During my brief brush with the regular army in the eighties, the SA80 was just coming in and many of the old hands were mortified that the 7.62 SLR was being phased out, apparently the 7.62 could shoot through brick walls (double breeze block) and the SA80 couldn’t, which meant the previous tactic of surrounding a house and shooting the crap out of it (and anyone inside) wasn’t going to work anymore
SA80 was made of plastic and fell to bits even on the CFT. Loved the simplicity of the SLR whereas the SA80 a1 was just poor.
I used to reload rounds for the 300WM rifle and the 44Mag revolver, S&W Mod 29 made famous in the Dirty Harry films. Used 44 " special" loads, lighter bullet heads and powder charge. Full house 44 Mag loads were hard to get any consistent accuracy with as the kick was so violent. Impressive though! 9mm rounds for the semi auto Browning pistol were also relatively cheap. I think the brand I used were of Israeli manufacture but I just can't recall the name.
Sterling Armaments was the name of the business that made them.....in Dagenham. Basically a better built Sten gun they did tend to go high left on automatic but single shot were really just overgrown pistols with a slightly longer barrel. The 9mm parabellum round would reputedly bounce off a wet trench coat at 50m. Untrue. It was 63 metres! Because the SMG was recoil operated with a big Zebedee spring the heaviest bit of the entire contraption was the bolt which kept altering the C of G - like rattling a soup tin with a cricket ball inside. It was, however, dead cheap........and Star Wars Stormtroopers loved ‘em butt folded.
Conjures pictures of the film 'If.....' with Malcolm McDowell. Seemed very disturbing at the time. To think that our school in Suffolk had a fully equipped armoury - racks of rifles (Lee Enfields) and other kit. Was in the cadets and can remember as we ponced through the streets, the ridicule for the armed forces had begun judging by the reaction of a minority in the streets. Can remember an inspection on the town cricket field in the hot summer sun with a visiting dignitary and one of our clan collapsed in the heat. Didn't seem to interrupt proceedings much. I forget that (born in 1957), this was only 25 years or so after the end of the war and so still fresh in peoples minds. The other thing that strikes me is how the school could have an armoury back then because the thought that anyone amongst your ranks might turn the weapon on you was beyond the realms of fantasy..........not so now.
When I was working in Devon back in 1983, we had a shared house in Bideford. One of the lads was in the TA over in Ilfracombe. He came home once after a training evening and asked me to give him a hand. He had a dozen Lee Enfield rifles in the boot of his Allegro that he'd forgotten about after going to the pub. We took them indoors and hid them under his bed for the night before he returned them the next day. Imagine getting caught doing that now
When I was a kid in the 70's nearly every boy had a sheath knife attached to their belt, and a few openly carried airguns, and the thought that they might be used to stab or harm another person was just not in anyones conscious. I also remember going to an open day at the grammar school and shooting a rifle on their range.
I had both and we were allowed to play with the air rifle as if it were a toy gun. I would have been 10 or 11 years old. My grandfather, a vicar, had seen the "bad lad" who lived next door bury them at the bottom of his garden before the police came round. He dug them up whilst they were all out and gave them to me
Yes, can you imagine the reaction to kids shooting those darts today I got my first air rifle at about 10 years old, and I brought it from a church organised jumble sale at our primary school
My father was in the army his whole active life. He was not an office guy and spent a lot of time in conflcts zone where he had to use firearms for what they are made for. The consequence is he did not tolerated any firearm, even toy at home. As a kid I was jealous other kids playing with plastic guns. I did my military duty and enjoyed a lot shooting with Famas and 9mm pistol on carton target, but not interested at all owning any gun (guitars are my favorite weapons, and I own a lot of them). Thanks dad.
I can see both sides of this, I fully understand why anyone experiencing real armed conflict would not tolerate weapons, but I can equally see the teach weapon respect early argument also. I guess the most important leason is respect of human life.
I used to enjoy the hand reloading as much as the shooting, experimenting with different loads. Resizing and trimming the cartridge, press in the primer, carefully weigh the powder charge to within 1/10 of a grain, fill the cartridge then seat the bullet head, with or without a crimp to get all rounds identical for consistency. Very time consuming but satisfying, especially after good results at the range.
I was in the TA too. I once got a real tight grouping with the SMG. The Major looked at it and gave me a right hard nosed stare, he didn't like it. I wasn't on his shooting team. He was a bit of a tosser though.
Absolutely understand your Dad’s point, and @MadMrB is quite right that learning respect for the weapon and how to be safe with one is a much better approach, and teaches great life lessons as well I’m a firm believer in education rather than confiscation for all dangerous activities - guns, drugs, alcohol, motorbikes, women etc