An early issue L96 sniping rifle, used by the Royal Marines during the First Gulf War. It is in its transit case with spare magazines, sling and cleaning kit. These weapons, inspired by the competitive rifles used for long-range target shooting, are constructed with a modular chassis, moulded stocks impervious to weather, and stateof-the-art optical sights. The Accuracy International family of rifles have set a new benchmark in military sniping.
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the frontline sniper rifle for many more decades, had not a small conflict begun in 1982 on a series of far-flung islands that most people had never heard of, the Falklands. Although the Falklands War was not in itself a war of major military consequences, it was to sound the death knell for the British Army sniper’s reliance on converted infantry rifles, and set in place a change that would revolutionize sniping within the British armed forces. During the extraordinarily soggy Falklands campaign, battalion snipers were hard pressed to deal with the numerous and often very good Argentine snipers, who were mostly armed with Remingtons. There were not enough British snipers to go around, and the L42A1s suffered from a lack of the cleaning materials that were required in the salt-laden atmosphere. The climate rusted actions, magazines and barrels, and despite the scopes being factory waterproofed, many still misted up badly. At least one British sniper, fed up with carrying his near-useless rifle, dumped it in a stream, picked up an Argentine FN FAL fitted with a short-range optical sight, and used it successfully for the duration of the campaign. So wanting was the sniping equipment that the Milan ground rocket system was found to be one of the most effective counter-sniping weapons, although each rocket would have paid for six new rifles! After the war, it was clear that major improvements were needed, so following considerable testing the choice was down to the excellent ParkerHale M85, a conventional bolt-action glass-fibre stocked weapon, and the rather less conventional AI sniper rifle designed by the late Malcolm Cooper, Olympic Gold rifleman. It was made by Accuracy International of Portsmouth. The end result, by the narrowest of margins, was the adoption of the highly adaptable Accuracy International rifle. Built around an aluminium rail chassis, the receiver was held by four screws and epoxy bonded to the chassis. The detachable free-floating stainless steel barrel screwed into the receiver, negating the need for time-consuming bedding. The polymer stock was two-piece, left and right, and simply screwed onto the chassis. The telescopic sights initially selected for the AI rifle were either a Schmidt & Bender PM 12x42, or Leupold 10XM1.