History of the SA80

I am basing this section completely on what I have heard as I have met people in my travels pursuing this subject and will write it here first then I am going to start ringing people and reading books especially Steve Raws' The Last Enfield which I have purchased but haven't read yet. That section will appear after this section.

A must for SA80 enthusiasts.

Before.

A man appeared here once and bought an old-spec de-activated Sterling. He used to work there and now travels the country talking about the old Sterling factory. Sterling only has an engines division now. He only had bad words for Enfield and the Government. As far as I can remember he was talking about a man who was invited from Enfield to go down and have a look at the Sterling factory. He was wined and dined and made a fuss of and was given a Sterling rifle as a parting gift. I think this was a Sterling AR180 as there are a lot of strikingly similar parts on it to the SA80! This may have been the time of the EM1 and EM2 prototypes which were put forward as a replacement for the L1A1 SLR. These were turned down as being too expensive and if they had have been accepted some say, we would have had the best rifle ever. In the rush to cheaply produce a replacement a hybrid of the EM2 and the AR180 suddenly appeared from nowhere ! Some say there were some old biscuit tins laying around in the tea room which suddenly vanished ! Also they didn't have any black plastic ! Testing went ahead and amidst the exploding barrels and fracturing breech sections someone said "I will sign it Xxxxx has gone to the toilet". When Sterling suddenly kicked up a fuss contracts were terminated even for the Sterling SMG !! Sterling went bust and were so silenced by the Government. I can just see it. Grey haired pensioners suddenly finding themselves given a position they know nothing about, never seen a gun before, probably got shares in H+K, and halfway through their "rabbit in the headlights" experience someone says "Sign here and it will all be over". Then they take their shares issue or bonus ( known in non-political situations as a backhander ) and run. I would like to see stock holdings by anyone in power at the time of contract signings made public. Remember, up until now I am only going by stories I have heard and these should be treated as stories until I get to the bottom of it.

Please contact me if you know different or have a comment ...

After.

The real story will be published here when it is compiled.

Some historic items.

A sign saying use the racks and not the top.

Trial cocking levers.

Another "Use the racks" sign.

A test run for a refurbished injection mould foregrip plastics machine.

A plastic bag originally containing 3 trigger guards which has all three parties on it. H+K, Royal Ordnance and the Nottingham Factory.

Parts "in the white".

A wood mockup of whats to come ! Er no ! Give me an M4 anyday.