BSA & Parker-Hale 5.56mm Prototype/Trials Experimental GP Cadet Rifles
See also: ......The finally selected 5.56mm Cadet rifle ......The L81A2 7.62mm Cadet Target Rifle......
The first illustrated of these rifles have been catalogued as 'Cadet GP' -
- 'Infantry' and 'Match' models in the Shrivenham Small Arms Collection.
Examples are also to be found in the National Firearms Collection at Leeds Royal Armouries.
We have acquired further imagery, and a considerable amount of documentation relating to the trials, during 1985,
of these rifles in competition with a submission from Interarms,
another of a Ruger rifle submitted by Holland & Holland,
and the finally successful rifle submitted by the Royal Small Arms Factory.
The latter rifle was, of course, the straight-pull magazine-fed version of the contemporarily introduced L85A1 infantry weapon,
better known as the SA80 in its A1 initial issue form.
This new training version became the Enfield GP Cadet Rifle - the L98A1 and the later L98A2,
the former being a magazine-fed, straight-pull action rifle that required the bolt cocking-handle to be cycled to reload for each shot.
The .22 rimfire training rifle at the time was still the Lee-Enfield Rifle No.8, introduced in 1948.
That rifle has only recently been replaced by the L144A1 Cadet Small Bore Target Rifle.
Click each image for a higher resolution view.
These photographs are shown by courtesy of the M.O.D. Defence Academy - Shrivenham.
Now identified as
THE BSA SUBMISSION for the CADET GP RIFLE TRIALS of 1985
The manufacturer of the Shrivenham Collection example was not there so noted,
but the rifle is described, possibly just in their own cataloguing, only as the "Cadet GP Infantry Rifle"
As indicated in the Ease of Maintenance Report available further down this page,
the furniture of this rifle was wood, painted with a scratch resistant green compound.
Close inspection of that furniture shows evidence of dents typical of those found on any
wooden stocked rifle that has been put through its paces.
The magazine used with the BSA trials submission was that of an Armalite AR-180,
a 20 round slightly curved unit, probably made by the Sterling Armaments Company,
who were then building Ar18 and AR-180 rifles under license.
Interestingly, an escapee from the military examples has recently come to light
in the civilian world*, and it is similarly fitted with the green paint finished wooden furniture.
This rifle is identifiable as a BSA product by the Piled Arms motif
stamped on the small cover-plate above the magazine release lever on the left-hand-side.
This identification is missing from the Shrivenham trials rifle,
presumably because those rifles in the trials were required to have
no manufacturer identification that may have affected selection due to
favouritism for a particular company by any personnel responsible for the trials.
_______________________________
And next below, now identified as
THE PARKER-HALE SUBMISSION for the CADET GP RIFLE TRIALS of 1985.
The manufacturer of the Shrivenham Collection example is also not so recorded, but the rifle is described,
again possibly just in their own cataloguing, as the "Cadet GP Match Rifle" .
These two descriptions are very likely a conflation of the two rifles' known purpose as cadet rifles,
the lack of any other identification on each, and their respective appearances
and may reasonably have led to the Parker-Hale model being taken as a target rifle,
and the BSA model as a service or infantry rifle.
Ironically, the forward-locking lugs of the BSA would likely result in its greater accuracy
over the Parker-Hale's rear-locking arrangement.
These aspects can be seen further down the page.
The Parker-Hale submission was built upon a composite stock.
This was a relatively complicated moulding, and would have been an expensive item to produce,
especially in the small numbers required for these trials rifles.
Those rifles submitted for the trials are shown in the image below, included in the following document.
Top to bottom: Enfield Weapon System Cadet; Ruger Mini 14; Parker-Hale Cadet; BSA Cadet; Heckler and Koch; Inter Arms
We are able, by virtue of being granted access to the archives of the Royal Armouries, to show the
COPYRIGHTED "Ease of Maintenance Report " resulting from the 1985 trials
of the final three proposals of the original six submitted rifles.
Apart from the BSA and Parker-Hale rifles illustrated on this page,
the third remaining rifle at that point in the trials was the RSAF Enfield Cadet Rifle.
Careful perusal of this document will afford all you could wish to know of these rifles.
The sizeable report can be viewed as a text-searchable flip-page document
or with vertical scrolling by clicking the portrait icon.
With a good number of pages it may take a few moments to load.
Double tap tablet or clickfor full page display.
Below are a two of further images of the BSA Cadet rifle submission to the 1985 trials.
The label inside the trigger-guard, presumably a Shrivenham catalogue number, is " B2 . 15 "
It can be seen that there is a safety catch lever on each side of the rifle, evidencing the fact that it had been specified that the submitted rifle should be ambidextrous.
This of course meant that the bolt handles should be capable of being switched from one side to the other, a facility provided years earlier by M.J. Jurek (of Webley semi-automatic pistol fame) with some of his bolt-action "Jurek" .22LR target rifles.
Just about visible in the above image, the number "4" is electro-pencilled on the darker forward section of the bolt body, suggesting that the rifle is serial number four of those prototyped.
And the following images, are of the Parker-Hale submission, with its magazine in place.
The part label under the fore-end below shows the number " 599 ".
Below: the fore-ends and fore-sights of the two rifles compared.
The Parker-Hale, with shorter fore-end is at the top;
and the BSA GP Cadet rifle, with longer fore-end, at the bottom.
The following images of the Parker-Hale rifle are by courtesy of the Trustees of the Royal Armouries National Firearms Collection,
and are joint copyright with www.rifleman.org.uk
This rifle's serial number is "CGP 0001"
Below: the unusual multi-lug rear-locking arrangement can be clearly seen.
The rear-sight's adjusting knob is the only component that shows its Parker-Hale heritage.
It has been suggested that the final selection choice of the L98A1 (SA80 derived) rifle,
eventuallly known as the Enfield GP Cadet rifle L98A1, was down to a 50 pence difference in price
between it and the nearest contender; but, regardless of the correctness of the price difference reasoning,
the Ease of Maintenance report makes it clear that the 90% commonality of parts with the
issue service rifle was the most important factor,
along with the reduced need for the training of armourers with a completely newly introduced rifle,
the simplicity of adding only a small section to the existing maintenance manual,
and the fact that the SA80 Equipment Table Schedule would only need to be extended
to cater for the new Cadet version of the rifle.
* The Youtube video of the civilian owned example of the BSA trials rifle can be seen HERE
