Parker Hale M85

The Parker Hale Model 85, a highly rated sniper rifle, has had an interesting as well as a sort of controversial history as far as its development goes. It was developed as a consequence of the Falkland war of 1982 between Britain and Argentina. During the war, the deficiencies of the British sniper system of the time namely the Enfield Enforcer L42A1 became glaringly obvious. British snipers on the islands were pitted against Argentine snipers equipped with latest American and Western sniper systems. The encounters started to get increasingly devastating for the British even though they were better disciplined and trained and the only effective counter against the enemy snipers were anti tank weapons.

It was at this time that the UK began looking for specialist sniping systems and invited bids for competition. Of the various bids received by the UK military, only the Parker Hale and Accuracy International made the shortlist. The requirement of the UK military that made it necessary for such a rifle to have a 10 round detachable magazine, could only be met by the PH M85 and AI PM. The Parker Hale M85 had much going for it. It was already in use by the Australian and Canadian Military and besides the company itself had a great reputation for accuracy and performance. Despite this the Parker Hale lost out to AI in what many consider to be a controversial decision, during the trails that were held at the School of Infantry at Warminster.

The Parker Hale M 85, manufactured by Parker Hale Ltd of UK, itself is a highly rated sniper rifle. It has a high degree of accuracy in an effective range of 900 meters with a guaranteed first round hit capability up to 600 meters and 85 % first round hit capability up to 900 meters.

Apart from being an extremely accurate weapon, the PH M 85 is also aesthetically well designed, coming in an assortment of colors including camouflage patterns. The overall length of 45.3 inches is slightly adjustable due to the fact that it is fitted with butt spacers. The weapon boasts of an impressive quick detachable bipod and an integral dovetail mount on which various kinds of sights and scopes can be fitted. Though a standard M85 comes with a 6 x 42 mm Schmidt & Bender scope with a BDC from 200 - 900 meters and can accept a variety of other scopes, it comes with emergency fold down iron sights adjustable for elevation. It also has post front sights adjustable for windage. The M 85 has a barrel length of 24.5 inches with palm stop for rails and the muzzle is threaded for flash suppressor. The stock is McMillan fiberglass. It has a silent safety catch ideal for sniper duty. The PH M 85 uses 7.62 mm NATO (.308 Win) ammunition from a 10 shot detachable magazine.

The Parker Hale Ltd company has stopped production of this rifle and indeed got out of the rifle making business altogether. But the Sabre Defense industries UK has the equipment and technical know-how and now proposes to start producing these rifles once again. Until then the M 85 is available in the used rifle market.