That's because the Army nicked all of their Lee Enfields and stored Lee Metfords. For some strange reason they felt that the slight bit of unpleasantness in Flanders and the hundreds of thousands new of new recruits meant their need was greater than the Navy's. God knows what they'd have done if the war had started in 1915 when they would have been in the middle of changing rifles and ammunition.
Automatic rifle used as infantry rifle ?
- Thread starter Undeadmuffin
- Start date
Or if the adoption of the 7mm round and rifle had gone faster, leaving problems with both calibres of weapons.
The SLR was originally intended to fire the 'true' intermediate .280 British (7 mm) round and it (as well as the EM2 rifle) was far more controllable in full auto than it was firing the more powerful 7.62x51 NATO round
The larger 7.62x51 NATO round overpowered the design and the British deleted the Automatic functionality of the weapon (although it was retained for the 'Metric' FAL rifle)
A relative of mine was on the original test group for the early SLR in the early 50s (he was a career soldier in the 'Skins') and said that Full auto was pointless as only the first round would be on target the rest increasingly above it such was the recoil.
That and the original wooden furniture would fall off
But an Assault rifle it was not
The larger 7.62x51 NATO round overpowered the design and the British deleted the Automatic functionality of the weapon (although it was retained for the 'Metric' FAL rifle)
A relative of mine was on the original test group for the early SLR in the early 50s (he was a career soldier in the 'Skins') and said that Full auto was pointless as only the first round would be on target the rest increasingly above it such was the recoil.
That and the original wooden furniture would fall off
But an Assault rifle it was not