PMCI - July 2016

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pmcimagazine.com ACCURACY INTERNATIONAL THE BEST SNIPER RIFLE IN THE WORLD At <strong>PMCI</strong> all of try to make time to get out and meet with some fabulous people who in themselves are leaders within the tactical industry, and recently Nige took the opportunity to make a rare visit to this record-holding arms manufacturer, based near Portsmouth. As the owner of Calibre Publishing and <strong>PMCI</strong> my days are pretty full-on but every so often something happens that really grabs my attention and, on this occasion, it was a phone call from an industry colleague; when I recognised the number showing on my phone, of course I stopped what I was doing to answer it, and boy am I glad I did! I won’t bore you with the details of the call but when I was asked; “Nigel, we would like to invite you to accompany us on a visit to Accuracy International on the 3rd of May, would you like to come?” my metaphorical hand was in the air in less than a nanosecond! I just hoped that they didn’t notice the excitement in my voice as I answered in the affirmative. 40 ACCURACY INTERNATIONAL Believe it or not, the company that was to go on to produce the best sniper rifle in the world started when shooting buddies, Dave Walls and David Caig, decided to see if they could make working replicas of two 19th century Colt pistols by using just photographs for reference. To say that they were “good” would be a massive understatement, so much so that a Colt revolver expert later told them “If you built these from just pictures, you should be in the business of making guns!” In fact, it was only when the expert noticed a notch (used for
mounting an optional shoulder stock) was missing from the right hand side of one of the guns, that “the Daves” had to ‘fess up and admit that they were not original but had been manufactured by them in their spare time, using machines where they worked. Dave and David were not only co-workers but also extremely proficient target shooters at the same club and both had represented their individual countries (David Caig being Scottish) at international level. Together they repaired and tuned the club’s rifles and pistols and subsequently created “C&W Products” to cope with the business (working out of Dave’s garden shed), however, it wasn’t long until the pair turned their attention to target rifles and set about designing their own “long”. It was about this time that they met Malcolm Cooper, who was later to become a World Champion and Olympic Champion (twice!). When shown the replica pistols, Malcolm was so impressed he commented that they obviously had the skills to design their own rifle. “But we have already done that” was the reply and this lead to Malcolm using a C&W rifle in the 1978 World Championship in Seoul, where he came away with a Silver Medal. 1978 was also the year that Accuracy international was established and by 1981 they had designed their third prototype rifle, which already carried features that would typify future designs, including their “signature” thumbhole stock. Until this time, most “sniper” rifles were actually modified (yet somewhat dated) military bolt-actions or hunting rifles that had been customised for use in the sniping role but, based upon their experience with target shooting rifles and taking input from actual snipers, AI designed a rifle specifically for the role. The first customer for the “Precision Marksman” rifle was none other than the Special Boat Service (SBS) who, following a successful evaluation in 1984, acquired 8 rifles the following year. This was closely followed by the SAS, who purchased 32 of the same rifle later that year. Feedback from both the SBS and SAS was instrumental in refining the rifle further and, as a result of the rifle’s colour and its ability to deliver first round hits on target, it quickly became known as “The Green Meanie”. It was not long after this that Malcolm Cooper learnt that there was to be a competition to find a replacement for the (now past its prime) L42A1 sniper rifle, which had been in service since 1970. Malcolm’s reputation as a target shooter was such that it resulted in an invitation from the MoD to submit a proposal based on AI’s 7.62mm target rifle, and the now-famous L96A1 was born. In 1985 it was announced that the AI PM rifle had defeated the Parker Hale Model 85, the H&K PSG-1, the SIG Sauer SSG 2000 and the Remington 700 to become the standard sniper rifle for the British Army and, on the 11th March 1985, Accuracy International received and contract to supply 1,212 rifles. Clearly the garden shed would no longer be a suitable place to manufacture the rifles, so after a false start when they sub-contracted the work, CNC machines were acquired along with a facility in Portsmouth and production of the L96A1 contract continued until 1992. The reputation of the L96A1 grew rapidly and, in response to an enquiry from Swedish armed forces, the L96 was adapted to operate with equal reliability in cold environments and given the designation “AW”, standing for “Arctic Warfare”. In 1991 the modified design (AW308) resulted in an order of 1,100 rifles from Sweden and, under the designation L118A1, has subsequently been taken into use by over 60 military and law enforcement agencies. Further development saw numerous configurations being developed, including being chambered for .338 Lapua Magnum and .300 Win.Mag (a variant of which was purchased by the German BWB as the G22 and which was also the first AI rifle to feature David Caig’s folding stock design). Success followed success until 1999, when 90% of Accuracy International was sold to an investment group, saddling the company with an unsustainable debt load and by 2004 AI was is serious financial difficulty. In February 2005, having failed to recapitalise the business, the company started to sell off its assets and by the 18th of that month, all employees had been laid off and AI had ceased all operations… but that was not the end of Accuracy International. ACCURACY INTERNATIONAL pmcimagazine.com
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Page 16 and 17: pmcimagazine.com GEAR ON TEST 16 HA
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PMCI - July 2016

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