Staff Sgt. Chad Ranton, a member of the Marine Corps Shooting team, sits behind cover during the Advanced Fleeting Combat Course at the Royal Marine Operational Shooting Competition at Altcar Range in Hightown, England on Sept. 8, 2014. The shooting competition is an annual gathering of military shooting teams from the U.S., England, France, and the Netherlands.

SA80.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SA80

British SA80 (L85).

It's an L85A3. The A2 (and later) are HK-upgraded and have the teardrop op handle. A3 got all the rails.



Also, you know "Advanced Fleeting Combat Course" has to be a UK training course name. No one in their right mind would name a USMC course like that here, unless they enjoy hearing jarheads standing around seeing who can yell, "This is the FLEET!!!" the loudest, for hours.

As a side note, the steel STANAG mags made by the Brits for the SA80 are fantastic mags.

Really wish i'd had the chance to use the A2, I liked the L85A1 shame one literally fell apart on me but for what it was i found it handy, lightweight and accurate enough.

Nice pic though op thanks for sharing. Now I just wish someone would find a way of getting a civvy version over here. oh well.

IIRC, the SA80 mags were made or designed by HK and are the same as HK 416 mags.

The A2 mags were a redesign by HK and yes; they then used them for the 416. All the older original mags were dumped onto the surplus market.



The SA80 Program (L85 development name - Small Arm for the 1980's) essentially got started with Sterling wanting to redesign the Armalite AR18 into a bullpup for UK forces. They were already manufacturing the AR180 for the civilian market.



The Brits also knew about the effectiveness of the AR18 from facing it in the hands of IRA members. Most of the IRA's Armalites came from a large shipment from Howa, Japan, bound for California, and subsequently "redirected."



In Japan, Howa AR180 production evolved into the Type 89 service rifle.



The Germans used the design as a basis for the G36 as well.

L85A2

Thanks for the additional background on the mags. I think I came across that info before but had forgotten about it. I have 6 Brit mags. They have been excellent for reliability and durability. Any way to tell which I have? Dark black bluing, heavy steel construction, black follower, Imperial Defense base plate.