SA80 Army Rifles & 'the yellow bit on the end'?

[HERUTILUS]

Greetings Gang,

 

Being very interested in 'all thing military' & I've often wondered what the 'yellow bit' is for (i.e.) the attachment one often sees fitted onto/over the muzzle of our SA80's? It is always present in 'training programmes', but I haven't noticed one when they show real-life combat footage from Iraq or Afghanistan.

 

Can only assume that it, the yellow attachment, is some sort of safety device. What do the experts think?

 

Regards,

 

:)Mr H.

[chesters1]

its to return some pressure so the spent cartridge ejects i think when firing blanks.

without it theres no pressure build up to vent into the loading mechanism ,with a bullet theres plenty behind it to use

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blank-firing_adaptor

i see it can provide recoil as well

Edited November 24, 2010 by chesters1

[Elton]

What he said.

 

Not that you get much recoil from one of those. Only fired one once, and it was like an air rifle

[chesters1]

The SLR had recoil to spare ,had fun with those beasts ,i cant remember the name of it though it was just called SLR

[Elton]

I think it was just called the SLR. We used to fire the Lee Enfield .303 in cadets. That had some grunt!

[Worms]

I think it was just called the SLR. We used to fire the Lee Enfield .303 in cadets. That had some grunt!

A Belgian designed gun by FN. SLR just meant Self Loading Rifle, a semi-automatic. Ok, but not as accurate as a lee Enfield .303 in my opinion. Never fired a SA80 but friends describe them as crap peashooters...more range and hitting power with a 12 bore!

[chesters1]

i think the problem is having to cow tow to america and its calibers today ,i heard the same and definitely the early ones were crap on the range hopefully theve improved

[Emma two]

SLR='self loading Rifle' the British developed the FN (fabrique nationale) Belgian original. The recoil isn't bad if the weapon is held properly. Not as bad as firing Baikal cartridges in a lightish shotgun!

 

The 'yellow thing' = BFA (Blank Firing Attachement), it allows both the SLR and the SA80 to fire repeat blank rounds. Both weapons operate on a gas and recoil spring system, without the BFA the expended gasses from the explosion as the blank goes off would be lost out of the end of the barrel, so the working parts would not be forced to the rear allowing the 'automatic' operation, that is the extractor and ejector getting rid of the empty case, then once the pressure is lost the return spring forces the working parts forward feeding the next round in the magazine into the chamber. The significant difference between the two weapons is that the SLR allowed single shots only (the trigger has to be pulled for each round) whereas the SA 80 has both single shot and automatic capabilities. Without the BFA the weapons would have to be manually cocked to fire each blank, not very realistic training.

 

The BFA does also serve as a safety device, a blank fired without one can eject enough fragment sof propellent and case to case harm at close range.

 

My service time spanned the issue of both weapons, so I have carried both operationally, I never fired the SA 80 in 'anger', but have the SLR. For the job we were doing the latter felt better. 7.62 rounds 'punched' through brickwork and rock and damaged soft tissues on the other side, 5.56 rounds are potentially more liable to richochet. Although to negatively compare their effectivness in most combat situations to a '12 bore' in terms of range and 'htiing power' (over 30 meters) is simply wrong. Even an 'average' infanty shot will hit you at up to and including 300m with an SA 80, an enemy 300m away armed with a shotgun presents little threat.

Edited November 24, 2010 by Emma two

[corydoras]

And there is one pretty bad ass shotgun out there.

 

Youtube Video ->

[snakey1]

I think it was just called the SLR. We used to fire the Lee Enfield .303 in cadets. That had some grunt!

The SLRs British title was the L1A1 and as stated by Emma two was was developed by Fabrique Nationale and was designated by them as the FN FAL (The Fabrique Nationale Fusil Automatique Léger) and is thought by quite a few people to be one of the best battle rifles ever made. Ballistically there is not much difference between the .303 and the 7.62x51 SLR round.

Edited November 25, 2010 by snakey1