Steyr Versus SA 80

[hptmurphy]

Hey rod and serpent, re your comments in another thread "Calm down girls, no more hand bags at 10 paces, get yourself a proper site like the SUSAT." .at least our choice of weapon has not come back to haunt us every time its fired.

The Steyr is in service since 1979 and has been built and utilised by many countries.........can the same be said for the SA 80?

Small Arms for the 80s......maybe but this is the 21st so why don't they try and replace it with some thing that wasn't derived from the 1940s....(EM2):D

[Truck Driver]

Now Now, Murph, put your claws away... it' s barely into the New Year.
Mind you, you DO have a point.......

[Groundhog]

Steyr wins hands down.

[California Tanker]

Dunno.. now that they've fixed the SA-80, I don't know what the deal is. Certainly the SUSAT is supposed to be the best optic on a combat rifle anywhere. The British steel magazines are absolutely fantastic. I have five in my ammo pouches for Iraq that I'm using in preference to the government issue ones.

NTM

[Groundhog]

You can fix a heap of shit but at the end of the day it will still be a heap of shit.

[yooklid]

Don't know if it's true but I read that BA general issue insect repellant melted the furniture in Sierra Leone.

-Y

[andy]

Even if they managed to fix all of the problems with the SA-80 (which I dont think they did) there is still the problem of poor design.

The weapon is heavily weighted to the rear and puts the person firing the weapon at a disadvantage.

Every time you have to recock the weapon, you basically have to put your left hand over the weapon, thus taking the weapon away from your firing position.

However good the sight is, its quite large and raises the profile of the soldier.

SA-80 was Crap and alway will be Crap!

[Thorpe]

Steyr wins it hand down.
The SA80 has improved since its introduction. There werent too many complaints about it in the recent war in Iraq.

[rod and serpent]

The SUSAT sight cost more than the SA80 rifle. The SA80 is a right handed rifle the cocking handle is on the right hand side and you cock the rifle with the left hand this is all true. Every time that I have fired it I keep expecting bits to fall off, it does not inspire confidence. Iwas not singing the praises of the SA80 but the SUSAT. I cant say anything about the Steyr because I have never used it.

[FMolloy]

The British steel magazines are absolutely fantastic. I have five in my ammo pouches for Iraq that I'm using in preference to the government issue ones.

Ironic, blokes I know in the BA were telling me that they used to buy US magazines in preferance to the first batch of SA80 mags.

[Victor]

Originally posted by California Tanker
The British steel magazines are absolutely fantastic. I have five in my ammo pouches for Iraq that I'm using in preference to the government issue ones.

Please carry a few spare, eh?

[hptmurphy]

Dear mod if you wish to alter my posts please bear in mind the context in which it was written.

This was submitted as a part of a recent thread and not a topic unto itself.

The principle behind the EM1 was sound as was the smaller calibre.....bull pup configuration being the way forward at the time.....unfortunately the concept of the SA 80 was too far advanced and involved to many seperate manufacturing proceedures to ever be wholly successful.

The next generation of small arms will in no way reflect the small arms of the seventies and eighties and the SA 80 will probably be remembered as on of the most troubled designs of this time.

[strummer]

Any of the "expert authorities" posting on this thread ever actually fire the SA80? Ever handled one? Perhaps.......?

Later.

[FMolloy]

Yes to both.

The SUSAT is a nice sight, but the weapon is laid out awkwardly & didn't feel right.

Strummer, why worry about posters being expert authorities? It never stopped you :D

[California Tanker]

They were nice enough to give us a bandolier.. the USGI aluminium magazines are going in there, so I have 12 magazines instead of the usual 7. The British mags are steel. I had heard that the initial British production weren't any better than the US ones, but the latest, you can almost run over 'em with a truck and they'll still feed perfectly. (Most weapons malfunctions have been traced to the magazine). They are highly regarded, even though they weigh almost twice as much empty as the American ones.

The position of the cocking handle really shouldn't be that much of a problem.. You shouldn't be needing to keep cocking the thing in the first place.

The insect repellant thing might well be true. The US had a similar problem with the ACOG sight. There are special instructions in the manual for my ACOG I just got issued which explicitly instructs us to avoid getting certain insect repellants on portions of the sight. It seems that in Panama optic casings entirely were melting...

The past history of the rifle, however horrible it may have been, is irrelevant. Every indicator now seems to be that the issues have been fixed.

NTM