Why it matters: Britain destroys its retired L85 rifles instead of selling them, so American collectors have had almost no way to own one. A small US maker now says its semi-automatic SA80 builds are close to shipping, and it has put prices on them.
Murdoch & Co. makes semi-automatic copies of Britain's SA80 rifle family in the United States. The company appeared in a Garand Thumb video published November 8 under the title "They Remade Britain's Most Infamous Rifle." Founder Evan Murdoch is British and now lives in the US. He brought L85A1- and L85A2-pattern rifles to the channel's range, where host Mike shot drills with him and the two went through the design part by part.
Murdoch says the UK Ministry of Defence will never sell its L85s as surplus because retired rifles are destroyed. He says the company worked with the MOD and the Royal Armouries to reproduce the rifle "one-to-one." He also says the rifles are not imports or parts kits and were not built on original tooling. In his account, the company designed and engineered every stamping die "from a blank slate." He calls the stamped body, one of 14 stamped components, the part that took most of the cost and effort.
L85A1, L85A2 and A3 builds: what Murdoch & Co. says it changed
The rifles shown are 5.56mm bullpups with a short-stroke gas piston and a 20-inch barrel. Murdoch says the barrels come from a Pennsylvania supplier. They are made of 4150 CMV steel to the M4 mil-spec and are nitrided rather than chrome-lined. The adjustable gas block has normal, excess and off settings. Some furniture is real military surplus: Murdoch says the company's collector series can take original issue handguards and furniture.
According to Murdoch, both the A1 and A2 versions include all of the roughly 34 changes from the A2 upgrade program that Heckler & Koch led, so either configuration should run reliably. One exception is up to the owner. Murdoch says an original round A1 cocking handle can push spent brass back into the chamber, so "if you put a A1 cocking handle into our rifle, you're going to get that historical jam." The A2 handle pushes brass clear. He says the company has made close to 100 changes of its own in welds and materials. One is a trigger safety made by wire EDM in place of the issue plastic part, which he says could swell and stick. Murdoch also claims the A2 was more reliable than the M4 by about 17,000 rounds in NATO trials, and credits the gas piston system.
One rifle wore a reproduction of the riser mount fielded under a 2008–2010 urgent operational requirement. It carried a Trijicon ACOG with a red dot on top. Murdoch says the company copies the mount one-to-one from originals and calls that setup the rifle's best configuration. He puts the issue L85 trigger pull at 6.3 to 7 pounds.
Garand Thumb range drills with the SA80
On the range the pair ran a Bill Drill, six rounds at seven yards, and a Mozambique drill, two to the chest and one to the head. Times called on camera included Bill Drills of 1.89 and 1.83 seconds with all hits in the A zone, and Mozambique runs of 1.27 and 1.46 seconds. Both shooters then hit steel at about 300 yards and at about 550 yards, by the host's measurement, in a light left-to-right wind with 62-grain ammunition.
The host called the rifle "the smoothest cycling service rifle I've ever had hands on." He said the demonstration was meant to show performance within the normal engagement range of a combat infantry rifle in 5.56mm, not to present the L85 as a precision weapon.
“By Murdoch's account, the rifles Britain retires are destroyed rather than sold, and that is the gap his company was built to fill.”
J.D. Whitfield, The ReticleMurdoch also explained the "karate chop," the habit taught to British soldiers of striking the cocking handle to seat the bolt. He says it began with Gulf War-era A1 rifles that had weak mainsprings. In his account it does not apply to A2-standard rifles or to his own, and the British Army recently dropped it from its manual of arms. He linked that change to a move toward an M4-type rifle. Britain's formal program to replace the SA80, Project Grayburn, is at the concept stage and has not yet chosen a rifle.
Murdoch & Co. SA80 price, lead time and collector series
Murdoch says rifles are ready and will ship once cases and other items arrive. He gives a lead time of nine to 12 months for new orders because each rifle is hand-built, with the upper and lower matched during manufacture. The collector series is limited to 100 rifles that include original Enfield parts, at a base price of $15,000. The A3 configuration, which follows the current British Army rifle and uses Picatinny rail, is quoted at $6,500.
Those prices are higher than the ones reported when the company launched its EM85 line at SHOT Show 2026 in January. At the time, coverage gave $12,000 for the collector series and $4,500 for the base EM85A3.
Murdoch said Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons will be getting the rifles shortly. He described the company's aim as "education and preservation" and said he hopes the rifles will one day be valued as collector and investor pieces.
For context
- The L85 is the standard rifle of Britain's SA80 family, a 5.56mm bullpup that entered British service in the mid-1980s.
- After reliability problems surfaced in the 1991 Gulf War, Heckler & Koch reworked the rifles to the A2 standard, which went on general issue in 2002.
- A later Heckler & Koch upgrade produced the L85A3, and the MOD's Project Grayburn aims to replace the SA80 family around 2030.
- Murdoch & Co. launched its EM85 series of semi-automatic SA80 reproductions at SHOT Show 2026 in January.
