In Britain there is an organisation known as the ACF, which is the Army Cadet Force. The Cadet force itself has a long history and put quite crudely and simply it's a youth club much like scouts however it's Army orientated with weapon training, fieldcrafts, survival skills, combat skills etc...

The ACF itself uses a small selection of weapons, some of which are common place throughout different Companies and there is also a small number that certain Companies have access to and wish to train cadets on. This node is on the the firearm that all cadets use at some point in their training for the simple reason it's the most practical for both the cadets using it and the adults teaching it.

The rifle this node is about is the L98A1 Cadet GP Rifle, which was obvious from the node name. The name itself tells quite a bit of information, such as it's a cadet rifle and it's used for general purposes, hence the GP part. It's a single shot rifle rather than a gun, which is slang often used to refer to all firearms but is actually used to refer to larger automatic weapons like LSWs and GPMGs. The rifle itself is fashioned on the standard issue rifle of the British Army, the SA-80.

The rifle itself is a single shot rifle that uses a bolt action much like the SA-80 except it's manually reloaded and is lacking any gas parts. Another difference is that the cocking handle is on an extension rod rather than the SA-80 which is located directly on the cocking chamber. The caliber of the rounds is 5.56mm and rounds come in 5 variations. Ammunition types are blanks, used for battle maneuver training and simulation. Live or Ball rounds used for when on range practicing aiming and marksmanship principles. Tracer rounds are the rounds often seen in the news during Iraq conflict, these rounds are the ones that leave long sreaks of light and are for directing the rest of a section to a certain target when fire control orders require and/or are inadequate. Drill rounds are simply dummy rounds for training how to load magazines and what to do in the case of a rifle blockage and the final round type is Low Velocity Rounds which are less powerful than live but I myself have never had a first-hand chance at using or seeing one. These rounds often fit into a magazine that can be used with both the the LSW and the L98A1. The magazines hold a maximum of 30 rounds however for best performance in a magazine we use 28 rounds to prevent any error from the magazine spring.

The L98A1 is fitted with a choice of two sights, Iron sights and 'SUSAT' sights. In my time in the cadet force I've only ever used an iron sight because funding is cheap and they can't afford SUSATs and cadets tend to be clumsy and will break this piece of fairly fragile equipment...The choice is only in the rear sight because the front sight is always an iron blade fitted on the top of the stock that houses the barrel. Iron sights can be flipped up and down for 'night sights' and 'range sights'. The night sight is a small hole that is roughly accurate for 0-300m however the range sight is vaiable that is accuarate at 100-500m with the variable being every 100m. SUSAT sights are far more accurate and look much like the scope on that on a sniper rifle. The SUSAT sight consists of two lens fitted on to a spring adjustable base where the iron-sight would normally be.

The rifle itself is not too large and is suitable for cadets because it isn't too long like a 'No.8 .22' nor is it too heavy and it doesn't respond with too much recoil after being fired. The rifle weighs appproximately 4kg when unloaded and with a optimumly full magazine of 28 it weighs approximately an extra 1kg heavier. The rifle is approximately 78cm long which makes it ideal for rifle drills, especially with the shorter cadets trying to 'present arms'.

It's also been said that the rifles we use are actually army war reserves because all of our LSWs are in Iraq and it's apparently possible for an upgrade kit to fit gas parts and other such items to convert the rifle to a fully working standard British army rifle.

I was just informed of a 6th round type, armour piercing which is rather self-explanatory. It has a blue tip but I wasn't really planning in going too deep about round types, that's a different node for later ;).