19 minute read
TECH: WETECH L85A2 GBBR
LIFE WITH THE MARMITE ARMALITE!
THERE ARE FEW FIREARMS IN THE REAL-STEEL-REALM THAT ARE AS DIVISIVE AND STORIED IN THEIR ROLLERCOASTER RIDE OF SERVICE WITH A NATION’S MILITARY THAN THE UK’S HOME-GROWN L85 SERIES OF RIFLES! WITH AN UNDENIABLY BAD FIRST ITERATION THAT HAS LED TO NOTORIETY AMONG THE MANY PLAYERS INCLUDING THOSE IN TAIWAN (YES, HE’S EVEN SEEN THE TYPICAL MEMES BUT IN CHINESE!) HOW DOES THE AIRSOFT REPLICA HOLD UP TO THE REAL DEAL? STEWBACCA FINALLY RELENTED AND SUCCUMBED TO NOSTALGIA AND BOUGHT HIMSELF A WE L85A2 GBBR TO FIND OUT!
The SA80 (Small Arms of the 1980’s programme) was intended to modernise the British Armed Forces Individual Weapon, or primary service rifle, towards a more controllable and usable assault rifle, especially given the trends in urban conflict such as that seen in Northern Ireland where the venerable 7.62x51 L1A1 was reliable, but perhaps oversized and more importantly overpowered for use in essentially civilian environments. Use with vehicles and in buildings and with people you don’t want to be shooting in the AO, given its greater penetrating capability the SLR proved a bit of a pain to wield in close quarters or when being ferried around in APCs land rovers or helicopters; it made the SLR somewhat the wrong rifle for that environment.
Despite its reputation for being much loved (especially by my old man who served in that whole situation which is essentially how I came to be, like many other children of that conflict) the times were a-changin, and the UK defence establishment had already been looking at low calibre high velocity solutions as far back as the end of WWII with the EM1 and EM2 systems which then moved towards .280 British and 4.85mm cartridges. This is suspiciously similar to what we’re all apparently headed back towards now seventy odd years later following the whole political debacle of the US defence establishment forcing all and sundry to switch to 7.62x51 before promptly realising their own error and coming up with the new 5.56mm anyway and leaving everyone else holding the bag of overpowered cold war battle rifles; not that they’re at all bad as such, just not ideal for urban combat you might argue.
Thus the earlier concept of the Enfield Weapons System was revisited with new zeal and eventually the L85 platform was borne of considerable development, albeit not always focused on the right places, as anyone who’s watched Forgotten Weapons’ long episodic saga of the whole process will be well aware! Personally I also had a former colleague who worked for Royal Ordnance at various facilities prior to being at one of my previous employers and we had many a conversation about his apprenticeship and motions through the company and its various
departments and projects, especially regarding the L85 and the eventual engagement of Heckler & Koch and how they went about upgrading and fixing the thing with the A2 series.
Personally I may have been marred even earlier by dad’s vociferous dislike of being forced to hand over his SLR in favour of the new back to front paperweight, often derisively referred to as the ‘civil servant’ as ‘it never works and you can’t fire it!’, coupled with my own experiences in the RAF Cadets during my latter school years where we were introduced to the A1 iterations; the L98 cadet GP, L85, and L86 LSW along with the Lee Enfield No.8 which I was always quite fond of given its more classic appearance and manual operation.
In short, the L85 has been around as long as myself, and I wonder which one of us has had a more irksome long term effect on the old man! Undoubtedly for many, it will always be the ‘Marmite Armalite’; you either love it or hate it, depending on when you were introduced to it, whether you had the L1A1 beforehand, and which iteration you experienced. I remember jokingly adding a “made with pride in the UK” to the end of one weapons handling instructor’s “don’t forget to tap the bolt handle forwards to make sure it’s fully in battery” ...evidently my cheek preceded my airsoft shenanigans.
Nonetheless, many would argue that the original Armalite series also suffered numerous setbacks and a horrendous reputation and public relations disaster with the US forces during and after their involvement in Vietnam, and arguably as a result of people up top cutting corners, costs, or otherwise interfering with our lord and saviour Stoner’s wonderful contraption; it just had a two decade head start on the L85 series! Much the same as the familiar AUG of Austria which was adopted in numerous other countries, and the FAMAS of France, the L85 was intended to be a more wieldy bullpup solution that would rationalise and replace the infantry rifle, carbine and submachine gun all in one, and thus reduce the supply chain and overall costs and greater ease logistics, deployment and training.
GIVING IT GAS
So, fast forward two decades and I was finally allowing the nostalgia of my days in a blue beret and Soldier 95s to overcome my perhaps overly bitter resentment of the backwards boat anchor, and at the tail end of January 2022 I purchased a GBBR L85A2 from KIC Airsoft, my usual go to gun shop, in the West of Taipei. Amusingly enough, it lived up to my expectations of realism, experiencing a stoppage on its very first magazine load and string of fire as I was test firing it at the shop’s small firing range. Well, at least the weight and handling are true to real steel!
An immediate benefit, however, is the compatibility with the rest of WE’s AR range; I had already had the HK416 and T91 for over a year and was not only very familiar with their insides (and the issues they present as per my reviews of them in AA issues 125 and 136 respectively) but also had a decent number of magazines they were already sharing, so the initial investment was at least less of a pain for me. With the L85A2 itself just shy of 10,000 NT in country, which translates to around 250 of your pounds Sterling directly, I soon insisted on adding a ruggedised ELCAN optic for a further 80 quid or so which thankfully just dropped onto the proprietary optic rail and tightened up nicely, I had contemplated the G&G SUSAT but it wasn’t in stock at the time and I figured the ELCAN was what was being used more recently anyway, albeit not the exact version I’d chosen, it seems.
Soon enough, the old ways came flooding back to me, and despite the teething issues and having to get used to not transitioning it fully into my left shoulder, or at all if possible (I heard at least one story of a cadet gouging their teeth out by being big and clever and trying to fire the real deal left handed despite warnings!) I was actually quite enjoying the handling and performance of WE’s incarnation, especially in the CQB environments it was ostensibly intended to work well in, although of course I always had to try and take the right hand corners on room clearing or corridor work!
The bullpup configuration and elongated barrel certainly have a visible effect in a GBBR replica, its 460mm internal barrel is actually a good 100mm longer than that of their T91 I elected to use for rifle competition shooting here in Taiwan when I had the chance to partake in it. During my first few outings with it I managed to throw BBs down fairly far and fast, soon running my magazines dry and having to
do the familiar duck behind cover and high port to strip the empty and put in a fresh one. The standard threaded muzzle also allowed me to affix my Acetech Lighter S tracer unit and make use of it to help with tweaking the HOP unit and zeroing the ELCAN to the point of impact.
This in itself was not the easiest undertaking, with the HOP unit and general internals following those of WE’s AR system, the small grub screw at the top of the barrel extension and mock trunnion that the aesthetic bolt head ‘locks’ into can be a pain to access with a small Allen key, and I would typically break open the HK416 or T91 and pull the bolt carrier group out to get easier access to it. In the case of the L85A2 however it’s basically a case of field stripping the gun each time and trying to dial the HOP in between strings of fire, unless you have a nifty tool of some sort to reach in through the ejection port and turn it with some form of universal joint like action; I’ve seen such ideas floating about and have my own in mind too.
This of course reminded me of the proper handling and use of the not-as-captive-as-you’d-like Trigger Mechanism Housing (TMH) pins. There are many tales told of active service personnel field stripping the L85 and forgetting to cup their hand over the rear as they separate the TMH (or lower receiver, essentially) from the upper receiver, and the recoil spring assembly subsequently goes careening out of the rear, usually into some unsuspecting compatriot, or in the worst case scenario out of the window of a moving vehicle never to be seen again!
The whole process is at least as realistic as you’re going to get; that is one of the things I love about GBBRs, the field stripping procedure is as close to real steel as you’re likely to find and it makes them somewhat easier to work on compared to AEGs that can sometimes require detail stripping from around a troublesome gearbox depending on how long you have been playing or how well thought out the manufacturer’s design intent was. This recoil mechanism was one of the first operational issues I encountered, however, with considerable recoil and related vibration being experienced in the L85 the retention pins of the two main rods eventually worked their way loose and fell into the fire control mechanism incurring stoppages and ultimately getting totally lost. Not ideal, but not a deal breaker as such, I personally would have had them inserted and biased from the top of the assembly so that they couldn’t fall out during use and would be passively retained by the very nature of being inside and under the upper receiver body itself. In the end I just hammered in some spring pins the guys at Archwick had lying around and they’re unlikely to come loose any time soon at least.
The real steel tales of plastic woes related to the furniture were soon revisited with the cheek piece finding its way loose all too easily if caught slightly or otherwise pushed forwards; again not a dreadful show stopper, and if you were that bothered or inclined you could no doubt permanently glue it in place or secure it internally somehow with additional fasteners or retention wires that wrap around the plastic locking tabs, it was just somewhat surprising when it happened the first time to me during a
game. The safety bar is somewhat stiff to begin with which ensures you do your ‘idiot’s wave’ safety drills appropriately and are very deliberate with taking it off safe when ready to fire, although I also found the trigger and transfer bar don’t always reset fully; you sometimes have to push on the back face of the trigger body to fully seat it forwards, and while this doesn’t affect the operation during firing, it can make it even harder to push the safety cross bolt back to the safe position without manually reseating the trigger forward.
OPERATING SYSTEMS
The operation of the firing mechanism is at least crisp and consistent, and of course also reminiscent of the other WE ARs I have, albeit the recoil may be a little more pronounced due to the different shape and bulk of the bolt carrier, and the fact that the ejection port is right next to my ear so it can be pretty loud at times! I’m grateful I managed to dig out my in-ear throat mic comms set for the last game I used this at, it’s probably saving my hearing somewhat, but that’s all ‘part of the fun’ for me I suppose… you have to get used to the smell of gas too, I might add!
The bolt head and gas blowback parts themselves are basically the same as the other AR platforms I have, I haven’t put my callipers on them as yet but visually there’s nothing much between the HK416 and L85A2 bolt heads aside from the carriers they’re mounted in. The L85A2’s does, however, seem to have a habit of sticking or binding more perhaps due to the carrier’s shorter body and thus likely its less stable movement compared to the smooth telescoping of the HK416/T91’s within the machined surfaces of the AR15 style receivers, the upward force of the magazine in place and movement of the bolt carrier on the guide rods makes the nozzle slew upwards and bind a bit, liberal use of low viscosity silicone oil can help, although I’m also considering an RA Tech magnetic locking NPAS adjustable bolt unit to improve not only the cycling and feeding function but also allow better power output adjustment.
In terms of stock power output I chronographed the L85A2 using a variety of ammunition weights and the same somewhat industry standard ‘12kg’ green gas I use for all my GBBRs here in Taiwan. Running a 10 round string of BLS 0.2g BBs resulted in a range from 121.3m/s - 132.2m/s (398 fps - 433 fps) with the majority of shots in the 127m/s region (416 fps) - this translates to around 1.5 Joules. Using 0.3g BLS BBs the velocity dropped to 98.6m/s - 111.6m/s (323 fps - 366 fps) again around 1.5 Joules on average, and finally 0.4g BLS BBs gave a range of 83.0m/s - 96.1m/s (272.2 fps - 315 fps) again around 1.5J - somewhat odd that I didn’t experience more Joule creep with the reasonably long barrel and heavier ammunition, as I have seen be far more pronounced in the VFC PSG-1 during my testing of it with similar ammunition weights. Nonetheless, a throttle nozzle or NPAS valve would likely be required to make it more compliant for fielding.
The slewing bolt head is what seemed to cause the very first failures or stoppages, and also tends to wreak havoc with any magazines that develop even slightly loose feed lips. As anyone who’s seen the 12th player’s choice awards by Popular Airsoft will have seen, I opened my video segment with a stoppage that saw my entire magazine load of rounds spewing out of the ejection port; the sticking of the bolt gas nozzle causes it to rest right against the rounds in the feed lips at times and facilitate them all flying out loosely at once, or sometimes individually during a firing cycle, which then leads to stoppages and other issues being incurred. The latter caused a pretty messy stoppage at one of my more recent games fielding the L85A2 for this reviewing process, and I ended up having to drop the mag, shake a few loose rounds out, and then rinse and repeat when it still didn’t work properly after I thought I’d cleared it. At least I had plenty of good cover and teammates, and bad language!
Again this is also an issue I’ve encountered in the other WE AR’s and largely a case of keeping an eye on your magazine feed lips and changing them as they wear out. The benefit of the L85A2 at least is that due to its AR18 heritage rather than AR15, it has a boxy stamped sheet steel receiver with plenty of free space around the barrel extension and trunnion, so at least those loose BBs floating around in the bolt carrier’s workspace have some chance of escaping more
benignly down the sides of the barrel instead of being mashed into the trunnion and preventing the bolt closing at all… although I have had them land on the edge of the ejection port and get mashed and lodged there too, somehow.
Similarly, even if that does occur, the receivers aren’t prevented from being disassembled as a result, because the bolt doesn’t have to be fully in battery to clear a buffer tube and allow the receivers to be hinged open ala an AR15; that whole setup does at least make it somewhat easier to clean and maintain in that respect as well as better avoiding those horrendous hard failures that eventually require detail stripping to thoroughly clean the bolt and trunnion faces of all the utterly mashed and pulverised BBs that end up jammed in the small spaces.
Another minor note from the outset is the lack of a functioning manual bolt hold open lever, I’m not sure if it’s just a case that WE didn’t do their research and know what that lever is for, but it was originally spring biased to turn the wrong way and not attached to anything mechanical inside anyway. I had already considered designing a fix myself when thankfully Ben over at TheEnglishKiwi channel sent me his own design files to allow me to 3D print his own solution in the form of an additional arm that attaches around the otherwise non-functioning axle of the manual bolt hold-open lever on the right hand of the receiver, and then kicks up the hold open stopper on the left side, thus allowing you to do the appropriate drills and clear your chamber or otherwise lock the working parts to the rear when required. Of course the integral automatic bolt stop and manual release on the left side were properly replicated so it will lock open on empty and allow you to reload and drop the bolt without reaching over to grab the charging handle again, again it’s essentially only a small detail, but it’s a creature comfort to have it function.
The dust cover is another source of irritation at times, the metal pin it’s mounted upon has a tendency to move too easily within the folded metal retainers at either end, especially under recoil or repeated use, and thus the plastic dust cover itself can get a bit gnarled up or cause stoppages by inhibiting the full and free movement of the bolt, I’m looking at fixing this properly with an S shaped piece of wire that won’t unseat as easily, and there’s really no reason to remove it in the long term anyway so hopefully I can retain it in place properly and maintain the full and proper functionality.
DOWNRANGE
Mounting the ELCAN definitely stretches the legs of the platform, allowing you to clearly see targets out further with the 4x optical magnification, and the familiar single obelisk-like pointy-post indicating your point of aim. At Linkou CQB I did manage to nicely post some long shots through small windows in the killing house style structures and get some eliminations, so it can certainly perform well enough when it functions properly, I did however have to jam the optic all the way to its left extreme of adjustment in order to get the sight picture and post on target, so I’m not sure if the barrel is misaligned or the mounting shoe on the top is, but you might need to use up a lot of your range of adjustment to get the thing zeroed depending on your optic.
Being from a somewhat international team here in Taiwan a few of the other guys like going full Brit battle rattle, and I was fortunate enough to grab some pictures with Barrie and Lu at one of my more recent outings with all three of us sporting L85A2s.
They both have the G&G AEG variants, but for the photo ops it was nice at least to have us all visually matching, and I’m also aware that our friend Well of PAF Airsoft has a personal penchant for Brit Kit among some other players on the island, and he was one of the first to start bringing in such things and meet the
market desires of others; when I first met him on the initial PengHu MilSim I covered for CKM magazine he was decked out in head to toe MTP with a Mk6 on top and his usual mischievous moustached grin to boot!
Whilst there’s clearly a market for impressions and impersonations for the L85A2, regardless of my personal hang ups and history with it, would I recommend the WE GBBR? A new teammate recently asked me that question in fact, as he was contemplating bullpups in general and I told him I haven’t had problems with the other ones such as the P90, F2000, AUG, QBZ97 or Tavor that I’ve owned or used just because they’re bullpups, it’s a case of training and they can have real benefits even in airsoft as this one has proved to me with its increased range and performance, despite the drawbacks of not being able to fully shoulder it left handed.
I was discussing the matter with Scott from Landwarrior as well and he related that he refuses to carry and sell them, and that sometimes people will purchase them by other means, and bring them in to show him, before the inevitable despairing failures that he isn’t obliged to fix having not sold the guns to them. I think it’s difficult to say, personally, I have only seen one other player fielding the WE GBBR version in all my time out here, and to be fair all my WE ARs have similar issues (as do many gas guns in general) but if you are a hardcore enthusiast of both British guns and gear, and GBBR platforms, I wouldn’t dissuade you from purchasing what is actually a very fun gun to run, I begrudgingly admit! But buyer beware of the typical failure points I’ve mentioned, and if you’re relying on a new gun purchase as your first or only GBBR, I’d be inclined to send you somewhere else personally as it really is somewhat of a Marmite Armalite! AA
