The L85 - The biggest piece of crap

Many people know that the M16 got off to a bad start, it was deemed a piece of junk out of the box, (some called it the Mattel 16, because of its plastic design) but some bad decisions on implementing the rifle and its cartridge were mostly to blame, and nowadays, the M16/M4 are weapons soldiers can work with and it is accurate and deadly. But it has had that stigma ever since. But I have heard of another with a far, far worse track record. (read Part 2)

The L85 - The biggest piece of crap (2)

As an example, back in World War I, when the Americans joined the fight, many had to use the French Chauchat machine gun. If you sneezed on it, it would jam. It's biggest problem was jammed spent shells. Interesting in idea since it would allow you to walk out there with machine gun power without being stationary, but you would be fumbling with it to get it to fire before you would go one step. It had a half moon magazine with a slot in the middle to see the capacity, but it would pick up dirt. And using the 8mm Lebel cartridge, it was a massively necked down cartridge and so the magazine spring could not distribute the tension. Monster piece of junk it was.

The L85 - The biggest piece of crap (3)

Well, maybe it's not that bad, but the British L85 bullpup assault rifle requires babying it, otherwise you'll dent the reciever and it will not function well. The plastic parts get brittle and break. It works well enough, but there seems to be plenty of fuss time. It does have the benefit of a built in holo-sight, and soldiers seem to make very accurate shots with it. But it has gone through many modifications to get it better, and the British turned down an offer to go to the H&K G36. So remember, and you can look this up, but overall, the L85 is probably the biggest piece of crap, though the newer A2 version seems to be holding its own.