh environmental conditions and be built to fix errors in its operations at the operator level.
Little things like snow or dirt pack behind the trigger and a charging handle that can be grabbed and ripped quickly by the user. Protection for the magazine release so that it does get hit inadvertently, little things like that.
But anyhow, it is fascinating that we could’ve potentially gotten an SA80 at least as an interesting collectible here in the states because a semi-auto did exist. I don’t think we can rely on someone like Tom Bostic to tenaciously Americanize this one like he did with the G36. But who knows, I never though we would have domestic G36’s.
