How good are the L85A2 and L85A3 vs the A1?
In looks, almost nothing. In
how the rifle works, they're identical.
From a user perspective, the A1 and A2 are totally different weapons.
Basically the A1 is considered the worst mass produced 'battle rifle' ever introduced into a mainstream western army and you've all seen the reviews and horror stories.
I've fired all 3 versions, the A1 and A2 in particular and I'll say this.
H&K had to replace 95% of the parts outright to make the rifle work properly. I heard somewhere the only thing they didn't bin was the furniture for the upper and lower receivers.
Everything else had to be made stronger. Some things had to be changed completely (like the cocking handle shape).
I'll use a personal example. When I was in training in 2003, the A2 had not long been introduced and the recruit schools were still using A1s.
Every time we went to the ranges, one broke. Be it firing pins, extractors, ejectors, or one occasion the gas plug failed and fired forwards out of the block. Stoppages were so common they were routine, especially when firing blank. Failures happened so often that you were expected to carry spares and taught to replace parts.
The last time I fired it was the back end of that year, December time. The final thing you do at depot is the live platoon attack at a place called quickening cote in Otterburn.
Inside of 2 hours, every single rifle in my section was broken. I'm not exaggerating either. All of them. And we weren't even using them hard because of how the range works.
The only things that were working was the GPMGs, cos you can't break a GPMG unless you're a dick to it.
I got to my unit in the march of 04 and they'd had the A2s in for a few months or so.
Since then (and I'm talking over 16 years now), I've never seen or heard of one breaking unless it's been dropped.
Personally, I've never had a decent stoppage (by decent, i mean something more than an empty magazine or minor obstruction) with an A2 and (as long as you don't abuse it) will work first time, every time.
It's a perfectly accurate (600m on man sized targets isn't a claim, it's quite easily achieved), and reliable weapon, even if it does weigh more than a moon
before you add a grip, torch, laser module, UGL with fire control computer, suppressor and a pear tree to the front of it.
And it's anti-leftie unless you know what you're doing with it.