Originally Posted by perardua
In training, it is taught that the L85 is to be fired from the right shoulder only, and whilst I have never tried to use it from the left shoulder, I imagine that there would be an issue with both hot brass (though the A2 throws it forward a lot better than the A1), and also with the fact that if you're not careful the cocking handle may be coming uncomfortably close to your face as it moves back and forth. In fact, if you look at an L85, you will see the cheek piece does not extend to the right hand side of the rifle, and that the cocking handle (which is fixed to and moves with the bolt as it cycles, comes back to where the cheek would be if firing from the left shoulder).
Also, in my experience, shooting from the right shoulder is the main, if not only shooting method taught to conventional units in the British military regardless of the weapon system, though this is probably due to the fact that as the rifle, common to all units, can only be fired from the right shoulder, it is the method that seems natural when firing other weapons. Indeed, even those few weapons were left handed firing is permitted on ranges (the pistol springs to mind), the majority of left handed shooters have become so used to firing right handed they will continue to do so.
As for the effect this has on FIBUA tactics, it does mean that shooting round corners to the left requires greater body exposure. As for patrolling, we still maintain the old adage of weapons moving with your eyes, but you can still cover your arcs without switching shoulders. You just have to move your body!
As for reloading times, I've used conventional layout weapons only a few times, mainly the M16 and M4, and find that I am slower to reload with those than I am with the L85, though I suspect that's a familiarity issue, and that practice plays a greater role in reloading speed. It might also be true that someone joining, for example, the US military, is more likely to become familiar with a conventionally laid out rifle before joining than in the UK, where for nearly every person joining the forces, their first experience with a weapon will be with the bullpup L85.
Finally, on the subject of one handed use, the L85 is extremely easy to use one handed, which comes in handy when, for example, opening doors, throwing grenades and using radioes. Of course, if you get stuck with a UGL and LLM like I did on my last tour, it becomes very front heavy very quickly! I was very jealous of all the riflemen on the Section, with their new grip-pods (vertical forward handgrips with a pop out bipod, spoken of favourably by nearly everyone).
Oh, and one final tale on the hot brass front: On an inter-Section defence range the LMG gunner sharing my trench managed to get a bursts worth of brass down the front of my shirt as I was crouching reloading the UGL (that being the day where I was carrying 96 rounds of 40mm due to the ammo nearing its expiry date). With great presence of mind (I like to think), I calmly safetied my weapon, placed it on the rim of the trench pointing down range, and then proceeded to go mental digging out four casings from my chest and stomach. At the end of the day the range supervisor asked if anyone had been injured. I said that I had, and he asked why I hadn't seen a medic at the time. My reply, naturally, was "Because I'm hard, Sergeant." He awarded our Section 10 extra points for that, and I got some new scars.
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04-13-2010, 05:09 AM
Shooting and patrolling opposite handed was never as natural, but it did become easier.
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