I Have This Old Gun: L1A1 SLR (British FAL)

the British Army was actually one of the first nations to adopt the FN FAL but they called their version the SLR this firearm was a British licensed version of the famous FN FAL fucile ultimate II cliche however it differed in a few interesting ways first of all it's built on inch pattern equipment and then it also fired in the semi-automatic mode only marking an important distinction between the UK version l1a1 and the belgian produced FN FAL this firearm equips UK troops through very troubled times carrying them through the Cold War through the troubles in Northern Ireland through Bush wars in Africa and then perhaps most notably during the 1982 Falklands War [Music] in my view there are two noteworthy things about about the British SLR the the fall the first is that it demonstrated real foresight and real courage on the part of British ordinance to adopt a gun that was not invented there the Brits really deserved plaudit for willing to overlook the nationality of a promising design the second thing is that the British very wisely although the gun that was presented to them at FN was selective fire the British took the view that the gun was more effective in semi-automatic only it marked a major changing point for the empire because prior to that they were armed with short magazine lee-enfield rifles made of wood and steel and then suddenly they transition in 1954 to the l1a1 SLR and when they do so they have transitioned to a firearm that has no wood on it at all although there were Woodstock versions initially the UK ultimately adopts a version with very nice pebble grain composite furniture and the l1a1 was heavy at nine and a half pounds feeding from the 20 round detachable box magazine using Juden saves very reliable robust and effective falling-block locking mechanism the rifle succeeded in every category and it was in combat during the Falklands War that the image of UK soldiers on foot carrying their l-1a ones came to represent a moment where a hiccup in decolonization briefly pitted the Empire against a hunter in Argentina the SLR was eventually replaced by the l85 bullpup as made by royal ordnance and it's really a shame that the FAL the the free worlds right arm a symbol of standing up to the tyranny of communism was sort of just pushed off to a back burner for a modern-looking bullpup rifle and when the British army went to the desert for the first Gulf War there are a lot of British soldiers that wish they'd had their SLRs most of the SLRs you see today of course our parts kits were assembled here in the United States getting an original British gun pretty tricky anyhow that's all the time that we have for this week if you like this show and you're not an NRA member you need to join right now go to American Rifleman org I'm mark Keefe and I'll see you next week right here on American Rifleman television [Music] you

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Views: 598,518

Rating: 4.8113208 out of 5

Keywords: L1A1 SLR, FN FAL, British FAL, The Troubles, The Falklands, The Cold War, Great Britain

Id: 7yKd1ucBQ4I

Length: 4min 21sec (261 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 08 2019