The Spitfire was designed by a man in a shed. Shed's in Britain are the last refuge of the thinking man, some of our best achievements as a nation came out of the simple garden shed.
@uncletigger Cost is a direct result of the subjective worth of an item for some individuals. If you don't want something, yet somebody else does, the cost still stays high, even if you want to argue it will not. If goods of any kind can be sold to someone for a price, it has worth, even if you want to judge the idiots buying it. So no, he isn't.
@uncletigger It strikes me that you aren't familiar with the game he is refering to, as the price of an item, and it is digital and pointless, I'll give you that, is not determined by a developer like in most others. Different items are more or less rare, and given Counter Stikes' status as an Esport, historically relevant, which dictates the price they are bought and sold for between players, collectors and traders. This price is, like most other things on the open market, directly linked to the worth and prestige people see in what they spend it on, which more than justifies the colloquial use of the word "worth". A player owning, say, an AK74 Case Hardened Scar pattern owns a digital item worth around 20,000 dollars of real money, not just a one-time purchase that goes up in smoke. Items from ten year old collections cannot simply be recreated, as the number of entities is artificially limited, and therefore owning them holds tremendous value to some, elevating them to status symbols worth as much as a rolex. It seems utterly bonkers, but given the history and place in the heart of many players of the game, the internal economy deals with similar principles as any other form of goods. There is no dictionary needed here, simply insight into the weird world of digital inventory being bought and sold for real money, making some people millionaires.
@@sodium2195 yup, valve (game developer) has compared weapon skins and other digital items to baseball cards. While they have little to no practical value, collectors will pay a fair sum of real money to "own" them.
@uncletigger Counter Strike cosmetics have an official open market. There's no MSRP, they sell for whatever people are willing to buy them for. That is their worth per the free market.
1:05 No, you can absolutely say two guys in a shed. Very few Brits will take exception to that since we all know that much of our industrial history, and arguably the beginnings of the industrial revolution, is littered with examples of blokes farting around in sheds. It's an area of national pride.
TheExpatpom yeah I will agree with that, I remember my dad and grand dads constantly going to the shed when ever something broke to see if they could muck about with it till it worked. It really is a national activity.
I think you've misunderstood, he wasn't really trying to be respectful to the British. He was clarifying that it isn't exclusively the British that have the stereotype of 2 guys in a shed making a product. Basically the 2 guys in a shed deal shouldn't be a sticking point of national pride since it also happens often in many other countries, and is stereotypical for small arms development in general regardless of nationality.
"Cut them up and dumped them in the North Sea" I sense a great disturbance in the force, like a million gun aficionados crying out and then being silenced.
I think that the British Government cut up the Serial Numbers. Not the rifles themselves. I think what happened was that the old Numbers where used somewhere else and over used in the Company itself so the British Government cut the (out/off) numbers and dumped them.
Unfortunately its a very common thing over here. Our government (and a lot of the social 'conditioning') is very anti-gun ownership and does not like the idea of firearms, especially "military grade" ones, getting into civilian hands. So once a military gun is decommissioned it is usually pretty much destroyed. I guess we should be lucky the rich enjoy hunting, otherwise we would lose gun rights all together.
"Better rent and decorate a warehouse so they don't find out we're just two blokes in a shed." +inspection commences+ "Really, we were only making sure you're not just two blokes in a shed." ...👍
@Mira Ferriviario Yes, but those engineers account to those at the top, and they will have their decisions swayed by those in charge. For example, at my workplace, those at the top decided the business model should be based on a 5* service to the customer, and before long everyone was coming forward with ideas on how to make the service better. Five years later there is a change at the top, they still want the 5* service to the customer, they just want to make more money from it, so the pressure is on to save money. And instead of asking "What is the best material we can use for this" the question is "What is the most cost effective material we can use for this" For example, stopping using 302 Stainless and replacing it with 304
Yep, asked to make 10s with malfunctioning machines because it still having moving components. Asked to repair the machines by using the "glare eye" instead of calling the repairman for a week knowing we do not have any profession of a repairman. Meanwhile asked to work at same pace with a 25% reduced manpower makes some become specialists who can not do anything else and has not the time do all the tasks. Accountants for these mistakes are what we call mini-bosses.
yup. I can almost feel some engineers complaining 'come on guys you cant be serious...?' while management informs that this saves x% of money... deservedly took themselves down, sorry to say but what a fail
As an engineer myself I find extremely foolish of this manufacturer to make such novice mistakes you never mak3 changes without consulting the designer such display of foolishness...
The Accuracy International MoD story reminds me of I think it was Porsche or Ferrari with their Le Mans racing car in the 1970s where they had to make 200 cars to be legal to race and they only had 100. When the officials visited to see how many cars they had, the 100 were put in a yard, the officials were taken to lunch and the same 100 cars were moved to another yard and counted twice.
I heard it was Lancia, with their rally cars - on a 'Top Gear' or 'The Grand Tour' episode. That said, it sounds like the kind of thing that a number of small-scale companies would try.
Simon Munden small scale? Hell Dodge apparently did the same thing with the winged wonder Charger Daytona back in the ‘60s and they were part of America’s “big three”. They cycled Daytona’s and Super Birds back through the assembly line.
IIRC that was Lancia. Porsche or Ferrari would have had made the 200 cars to keep it on the up&up. Lancia had to get creative just like Accuracy International.
hearing that the pylon company went out of business made me happy. because that's what one deserves when you messed with a design you don't understand.
Yeah, really interesting story. I wonder if that's the typical experience for "two guys in a shed"? A big company is assigned to manufacturing but because the designs came from "two guys in a shed", the big company immediately decides because they have more money, they must be smarter and therefore, able to make "corrections" that I hope never permanently maimed any soldiers.
@@TTM-1999 It's not just a problem for "two guys in a shed" designs getting manufactured. It's a common problem in manufacturing anytime a design isn't going into production the same place it's created, and even sometimes when it goes into production where created if there is sufficient disconnect between design and production crews. I've heard of cases where there ended up being production quality differences between first and second shift crews even, because one crew followed designs to the letter and the other decided they could run the production in a slightly different way and they failed to foresee how that would impact the process in full.
I love how you say “two guys in a shed”. The story of the Cosworth DFV (the most successful Formula One engine of all time) is pretty much the same thing.
Imagine being just two dudes in a shed making rifles for competition shooters and then getting told you have to supply standard armaments for one of the largests militaries in the planet .
Pope Francis may not have one of the largest, but still extremely large and one of the most advanced. Usually ranked at around the 5th most powerful military in the world.
Same goes for supercar production. And it’s insane to think a person could make a convincing Ferrari or Lamborghini kit car off the body of a Fiero and fiberglass
Well we live physically isolated from everyone else so it's easier to snipe than to go across the channel to try to hit them with an SMG, carbine or assault rifle
The fact they saw their final place being in the sea saddens me for a rifle that holds a such a strong memory real or fictional in so many peoples lives.
@not a real person Problem is there's been too many British soldiers shot by guns that originated from the British military. With the more effective guns they don't want to take the risk of any of them falling into the hands of terrorists or enemy militaries. A single one of these sniper rifles could lead to the deaths of dozens of British soldiers, and while they could just as well be using any other sniper rifle it's really not good to have your own guns being used to kill your soldiers. It is a shame that these guns were destroyed but their fear of it being used to kill British soldiers isn't unreasonable
Imagine how pissed off the AI guys were when the people who had been given the job of manufacturing their equipment went and fucked everything up right off the bat.
Honestly by the time Ian told of this I was expecting that all the blame for the failures was put on the AI as an original designer - because that's EXACTLY what you'd expect from a typical bureaucracy. Props for the British MOD for doing the proper research into what exactly happened and punishing the culprit rather than the victim.
@@mihan2d British sense of fair play...still alot of decent people in the military and MoD. It is different blaming a faceless corporate entity, then 6 guys in an industrial unit. But yeah you are absolutely right in your comment.
@@tybeejeffro No it wasn't, it delayed it. They became successful in spite of this. If they'd gotten to a similar point in the US and a huge scandal had happened, they would have just been dropped rather than given a second chance
The British way - lets invent something innovative and great, then fuck it up by not caring about quality or just being stupid to save pennies. Its amazing the country has carried on for so long. Well, that's over and the crap has come home to roost. The last time I was home the only thing we were creating seemed to be Balkan shoplifters. A shit show.
The AW model is almost identical to the standard L96; it just has a few features that make it easier to operate in cold weather conditions (namely a larger trigger guard and larger bolt handle to accommodate shooters wearing thick gloves). The AWM, if memory serves, is very similar to the AW variants of the L96, except that its the same modifications done to the modern L115A3 and its in .338 Lapua Magnum.
14:58 That rear sight is a jewel. Only the Brits could put such a piece on a battle rifle. I wonder how good the rifle performs using these iron sights and a good load. Excellent walk around Ian.
@@adog3129 i read it more as "only brits would waste money on such great engineering on infantry" which i find quite true historically, the men sent to war usually are only weaponized with the cheapest and most easily produced rifles. doesn't mean i don't love the simple AK over the AR platform though... sometimes simple can be better. putting such effort on a iron sight is like putting on a really nice hand crafted knife as a bayonet, really beautiful but realistically more of a artistic decoration more than anything. unless you're really worried about backglare from your scope.
@@adog3129 the Lee Enfield series of rifle was the best battle rifle to be produced nigh on half a century. Don’t let your discontent for the English in tandem with stupidity cloud your historical judgement
I remember when I was like 7 - 9 years old when I found one of these in my Grandma's closet, I was visiting her in Phoenix AZ while bored one day and left alone for the day. I don't know how or where she got the damn thing, when asked about it by my father she said she got it at a garage sale and that she thought that it would be a good rifle for me and my brother when we were older. Sadly my father didn't agree and I believe took it down to the Police station and "Discarded" the rifle to them.......I could have had one of these along with a Sharps Buffalo rifle, I've been screwed out of having two awesome piece of firearm history. Edit: 28:10 ...........................yep......blood is now boiling.........
So you'd create a company with that name? I bet your mates would have a field day with that one, or that could just be my diseased filled, "Americanized", brain. :)
Sadly these day's blokes, chaps, geezers, fellows and characters in sheds are becoming a rarer sight and occurrence. As with many of the best things about our culture and way of thinking. These days people are far too spoiled and entitled. Most tend to have very little interest in interesting things. I would think buggering around in sheds is becoming far less common. At one time most people would have at least one grandad, or an uncle or even dad who buggered around in the shed. FFS. Most folk these days cannot put on a plug or change a damn car wheel. Never mind be capable of mauling around with tools and such. The education system really does not help these days.
Ian, I know this channel is called forgotten weapons but I’m so glad you’ve started to cover well remembered weapons in depth. We often don’t hear the stories behind some of these classics in nearly the amount of detail which you provide such as in your Thompson history and British smg series. Keep up the great work!
@Mufti Husayni, Nazi General, Palestine MUSLIM OFFICIAL google it: IslamicPogromsOnJewsBEFOREzionism You have an Ultima! Does it run? Please tell me you do track days!
@@jubuttib any version with higher gears and/or more HP: "The Ultima 1020's top speed is *restricted by its gearing* to 240 mph (386 km/h), which the Forza renditions of the car always exceed". ...but most ar home-built, custom jobs, not a "version" really.
I was an Armourer in Northern Ireland (1987) when we received 9 L96s to replace our L42s; we kept 3 and returned 6 as the quality was awful. I saw the threaded holes between the chassis and receiver that are mentioned, where the tip of the screw protruded into the bolt way causing gouges down the bolt! The bonding agent (Belzona Super Metal) that is supposed to sandwich between chassis and receiver was added later like a cosmetic feature, so the two parts were getting loose. When I first saw it, I thought it was utter crap. It was incredibly accurate though. Working on it was vastly different that the L42, which required considerable hand fitting of parts - a true 'craftsman's rifle' when you build one. I recall spending hours stoning parts to fit them... Interestingly, about 7 years later I was involved in a trial for a different kind of sniper rifle; I met Malcolm Cooper who told us the whole tale of AI's birth and the L96. He brought along a new product from AI - the AW. By comparison to the L96, the AW was mind-blowingly good. The quality was superb and it was incredibly easy to fire accurately, as was the L96. The 'design' would pave the way for the future AW-derived rifles and they were all excellent. When we saw the .338 Lapua Magnum AW rifle it blew away everything else and gave the Army a world class sniper rifle, which could reach out way beyond the capability of the 7.62mm.
There was another submission for the contract, (I do believe). This was Pip Watts of Edgcumbe Arms in Dorset and I was closely involved in the company at that time. The rifle was fairly conventional but had a couple of interesting features, one of which was an interrupted thread locking lugs and another was recessed iron sights. I have some photos, if you are interested.
@@StaxRail i give u another example. i startet my own business this year.. and created a solution 4 a problem one of our wolrds biggest companys could not solve in 3 years with over a hundred well paid engineers and shit...
That's probably because most people have seen the AWM more often than the PM or AW. The AWM chambered in .338 Laupa Magnum, and consequently a noticeably larger rifle.
They pulled it off, britush officers.. we just wanted to make sure you wernt 2 guys in a shed. A i . Fancy a cucumber sandwich sir.. splendin splendin.
You couldnt write a story like that because nobody would have believed it if it hadnt actually happened. Like two guys entering a home garage built Formula 1 car for shits and giggles and placing first.
@@greyman6353 There's a scene at the beginning of Pandora's Star by Peter Hamilton where the first manned landing on Mars is interrupted by a couple of asshole Stanford dropouts who invented wormhole tech in a garage.
I did a lot of shooting with the cadets in the early 2000s. I was sure that we had fired a 7.62 bolt action rifle with a later designation than the l42. It looks like we were (and cadets still are) firing the Parker Hale rifles with iron sights. It was great fun to shoot and spot out to 600m as a teenager in a country where access to firearms is otherwise so heavily restricted. I do wish I had been given the opportunity to shoot one of these just once though. Thank you for the video Ian, highly entertaining as usual.
The L81 (commonly called the elephant gun😁) Fired it myself with cadets. I remember having to stand with my foot wedged against the feet of a tiny 13 year old cadet because every time she fired (prone) she slid back about 6 inches😄
Although I enjoy all(most) of your episodes this one I found to be quite enthralling. I grew up hunting with a sporterized 7.62 Mauser war trophy with double set triggers My father informed me, upon gifting it to me, that with the iron sights I could shoot a deer so far out that it would spoil before I could walk to retrieve it! I miss it and him, but never missed a target! Thank you for bringing history to the masses!
Sad to hear they are virtually all gone. This was an awesome rifle, last fired one in the mid 1990’s whilst in Bosnia. I can vouch for the simplicity and ease of use as by this time it wasn’t a specific sniper rifle as they where ageing and got passed down to us mere mortals to use! Great to see one again....loved that safety in the cold so easy to check and use Peace Charlie UK 🇬🇧
Retired Royal Marine Commando/C Sqn SBS (1978-2008) lost track of the various firearms we used but this one was hoofing! Britain has a long history of producing incredible, often world beating engineering, with a a bloke or two working in a shed! Never underestimate the typical British bloke that enjoys tinkering with an idea he’s had especially when he has access to a shed (even a basic garden shed is often the place where great engineering starts to grow) but it can be occasionally derailed slightly whenever the Civil Service, Ministry of Defence, or a “proper” engineering company get involved, just as happened here. Its fascinating to recall that if it wasn’t for the profit chasing, penny pinching attitude of the “professional engineering company”, then the early rifles might not have caused the problems nor the injuries that colleagues might be affected by.
I used to enjoy going to their gun shop in Gladys Avenue, Portsmouth (where the ‘shed’ was), and always enjoyed looking at their ‘factory’ in the hastily rented industrial estate from the train. They were always welcoming and friendly and very patient
I shot this rifle in 1988 at Stoney Castle range near Bisley. At 600 you could select which part of a "hun head" target you hit. That target was smaller than a standard Fig 12 target used at 100 - 300 yards. This was a major step forward in terms of accuracy.
10:25 It's the history of an iconic weapon that's so appealing IMHO, the L96 ALMOST wasn't adopted several times, they didn't want to submit for the trials, but still did, expecting to fail, they beat SIG, HK, and Remington, they didn't have a shop, but they bluffed it, they almost got screwed by the changes made by the other production company, but STILL made it where they are today, really rocky road to get there, but I'd say it was a solid "wurf"
This rifle is amazing. It's so light and precise you can run full sprint, jump and snap a bullseye mid-air and never miss a beat. Oh CS, you so silly...
Steve Houghton’s book is absolutely brilliant. I got mine this week. If the subject interests you, talk to Steve. He is very helpful and dealing with him was a joy. Cannot recommend the book, or Steve’s expertise enough. Also, Ian, thank you for these superb videos for enthusiasts. A great match for Steve’s offering.
Pamela Houghton I hadn’t missed the shared surname, it’s just great to have shared interests in families. 😀. If I wrote a quality tome such as this, I would be thrilled that my family were proud of my achievement.
I am immensely proud of him, Thankyou. I even got a mention in the book which I was Thrilled about! The only thing he allows me to have anything to do with it though is helping him carry them all to the Post Office! 😆 our son is also on here and is closely following in his footsteps. 😊
In the mid 2000s I used this rifle with the 8x56 Schmitt at Bisley in the CENSAM sniper match and consistently out shot snipers using the PMII scope. The smaller magnification meant that the shooter wasn’t holding for the ‘perfect shot’.’ An excellent weapon that was also adopted by the Australian military with the addition of a sound moderator intended for use with the Lapua 170gr ammunition in place of the standard 155gr RG British ammunition
thejudge 1897 good lad. I’m very near to you. A few friends in emsworth and I can safely say that a good night can be had with a piss up in the coalie, bluebell and raglan. Followed by a curry from the small curry house in the square.
Great video as usual, it makes me appreciate the 10 rounds I got to shoot from one back in my OTC days even more. Yes it was very nice and easy to get decent shots with.
Typical British beginning. I love the way the two fellows fooled the MOD. A brilliant rifle which would today be a beauty on a long distance range but no, the bloody government goes and destroys them.
no the Government destroyed the ones they owned, you can still buy brand new ones from AI as a UK citizen, well the updated one, the PM is now outdated it's the AT now in tacticool black or the AX in .50 BMG
I've had a chance to fondle one of these, never got to fire it though as it was part of a display. Really nice, albeit fairly light compared to some boltguns I've handled. Thought I'd hate the thumbhole stock, but it's surprisingly comfy, even for a leftie like me 👍
@@marionette5968 Vikings at Waterloo , or we had one good pair of snips, an molds made from tree stumps. Rover where by Rolls-Royce's account massively under equipped and skilled.
One week and half a million views :D I’ve followed you for years, so good to see you doing so well. An iconic rifle, excellently presented, always so unbiased and factual
Ian, brilliant video. This is the first and will probably be the only time that I watch one of your videos and, after a few minutes, remember that I have fired the weapon you are describing. Late 1986, at the School of Infantry in Warminster, I was on the first platoon commanders' course issued with the SA80. We must have been doing a familiarisation shoot because we were on a 25m range. Next door were a bunch of trainee snipers* with this fancy looking new sniper rifle. Any other time they'd have had no interest in swapping rifles with a bunch of Ruperts, but they hadn't seen the SA80 either. So, under the supervision of our SASC instructors, we swapped weapons and fired a few rounds. 25m was not a very testing distance to fire a sniper rifle (frankly not much of a challenge for an SA80 either) but I can safely say I got my tightest ever group! A year later they were issued to my battalion. *I don't think that it's accurate to say that the RM delivered all sniper training. The Army would never have put up with that, and they certainly wouldn't have been at Warminster. They would have trained their own and I can quite imagine that they may have done some even more specialist courses. I did fire the No4-based L43 sniper rifle on a Battalion range day. I am sure that the NCO supervising that range took pleasure in letting me give myself a black eye when the scope hit me in the eye. Apparently they were usually fired with the aid of a sandbag or two.
The L96A1, what a classic OHKO sniper in video gaming. Anyone who has played CS or Combat Arms knows the rep this thing has. This was really cool to see the real life version.
I always love how Forgotten Weapons doesn't have a long intro sequence or lots of extra talking beforehand, you normally expect to have to skip to the middle of videos that look like this to actually get to what it's about. But naw, just a couple seconds of a silent logo screen with the gun name, and Ian gets right into it
Yep, every once in a while a particular piece speaks to me. I'm a machinist by trade so I'm partial to fit, finish, and lean design. I'd love to own one of these even if only to admire it.
I feel like Ian does evrything in one take, with no script. I am quite confident he's just speaking freely. Bro is extremely wise, and articulate. A viewer really doesn't need to be educated in this field to understand what he is explaining
During rhe Bosnian conflict we would rotate into theatre for about 10 days at a time. We didn't have individual rifles but had designated scopes and would sign the scope out of the armoury and fit it to the rifle we took over, the outgoing man woukd remove his scope and pack it in its case. The only rifle i ever used that you could trust to do that on.
What a great video - ive never shot anything gunpowder propelled, yet i found this very interesting. You are a very lucky man to have gotten your fingers on one of these pieces of history
Man, I love your videos! I'm from South Africa and here's a little story for you: In the '80s, when I was just a little kid, SA was still banned from international sport so my Dad paid for himself to go to Bisley in England where he entered as a privateer and beat 2-time Olympic gold medalist and co-founder of Accuracy International Malcolm Cooper to bring home a gold medal in .22 long rifle. Keep up the good work, best channel on TH-cam!
I don't know why, but that strut/chassis/frame is just so friggin' cool! I love seeing different methods of construction for similar devices! Cars, guns, airplanes, computers, whatever, it's just fascinating to me because it's a glimpse into how someone else's brain works, and if it seems more intuitive, ergonomic, or practical than my current line of thinking, I just get so excited as it opens a floodgate of creativity for me! One of my absolute favorite games is Space Engineers, and while it seems like there are just a few methods of doing something, you'll see something totally out of the box, and it's like a trillion lights in your brain suddenly flare, and you can't help going on a creative spree! I just love engineering, especially mechanical engineering, and I'm so thankful for Gun Jesus Ian and this wonderful channel! People who are anti-gun clearly don't appreciate engineering, and the symphony of mechanical purpose and timing that goes into even the most antiquated firearms. Even the engineering that goes into making an effective bow and arrows is truly magnificent. I'd be willing to bet a lot of advancements in military/warfare engineering has spilled over into every day use, be it the microwave, computer systems, advanced metals, and especially plastics. Weapons are only as evil as those who would wield them. Sure, one could argue they're engineered to end human life, but so what? Who's life? If you can end a mad man who's about to blow up a church or school with your precision rifle, isn't that worth the occasional maniac who shoots from a clock tower? Besides, the tool he's using can, in the hands of an honorable person, be used to stop him. Balance achieved. Well, I could rant forever about morality and human rights, but that's not what this is about; it's about engineering! Thank you again for providing such awesome content! I love this channel!
@Forgotten Weapons I really enjoyed your video. I used the L96A1 during my sniper course and on Ops in TELIC and HERRICK. I look forward to your L115A3 vid, as it's a complete beast (this is my first vid of yours so sorry if you've covered it already). If you haven't, please PLEASE get a vid out. You will NOT be dissappointed.
Got to have a shed mush. Ow and a 2 stroke engine either in tool or motor bike form. A freindly little dog, fridge for beer and fishing bait. Chair. Gota have a good chair. Tools preferable imperial and at least 80 years old made in Sheffield. .22 air rifle.
The Brits (Scots) invented the ghillie suit c. WWI. The word Ghillie is British (Scots), referring to an estate's gamekeeper, specifically Scottish. The first Ghillie suits were made and used by the Lovat Scouts, a unit made of sharpshooting ghillies, during WWI.
@@jamestarbet9608 The word 'gillie' isn't British, it's Scots Gaelic for 'boy'. It precedes Britain by centuries. Gillies became so called because they were simply referred to as 'boy' or servant in the Gaelic language. The reason the Lovat Scouts adopted the word is because many of them were Gaelic speakers and estate workers. The 'h' appears in some spellings of the word because people who don't speak Gaelic began using it and don't understand that the 'h' isn't part of the noun, it's a grammatical insert and is only used in certain cases, such as the dative and genitive. Using it in a noun on its own is basically a spelling mistake, which has stuck because most people don't know any better.
The AI story is a pretty funny anecdote, but hey, even Apple Computers started off as "Two Guys in a shed." Kind of comical, though, that large manufacturing concerns lost out to them.
Lot easier in many ways for two guys in a shed to explore new concepts than a large company with employees to pay, more rigid manufacturing processes, and management/investors to keep happy. To be fair though, for every small outfit like AI that tried something new and were successful, there are probably twenty others whose ideas never went anywhere.
Excellent tutorial, new to this channel but I'm hooked, I have shot a number of these rifles in real time situations and great to see them being discussed. Looking forward to the next video 😊👍
I have a Lee Einfield No. 4 Mk2 and it's amazing. It's more accurate then the Springfield Garand and has a 15 inch bayonet. I would happily carry it into battle even today and it was made in the late 40's
he forgot to talk about the feature that if you switch to a pistol and back to the rifle after firing you can chamber a new round faster.
CircleOfSorrow nah counter strike
@@circleofsorrow4583 It's CS and some other online FPS which swapping your weapons make it fire faster
it doesn't chamber faster for god's sake
you do it so it doesn't zoom back in
@@IllIIIlllIlIIlll no you chamber faster by canceling the case ejecting animation
@@IllIIIlllIlIIlll you must be fun at parties
The Spitfire was designed by a man in a shed. Shed's in Britain are the last refuge of the thinking man, some of our best achievements as a nation came out of the simple garden shed.
Colinfurze is a great example of the modern "Brit in a shed", just doing insane stuff for the fun of it.
Sheds are also very handy for escaping the wife and screaming kids. Oh god my shed is heaven.
@@davefloyd9443 Not as proud as the people of Stoke where Mitchel was born.
@@Cimsock Indeed! I've always felt that but for the foresight of Mitchell, Dowding and Harris we would have had a very different outcome to WW2.
Sheds and garages have been the birth places of many world changing ideas 💡
"This is just more of a formality, we needed to make sure you guys weren't just three guys in a shed"
"HAHAHAHAHA WE'RE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE"
Zach Gun Rants video is fucking hilarious as well as informative.
Mikeburnfire?
@@joshuagee6717 yes it is.
the rest of the house is out to lunch too
Why are we in a two stall garage?
Worth less money than some of the AWP skins in cs go.
Thats how dumb people are.
@uncletigger Cost is a direct result of the subjective worth of an item for some individuals. If you don't want something, yet somebody else does, the cost still stays high, even if you want to argue it will not. If goods of any kind can be sold to someone for a price, it has worth, even if you want to judge the idiots buying it. So no, he isn't.
@uncletigger It strikes me that you aren't familiar with the game he is refering to, as the price of an item, and it is digital and pointless, I'll give you that, is not determined by a developer like in most others. Different items are more or less rare, and given Counter Stikes' status as an Esport, historically relevant, which dictates the price they are bought and sold for between players, collectors and traders.
This price is, like most other things on the open market, directly linked to the worth and prestige people see in what they spend it on, which more than justifies the colloquial use of the word "worth". A player owning, say, an AK74 Case Hardened Scar pattern owns a digital item worth around 20,000 dollars of real money, not just a one-time purchase that goes up in smoke. Items from ten year old collections cannot simply be recreated, as the number of entities is artificially limited, and therefore owning them holds tremendous value to some, elevating them to status symbols worth as much as a rolex.
It seems utterly bonkers, but given the history and place in the heart of many players of the game, the internal economy deals with similar principles as any other form of goods.
There is no dictionary needed here, simply insight into the weird world of digital inventory being bought and sold for real money, making some people millionaires.
@@sodium2195 yup, valve (game developer) has compared weapon skins and other digital items to baseball cards. While they have little to no practical value, collectors will pay a fair sum of real money to "own" them.
@uncletigger Counter Strike cosmetics have an official open market. There's no MSRP, they sell for whatever people are willing to buy them for. That is their worth per the free market.
1:05 No, you can absolutely say two guys in a shed. Very few Brits will take exception to that since we all know that much of our industrial history, and arguably the beginnings of the industrial revolution, is littered with examples of blokes farting around in sheds. It's an area of national pride.
TheExpatpom yeah I will agree with that, I remember my dad and grand dads constantly going to the shed when ever something broke to see if they could muck about with it till it worked. It really is a national activity.
I think you've misunderstood, he wasn't really trying to be respectful to the British. He was clarifying that it isn't exclusively the British that have the stereotype of 2 guys in a shed making a product. Basically the 2 guys in a shed deal shouldn't be a sticking point of national pride since it also happens often in many other countries, and is stereotypical for small arms development in general regardless of nationality.
Who let James May on the TH-cam?
@@circleofsorrow4583 Cadbury's is a 100% American-owned company as of 2010... so Brits don't even do THAT now :(
@@circleofsorrow4583 Cadbury's owned by Kraft now.
"Cut them up and dumped them in the North Sea" I sense a great disturbance in the force, like a million gun aficionados crying out and then being silenced.
I felt the same way when they cut up my Laffy Stick.
Yeah, why would the British govt do that?
Not silenced! They will do payback
Yeah, that broke my heart a little.
I think that the British Government cut up the Serial Numbers. Not the rifles themselves. I think what happened was that the old Numbers where used somewhere else and over used in the Company itself so the British Government cut the (out/off) numbers and dumped them.
It’s so ridiculous that these legendary guns get cut up and destroyed. So many cool guns like this have that fate
Especially british service weapons, i think we have learnt our lesson selling off weapons to the middle east.
@@theforlanjoker4457 just the the common folk citizens in your country buy the surplus weapons?
@@anomilumiimulimona2924 you can’t
Export them to America!
Unfortunately its a very common thing over here. Our government (and a lot of the social 'conditioning') is very anti-gun ownership and does not like the idea of firearms, especially "military grade" ones, getting into civilian hands. So once a military gun is decommissioned it is usually pretty much destroyed.
I guess we should be lucky the rich enjoy hunting, otherwise we would lose gun rights all together.
"Better rent and decorate a warehouse so they don't find out we're just two blokes in a shed."
+inspection commences+
"Really, we were only making sure you're not just two blokes in a shed."
...👍
“HAHAHAHA WE’RE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE!”
@@TheArkTheArkTheArk ah ic a man of culture
Yeah thanks. We all saw the video too.
*Capt. Price voice* MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
'Yeah... Totally not. Haha. Who would think that... ".
I believe Accuracy International is what you would call "cheeky"
Cheeky chappies :)
It's such a British thing! 2 blokes in a shed chancing their arm and pulling the wool over some military brass. Love it!! More please......
Stop mucking about...ya wankers.
Yo got a loicens fah that?
cheeki breeki
"They changed the material the firing pin was made from" - This is what happens when you put accountants in charge.
And went bust. Look what penny pinching does to you.
@Mira Ferriviario Yes, but those engineers account to those at the top, and they will have their decisions swayed by those in charge. For example, at my workplace, those at the top decided the business model should be based on a 5* service to the customer, and before long everyone was coming forward with ideas on how to make the service better. Five years later there is a change at the top, they still want the 5* service to the customer, they just want to make more money from it, so the pressure is on to save money. And instead of asking "What is the best material we can use for this" the question is "What is the most cost effective material we can use for this" For example, stopping using 302 Stainless and replacing it with 304
Yep, asked to make 10s with malfunctioning machines because it still having moving components. Asked to repair the machines by using the "glare eye" instead of calling the repairman for a week knowing we do not have any profession of a repairman. Meanwhile asked to work at same pace with a 25% reduced manpower makes some become specialists who can not do anything else and has not the time do all the tasks. Accountants for these mistakes are what we call mini-bosses.
yup. I can almost feel some engineers complaining 'come on guys you cant be serious...?' while management informs that this saves x% of money... deservedly took themselves down, sorry to say but what a fail
As an engineer myself I find extremely foolish of this manufacturer to make such novice mistakes you never mak3 changes without consulting the designer such display of foolishness...
The Accuracy International MoD story reminds me of I think it was Porsche or Ferrari with their Le Mans racing car in the 1970s where they had to make 200 cars to be legal to race and they only had 100. When the officials visited to see how many cars they had, the 100 were put in a yard, the officials were taken to lunch and the same 100 cars were moved to another yard and counted twice.
I heard it was Lancia, with their rally cars - on a 'Top Gear' or 'The Grand Tour' episode. That said, it sounds like the kind of thing that a number of small-scale companies would try.
Simon Munden small scale? Hell Dodge apparently did the same thing with the winged wonder Charger Daytona back in the ‘60s and they were part of America’s “big three”. They cycled Daytona’s and Super Birds back through the assembly line.
IIRC that was Lancia. Porsche or Ferrari would have had made the 200 cars to keep it on the up&up. Lancia had to get creative just like Accuracy International.
There's stories of the 917 inspection cars not having engines when the FIA came looking.
That sounds like an Italian story, maybe Alfa-Romeo?. Porsche wheeled a load of unfinished 917s out when the inspectors came around though.
hearing that the pylon company went out of business made me happy. because that's what one deserves when you messed with a design you don't understand.
Yeah, really interesting story. I wonder if that's the typical experience for "two guys in a shed"? A big company is assigned to manufacturing but because the designs came from "two guys in a shed", the big company immediately decides because they have more money, they must be smarter and therefore, able to make "corrections" that I hope never permanently maimed any soldiers.
@@TTM-1999 It's not just a problem for "two guys in a shed" designs getting manufactured. It's a common problem in manufacturing anytime a design isn't going into production the same place it's created, and even sometimes when it goes into production where created if there is sufficient disconnect between design and production crews. I've heard of cases where there ended up being production quality differences between first and second shift crews even, because one crew followed designs to the letter and the other decided they could run the production in a slightly different way and they failed to foresee how that would impact the process in full.
I love how you say “two guys in a shed”. The story of the Cosworth DFV (the most successful Formula One engine of all time) is pretty much the same thing.
Apple lmao
Aston Martin, the Spitfire, Accuracy International, the Cosworth DFV, etc, etc.
Alot of amazing things seem to be designed in sheds...
Dylan Rasmussen thought apple was 2 guys in a garage
@@MH-F I think it was, but that was American so we'll ignore that.
Goes to show that a (wo)man with a good idea and the know-how to execute it can honestly topple anything.
When the shooter complains that he can shoot targets outside the range of the spotter, you know you got a great rifle.
...and when a 'Quigley' is called (two targets with one bullet), even better...
Or a shooter with 3Bs... Bad eyesight, bad optometric, and bad prescription!
@@andrewsutton7007 They'll make the shot and their spotter will say "Are you recording trickshot??", "MUM GET THA CAMERA", etc.
@@MMOchAForPrez Haven't seen those jokes in about a decade.
I got another spotter when this happened to me.
Imagine being just two dudes in a shed making rifles for competition shooters and then getting told you have to supply standard armaments for one of the largests militaries in the planet .
Well... Better have a cuppa and then get started!
You are strange and unusual
Haha Britain with a big army. Good joke
@@popefrancis163 Pope pls don't touch me there.
Pope Francis may not have one of the largest, but still extremely large and one of the most advanced. Usually ranked at around the 5th most powerful military in the world.
These were the times...
Two guys in a wooden shed could get a military contract and become a big company.
And Build Body of a car That would win 24 hours of Le Mans (Ford GT)
AEY did something similar too...
BULLET KIN
@@lambsauce5312 ayo whatup m8
Same goes for supercar production. And it’s insane to think a person could make a convincing Ferrari or Lamborghini kit car off the body of a Fiero and fiberglass
At that point weren't they just 'Accuracy Local'?
oof
…wow
Accuracy municipal
Accuracy Subdivision
@@TheSolidlad oof (translate to english)
Mmm yes my favorite language
Oofenese
The British have a long proud history of shooting at a distance far enough away that the other guy can’t really do anything about it.
Well we live physically isolated from everyone else so it's easier to snipe than to go across the channel to try to hit them with an SMG, carbine or assault rifle
@@ThomasFarquhar2 I think he was referring to the longbow
@@Roger_Smith I think he was referring to the Colonial era.
The further away I can possibly be from a Frenchman, while still destroying him, the better.
The English channel
The fact they saw their final place being in the sea saddens me for a rifle that holds a such a strong memory real or fictional in so many peoples lives.
Nomadic Cassius it’s the unfortunate life of most special forces weapons
@not a real person Problem is there's been too many British soldiers shot by guns that originated from the British military. With the more effective guns they don't want to take the risk of any of them falling into the hands of terrorists or enemy militaries. A single one of these sniper rifles could lead to the deaths of dozens of British soldiers, and while they could just as well be using any other sniper rifle it's really not good to have your own guns being used to kill your soldiers. It is a shame that these guns were destroyed but their fear of it being used to kill British soldiers isn't unreasonable
Imagine how pissed off the AI guys were when the people who had been given the job of manufacturing their equipment went and fucked everything up right off the bat.
Honestly by the time Ian told of this I was expecting that all the blame for the failures was put on the AI as an original designer - because that's EXACTLY what you'd expect from a typical bureaucracy. Props for the British MOD for doing the proper research into what exactly happened and punishing the culprit rather than the victim.
@@mihan2d British sense of fair play...still alot of decent people in the military and MoD. It is different blaming a faceless corporate entity, then 6 guys in an industrial unit. But yeah you are absolutely right in your comment.
I imagine that was short lived as their fuck up was instrumental in making AI successful.
@@tybeejeffro No it wasn't, it delayed it. They became successful in spite of this. If they'd gotten to a similar point in the US and a huge scandal had happened, they would have just been dropped rather than given a second chance
The British way - lets invent something innovative and great, then fuck it up by not caring about quality or just being stupid to save pennies. Its amazing the country has carried on for so long. Well, that's over and the crap has come home to roost. The last time I was home the only thing we were creating seemed to be Balkan shoplifters. A shit show.
Everybody gangsta until a SAS soldier jumps and aces the round
Counter terrorists win
cold is an absolute legend
@@kerryxu119 yes....
"A JUMPING DOUBLE FROM COLD!!!!"
OPFOR last operator standing
@@howeyyadoing9070 NO
I hope the Arctic Warfare model is coming soon.
Id love to see that too bro
Yeah the awm and the of course the sv98 just for good measure.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
The AW model is almost identical to the standard L96; it just has a few features that make it easier to operate in cold weather conditions (namely a larger trigger guard and larger bolt handle to accommodate shooters wearing thick gloves). The AWM, if memory serves, is very similar to the AW variants of the L96, except that its the same modifications done to the modern L115A3 and its in .338 Lapua Magnum.
@@Omen_Seven except it has an entirely different stock, no front sight, etc..
I guess they where the sharpest tool in the shed, huh?
Why did noone elso come up with this? How did ypu think of this?
sweet christ thats funny
This is an internationally accurate joke.
14:58 That rear sight is a jewel. Only the Brits could put such a piece on a battle rifle. I wonder how good the rifle performs using these iron sights and a good load. Excellent walk around Ian.
@@adog3129 apart from the infamous a1 that was a result of budgets and quickly and easily fixed, what other rifles were shit?
@@adog3129 ah ok, I thought the insinuation was the British have never made a good gun 😆
@@adog3129 i read it more as "only brits would waste money on such great engineering on infantry" which i find quite true historically, the men sent to war usually are only weaponized with the cheapest and most easily produced rifles. doesn't mean i don't love the simple AK over the AR platform though... sometimes simple can be better. putting such effort on a iron sight is like putting on a really nice hand crafted knife as a bayonet, really beautiful but realistically more of a artistic decoration more than anything. unless you're really worried about backglare from your scope.
@@adog3129 the Lee Enfield series of rifle was the best battle rifle to be produced nigh on half a century. Don’t let your discontent for the English in tandem with stupidity cloud your historical judgement
@@isaacharkton6169
the SMLE is mighty fine for a bolt action rifle but I still think the Mauser-based rifles are better.
I remember when I was like 7 - 9 years old when I found one of these in my Grandma's closet, I was visiting her in Phoenix AZ while bored one day and left alone for the day. I don't know how or where she got the damn thing, when asked about it by my father she said she got it at a garage sale and that she thought that it would be a good rifle for me and my brother when we were older. Sadly my father didn't agree and I believe took it down to the Police station and "Discarded" the rifle to them.......I could have had one of these along with a Sharps Buffalo rifle, I've been screwed out of having two awesome piece of firearm history.
Edit:
28:10 ...........................yep......blood is now boiling.........
George Brown I bet those cops were real happy to add that rifle to their armory
Ya poor bastard. There is always a Parker and Ha... never mind there out of trade for Debt reasons. Maybe Canada..?
B.J. Blazkowicz I bet one of em took it home, now it’s in a personal collection.
@@Newtype93 Oh the irony!
B.J. Blazkowicz i don’t think cops are cleared to use snipers....
Well this was a pleasant and unexpected surprise.
elvisg7 A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.
That is exactly what I thought.
@@carsonlewis2666 the world needs more people like you
Our tanks rifling my not be perfect lol.... but our sniper rifles however 👌🏼❤️
Love your shit man keep it up love all the way back from UK 🇬🇧
Wasn't the longest tank kill performed by a British Challenger?
@@Literalytyp it was. Our tanks are great, dunno what’s the issue with the rifling
maybe they mean tank rifles, which would still be silly. the boys AT rifle is legendary
Ok buuuuuuuut assault rifle game?
As a Brit, I quite like the phrase “2men in a shed” if I ran an arms company that could very well be the name 👍🏻
For some reason "2 men in a shed" reminds of James May.
So you'd create a company with that name? I bet your mates would have a field day with that one, or that could just be my diseased filled, "Americanized", brain. :)
@@ohredhk everything good that come out off Britain comes from a shed.
@@ohredhk The only difference between this and Apple Computers is the predominance of attached garages in America.
Apple == two men in a garage.
Sadly these day's blokes, chaps, geezers, fellows and characters in sheds are becoming a rarer sight and occurrence. As with many of the best things about our culture and way of thinking.
These days people are far too spoiled and entitled. Most tend to have very little interest in interesting things. I would think buggering around in sheds is becoming far less common. At one time most people would have at least one grandad, or an uncle or even dad who buggered around in the shed.
FFS. Most folk these days cannot put on a plug or change a damn car wheel. Never mind be capable of mauling around with tools and such.
The education system really does not help these days.
Ian, I know this channel is called forgotten weapons but I’m so glad you’ve started to cover well remembered weapons in depth. We often don’t hear the stories behind some of these classics in nearly the amount of detail which you provide such as in your Thompson history and British smg series. Keep up the great work!
He could change the channel name to "Forgotten History of Well-Remembered Weapons", but it doesn't have quite the same ring to it does it? :)
Or Just forgotten weapon History, or something Like that
The scope is made from the town ~ 20km away from my home. :)
The town is called the optics town, Leica Camera is also there.
I think the important point is that it's two guys *that know what they're doing* in a shed. You can find them everywhere in Britain. 😉
All of the best engineering companies in Britain started as two blokes in a shed/barn/basement/someone else's business premises.
the company that made spitfires (ww2 fighter plane) was originally in a shed
"Hey I was just walking past the neighbors--You wont believe what two men are doing in the shed"
"No worries, they're always up to that"
@Mufti Husayni, Nazi General, Palestine MUSLIM OFFICIAL google it: IslamicPogromsOnJewsBEFOREzionism You have an Ultima! Does it run? Please tell me you do track days!
@@jubuttib any version with higher gears and/or more HP: "The Ultima 1020's top speed is *restricted by its gearing* to 240 mph (386 km/h), which the Forza renditions of the car always exceed".
...but most ar home-built, custom jobs, not a "version" really.
I loved this rifle. I did my sniper course with it and god, did it shoot well. This was a long time a go, in about 94.
I was an Armourer in Northern Ireland (1987) when we received 9 L96s to replace our L42s; we kept 3 and returned 6 as the quality was awful. I saw the threaded holes between the chassis and receiver that are mentioned, where the tip of the screw protruded into the bolt way causing gouges down the bolt! The bonding agent (Belzona Super Metal) that is supposed to sandwich between chassis and receiver was added later like a cosmetic feature, so the two parts were getting loose.
When I first saw it, I thought it was utter crap. It was incredibly accurate though. Working on it was vastly different that the L42, which required considerable hand fitting of parts - a true 'craftsman's rifle' when you build one. I recall spending hours stoning parts to fit them...
Interestingly, about 7 years later I was involved in a trial for a different kind of sniper rifle; I met Malcolm Cooper who told us the whole tale of AI's birth and the L96. He brought along a new product from AI - the AW. By comparison to the L96, the AW was mind-blowingly good. The quality was superb and it was incredibly easy to fire accurately, as was the L96. The 'design' would pave the way for the future AW-derived rifles and they were all excellent. When we saw the .338 Lapua Magnum AW rifle it blew away everything else and gave the Army a world class sniper rifle, which could reach out way beyond the capability of the 7.62mm.
There was another submission for the contract, (I do believe). This was Pip Watts of Edgcumbe Arms in Dorset and I was closely involved in the company at that time. The rifle was fairly conventional but had a couple of interesting features, one of which was an interrupted thread locking lugs and another was recessed iron sights. I have some photos, if you are interested.
Yes please!
Nooo!!! It's a trap!!! Never believe it when a man says he wants to show you pictures of his "big gun!" 😱
@@JvS1711 I have to look for the photos, however, I cannot post them here.
Ah yes, the one-hit kill machine
EVERY CS player's ULTIMATE weapon AND nightmare!!!!!!
"Counter terrorists win"
Well technicallly no since this isn't the arctic warfare pattern depicted in CS
Counter Strike doesn't use the AWP it uses the AWSM because it is using .338 lapua magnum rounds
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
I was responsible for picking up the first 10 L96A1's from Accuracy International in Pompey for the sniper course at CTCRM in 1985.
AJ M Prove it
Apple Senju lmao it’s the internet, nobody has to prove anything. That’s why we’re on here
@@Geordie_Boy01 He is legit...No one would have Ghandi's Flip Flop as an Avatar unless they had served. "Its an older code sir, but it checks out!".
Is the whole making sure you wasn’t 2 guys in a shed thing real?
@@getsmoked8799 yes
Who would win:
Several major firearms companies with years of experience in military small arms
Or...
2 smart Englishmen in a shed
like always.. david vs goliath ;) the small guys got brains
@@SeniorRed1337 😂 most certainly
@@StaxRail i give u another example. i startet my own business this year.. and created a solution 4 a problem one of our wolrds biggest companys could not solve in 3 years with over a hundred well paid engineers and shit...
what was the problem?
*2 crumpety bois
Its so small compared to what i thought it would be
That’s what she said...
@@1701spacecadet You cheeky bastard.....
@@BurnTheNuance That's what they said.
That's probably because most people have seen the AWM more often than the PM or AW. The AWM chambered in .338 Laupa Magnum, and consequently a noticeably larger rifle.
its actually fairly large in real life and weighs as much as 2 m4s.
Accuracy International: "What's the worst that could happen?"
Ministry of Defense: "Congradulations!"
AI: "FUCK."
Yup
They pulled it off, britush officers.. we just wanted to make sure you wernt 2 guys in a shed. A i . Fancy a cucumber sandwich sir.. splendin splendin.
You couldnt write a story like that because nobody would have believed it if it hadnt actually happened. Like two guys entering a home garage built Formula 1 car for shits and giggles and placing first.
@@greyman6353 There's a scene at the beginning of Pandora's Star by Peter Hamilton where the first manned landing on Mars is interrupted by a couple of asshole Stanford dropouts who invented wormhole tech in a garage.
I did a lot of shooting with the cadets in the early 2000s. I was sure that we had fired a 7.62 bolt action rifle with a later designation than the l42. It looks like we were (and cadets still are) firing the Parker Hale rifles with iron sights.
It was great fun to shoot and spot out to 600m as a teenager in a country where access to firearms is otherwise so heavily restricted. I do wish I had been given the opportunity to shoot one of these just once though.
Thank you for the video Ian, highly entertaining as usual.
The L81 (commonly called the elephant gun😁)
Fired it myself with cadets.
I remember having to stand with my foot wedged against the feet of a tiny 13 year old cadet because every time she fired (prone) she slid back about 6 inches😄
Although I enjoy all(most) of your episodes this one I found to be quite enthralling. I grew up hunting with a sporterized 7.62 Mauser war trophy with double set triggers My father informed me, upon gifting it to me, that with the iron sights I could shoot a deer so far out that it would spoil before I could walk to retrieve it! I miss it and him, but never missed a target! Thank you for bringing history to the masses!
There’s one in the Royal Armouries in Leeds, England. I saw it a few weeks ago and was surprised HO little attention it got!
I know a British guy that actually had two sheds. His name was Author Jackson but they called him Two Sheds. Good ole' Author "Two Sheds" Jackson.
Fck me he had 2 sheds. Theyll be telling that story for generations.
@@CErra310 I see what I did "their". That is "won" mistake I shouldn't really make. :(
Sad to hear they are virtually all gone.
This was an awesome rifle, last fired one in the mid 1990’s whilst in Bosnia.
I can vouch for the simplicity and ease of use as by this time it wasn’t a specific sniper rifle as they where ageing and got passed down to us mere mortals to use!
Great to see one again....loved that safety in the cold so easy to check and use
Peace
Charlie UK 🇬🇧
Retired Royal Marine Commando/C Sqn SBS (1978-2008) lost track of the various firearms we used but this one was hoofing!
Britain has a long history of producing incredible, often world beating engineering, with a a bloke or two working in a shed! Never underestimate the typical British bloke that enjoys tinkering with an idea he’s had especially when he has access to a shed (even a basic garden shed is often the place where great engineering starts to grow) but it can be occasionally derailed slightly whenever the Civil Service, Ministry of Defence, or a “proper” engineering company get involved, just as happened here.
Its fascinating to recall that if it wasn’t for the profit chasing, penny pinching attitude of the “professional engineering company”, then the early rifles might not have caused the problems nor the injuries that colleagues might be affected by.
Yet another FW video that feels like it was made just for me. Thank you, Ian 👍
I used to enjoy going to their gun shop in Gladys Avenue, Portsmouth (where the ‘shed’ was), and always enjoyed looking at their ‘factory’ in the hastily rented industrial estate from the train. They were always welcoming and friendly and very patient
@@andysavill8580 I went to the shop long before the L96 went into production
I almost wanted to cry when he talked about them being scrapped. Especially since he spent the whole video talking it up.
Sees that it is a 30 min episode: "Yaaaaasss!"
Also: I hope there is a hip-fire test.
I shot this rifle in 1988 at Stoney Castle range near Bisley. At 600 you could select which part of a "hun head" target you hit. That target was smaller than a standard Fig 12 target used at 100 - 300 yards. This was a major step forward in terms of accuracy.
10:25
It's the history of an iconic weapon that's so appealing IMHO, the L96 ALMOST wasn't adopted several times, they didn't want to submit for the trials, but still did, expecting to fail, they beat SIG, HK, and Remington, they didn't have a shop, but they bluffed it, they almost got screwed by the changes made by the other production company, but STILL made it where they are today, really rocky road to get there, but I'd say it was a solid "wurf"
And in the end, all of the L96A1's were destroyed by the British Terrorist Organization, sorry I meant government
This rifle is amazing. It's so light and precise you can run full sprint, jump and snap a bullseye mid-air and never miss a beat.
Oh CS, you so silly...
Purchased a copy of the Book. It’s fantastic, thanks for the recommendation
Airsoft Action TV how much for the book?
Ian, you're absolutely spot on. A British company always begins and sometimes stays with two blokes in their shed.
Steve Houghton’s book is absolutely brilliant. I got mine this week. If the subject interests you, talk to Steve. He is very helpful and dealing with him was a joy. Cannot recommend the book, or Steve’s expertise enough. Also, Ian, thank you for these superb videos for enthusiasts. A great match for Steve’s offering.
😊😊😊
@@pamelahoughton8890 can't help bought notice the similarity in the last name......
🤔☺️👍🏻
Pamela Houghton I hadn’t missed the shared surname, it’s just great to have shared interests in families. 😀. If I wrote a quality tome such as this, I would be thrilled that my family were proud of my achievement.
I am immensely proud of him, Thankyou. I even got a mention in the book which I was Thrilled about! The only thing he allows me to have anything to do with it though is helping him carry them all to the Post Office! 😆 our son is also on here and is closely following in his footsteps. 😊
I love that this model actually has iron sights, and they look pretty good. The scope is not bad, I like it better than the later models.
Good thing the firing pin failures didn't harm AI and they were able to continue forward giving us so much more as with the A.I. AW50.
I loved this rifle when I done my sniper course in the late 90s. I remember being issued the new sight was a good combination.
Cool Schmidt und Bender Wetzlar scope, my hometown.
The Balvenie container full of gun maintenance equipment behind Ian is just some masterful cinematography.
That's a beautiful piece of engineering with a respectful narrative. Superb video.
The Dutch (Royal Netherlands Marine Corps and Royal Dutch Navy) also used them and some are still being used today. Great rifle to shoot!!
In the mid 2000s I used this rifle with the 8x56 Schmitt at Bisley in the CENSAM sniper match and consistently out shot snipers using the PMII scope. The smaller magnification meant that the shooter wasn’t holding for the ‘perfect shot’.’ An excellent weapon that was also adopted by the Australian military with the addition of a sound moderator intended for use with the Lapua 170gr ammunition in place of the standard 155gr RG British ammunition
There's something so sexy about the purety of purpose of a bolt action sniper rifle...
The best thing out of Portsmouth since HMS Victory and Operation Overlord Force Juno.
M275 is the best thing out of Porksmuff...... Innit? ✌️
@@thejudge-kv2jk 'London on Sea' wannabe 🙄
@@davefloyd9443 Emsworth.
thejudge 1897 good lad. I’m very near to you.
A few friends in emsworth and I can safely say that a good night can be had with a piss up in the coalie, bluebell and raglan. Followed by a curry from the small curry house in the square.
What an amazing story. You find yourself watching a video on a gun but ends up with a human tale. Thank you
Thanks! Nice use of a Balvenie Single Malt canister there in the back!🥃 Looks like the standard 12 yr double wood if I’m not mistaken.🥃
Great video as usual, it makes me appreciate the 10 rounds I got to shoot from one back in my OTC days even more.
Yes it was very nice and easy to get decent shots with.
Typical British beginning. I love the way the two fellows fooled the MOD. A brilliant rifle which would today be a beauty on a long distance range but no, the bloody government goes and destroys them.
I mean the PM was available commercially
no the Government destroyed the ones they owned, you can still buy brand new ones from AI as a UK citizen, well the updated one, the PM is now outdated it's the AT now in tacticool black or the AX in .50 BMG
I've had a chance to fondle one of these, never got to fire it though as it was part of a display. Really nice, albeit fairly light compared to some boltguns I've handled. Thought I'd hate the thumbhole stock, but it's surprisingly comfy, even for a leftie like me 👍
@@marionette5968 Vikings at Waterloo , or we had one good pair of snips, an molds made from tree stumps.
Rover where by Rolls-Royce's account massively under equipped and skilled.
I see little reason why the AI sniper rifle series would not be banned under UK gun laws. Boltguns up to .50 BMG are UK-legal.
One week and half a million views :D I’ve followed you for years, so good to see you doing so well. An iconic rifle, excellently presented, always so unbiased and factual
I literally shed a tear when he said that they cut them up and dumped them in the sea...
I see something looming in the background, and it's not the Balvenie-bottle case that has the tools sticking out...
Ian, brilliant video. This is the first and will probably be the only time that I watch one of your videos and, after a few minutes, remember that I have fired the weapon you are describing. Late 1986, at the School of Infantry in Warminster, I was on the first platoon commanders' course issued with the SA80. We must have been doing a familiarisation shoot because we were on a 25m range. Next door were a bunch of trainee snipers* with this fancy looking new sniper rifle. Any other time they'd have had no interest in swapping rifles with a bunch of Ruperts, but they hadn't seen the SA80 either. So, under the supervision of our SASC instructors, we swapped weapons and fired a few rounds. 25m was not a very testing distance to fire a sniper rifle (frankly not much of a challenge for an SA80 either) but I can safely say I got my tightest ever group! A year later they were issued to my battalion.
*I don't think that it's accurate to say that the RM delivered all sniper training. The Army would never have put up with that, and they certainly wouldn't have been at Warminster. They would have trained their own and I can quite imagine that they may have done some even more specialist courses.
I did fire the No4-based L43 sniper rifle on a Battalion range day. I am sure that the NCO supervising that range took pleasure in letting me give myself a black eye when the scope hit me in the eye. Apparently they were usually fired with the aid of a sandbag or two.
Came for the sniper rifle, stayed for the great storytelling :).
The L96A1, what a classic OHKO sniper in video gaming. Anyone who has played CS or Combat Arms knows the rep this thing has. This was really cool to see the real life version.
I always love how Forgotten Weapons doesn't have a long intro sequence or lots of extra talking beforehand, you normally expect to have to skip to the middle of videos that look like this to actually get to what it's about. But naw, just a couple seconds of a silent logo screen with the gun name, and Ian gets right into it
*Counter-Strike flashback intensifies*
GYPSY KING FURY lol beta male boomer
True
God that thing looks so neat
I rub my Airsoft L96 every night and pray one day it becomes a real boy....
_please god let me have this one_
Yep, every once in a while a particular piece speaks to me. I'm a machinist by trade so I'm partial to fit, finish, and lean design. I'd love to own one of these even if only to admire it.
I feel like Ian does evrything in one take, with no script. I am quite confident he's just speaking freely. Bro is extremely wise, and articulate. A viewer really doesn't need to be educated in this field to understand what he is explaining
I sound like a fan boy but it's true
Drop awp cyka, i go mid
A SHORT A SHORT THEY SWITCHED THEY NOT B
Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrush B
Yung Shai ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
They cover the awp later smh
COUNTER-TERRORISTS WIN! :P
During rhe Bosnian conflict we would rotate into theatre for about 10 days at a time.
We didn't have individual rifles but had designated scopes and would sign the scope out of the armoury and fit it to the rifle we took over, the outgoing man woukd remove his scope and pack it in its case.
The only rifle i ever used that you could trust to do that on.
I'd like to add that I, like most I worked with, wasn't a sniper, but I was a military competition shooter with a fair level of competence.
What a great video - ive never shot anything gunpowder propelled, yet i found this very interesting. You are a very lucky man to have gotten your fingers on one of these pieces of history
Drop me awp.
oowp
Drop avp
Then buy me ak
Yesssssss. My childhood.
Gib AWP, noob.
Love this rifle! Great review with detailed history, nice job brother!
Man, I love your videos! I'm from South Africa and here's a little story for you: In the '80s, when I was just a little kid, SA was still banned from international sport so my Dad paid for himself to go to Bisley in England where he entered as a privateer and beat 2-time Olympic gold medalist and co-founder of Accuracy International Malcolm Cooper to bring home a gold medal in .22 long rifle.
Keep up the good work, best channel on TH-cam!
I absolutely loved this video. Thank you for such an in depth review of a remarkable piece of history.
I don't know why, but that strut/chassis/frame is just so friggin' cool!
I love seeing different methods of construction for similar devices! Cars, guns, airplanes, computers, whatever, it's just fascinating to me because it's a glimpse into how someone else's brain works, and if it seems more intuitive, ergonomic, or practical than my current line of thinking, I just get so excited as it opens a floodgate of creativity for me!
One of my absolute favorite games is Space Engineers, and while it seems like there are just a few methods of doing something, you'll see something totally out of the box, and it's like a trillion lights in your brain suddenly flare, and you can't help going on a creative spree!
I just love engineering, especially mechanical engineering, and I'm so thankful for Gun Jesus Ian and this wonderful channel!
People who are anti-gun clearly don't appreciate engineering, and the symphony of mechanical purpose and timing that goes into even the most antiquated firearms.
Even the engineering that goes into making an effective bow and arrows is truly magnificent.
I'd be willing to bet a lot of advancements in military/warfare engineering has spilled over into every day use, be it the microwave, computer systems, advanced metals, and especially plastics.
Weapons are only as evil as those who would wield them. Sure, one could argue they're engineered to end human life, but so what? Who's life? If you can end a mad man who's about to blow up a church or school with your precision rifle, isn't that worth the occasional maniac who shoots from a clock tower? Besides, the tool he's using can, in the hands of an honorable person, be used to stop him. Balance achieved.
Well, I could rant forever about morality and human rights, but that's not what this is about; it's about engineering!
Thank you again for providing such awesome content! I love this channel!
Realy amazing peice of Kit.
With the x12 S&B extremely accurate
So sad that they just cut up all of those rifles and dumped them in the sea. What a waste.
Me: Give me awp I'll give you M4
Teammates: No!
@Forgotten Weapons I really enjoyed your video. I used the L96A1 during my sniper course and on Ops in TELIC and HERRICK. I look forward to your L115A3 vid, as it's a complete beast (this is my first vid of yours so sorry if you've covered it already). If you haven't, please PLEASE get a vid out. You will NOT be dissappointed.
The stereotype is absolutely accurate in that British men have a special place in their hearts when it comes to tinkering in sheds
Got to have a shed mush. Ow and a 2 stroke engine either in tool or motor bike form. A freindly little dog, fridge for beer and fishing bait. Chair. Gota have a good chair. Tools preferable imperial and at least 80 years old made in Sheffield. .22 air rifle.
With the tea and kettle, cannot forget about that
The British are crazy with snipers, I'm pretty sure they had the unit that was the first to wear _Ghillie_ suits
The Brits (Scots) invented the ghillie suit c. WWI. The word Ghillie is British (Scots), referring to an estate's gamekeeper, specifically Scottish. The first Ghillie suits were made and used by the Lovat Scouts, a unit made of sharpshooting ghillies, during WWI.
@@jamestarbet9608 The word 'gillie' isn't British, it's Scots Gaelic for 'boy'. It precedes Britain by centuries. Gillies became so called because they were simply referred to as 'boy' or servant in the Gaelic language. The reason the Lovat Scouts adopted the word is because many of them were Gaelic speakers and estate workers. The 'h' appears in some spellings of the word because people who don't speak Gaelic began using it and don't understand that the 'h' isn't part of the noun, it's a grammatical insert and is only used in certain cases, such as the dative and genitive. Using it in a noun on its own is basically a spelling mistake, which has stuck because most people don't know any better.
@@StrathpefferJunction OK. The word gillie isn't British. Good to know.
*L96A1 rifle used by Jack Stone in Ghost Recon*
Cooperman won two olympic golds
The AI story is a pretty funny anecdote, but hey, even Apple Computers started off as "Two Guys in a shed."
Kind of comical, though, that large manufacturing concerns lost out to them.
Lot easier in many ways for two guys in a shed to explore new concepts than a large company with employees to pay, more rigid manufacturing processes, and management/investors to keep happy.
To be fair though, for every small outfit like AI that tried something new and were successful, there are probably twenty others whose ideas never went anywhere.
@@SynchronizorVideosI imagine some of those are still in their shed trying stuff out until it works
Excellent tutorial, new to this channel but I'm hooked, I have shot a number of these rifles in real time situations and great to see them being discussed. Looking forward to the next video 😊👍
Can Ian quickscope?
I would genuinely love to see Ian attempting that! say at 100 yards or meters, and with whatever rifles he chooses.
AWP and Deagle is OP
Or pull off nasty flicks, or do Coldzera style
4c1dr3fl3x not unless you can’t aim which 60% of people can’t
"Good thing youre not a couple guys in a shed lol."
"Say what now?"
I have a Lee Einfield No. 4 Mk2 and it's amazing. It's more accurate then the Springfield Garand and has a 15 inch bayonet. I would happily carry it into battle even today and it was made in the late 40's
Anybody who drinks enough Balvenie to be using the empty canisters for storing random gun cleaning bits is all good in my book.