Definitely an "other" assault rifle

General Firearms Other Semi-Automatic Rifles
1

Came across an odd duck, so had to have it. Very modern, esp considering early 80’s production, in the sense of optic rail and charging handle location.

Leader Dynamics T2 MK5, Aussie produced

A modicum of history can be found: Leader Dynamics Series T2 MK5 - Wikipedia

Of note:

  • has a folded steel low profile rail atop, no slots, maybe weaver? I was able to tighten a T-1 onto it.
  • charging handle is very well placed, non reciprocating, ergonomically correct
  • bolt looks very durable as compared to AR’s
  • rear sight has a unique, to me, aperture arrangement
  • hand-guards more rigidly attached and not attached on recoil guide rails as an AR18
  • no bolt lock back feature. bolt will hang on a magpul mag follower ala AK Yugo “bolt hold” Magazine. but not on era black follower magazines
  • recoil springs more substantial than AR180, sample of one, I have.
  • trigger nice single stage, chunkier AR type in construction

I have not fired this thing yet, more to follow. When take it out, will compare recoil characteristics to rest of stable.

2

That’s very interesting. I didn’t even know Australia had an arms industry except for the one government factory.

3

Wow. Keep us updated and get some better pics up! Nice find.

4

Gas system ala AR18 / HK416

and rail

Yeah, phone pics kinda weak… but it’s handy

5

If memory serves, I recall seeing on or two of these for sale on Sturmgewher.com several years ago.

Cheers

6

I remember Chuck Taylor writing articles on those back in the 80’s.

I’ve handled them, but never shot them.

Very cool find.

7

I remember those.

8

Taylor was very negative about it. In one publication, he recounted that the distributor provided him four or five replacements to try to find at least one that would work. All of them failed.

9

I haven’t seen a T2 Leader in years! They used to show up in gun magazines and publications like shotgun news back in the 80’s. I too remember that most reviewers didn’t like the little rifle. Seems the charging handle was a weak point(?). At any rate, it is a good blast from the past.
Tog

10

I remember at least one of those writeups. He hated it, felt it was poorly made. The stamped metal handle was a turnoff for him, but if it works, who cares? The one thing that would have been a deal-breaker for me was the magazine would insert too far in, blocking the bolt.

11

??? charging handle on this thing made polymer overmold ala HK G3

there is a rod that inserts into the front of the bolt carrier and is easily removed, crafty

Chuck Taylor? 80’s… who?

12

Chuck Taylor - the first guy to ever REALLY torture a Glock pistol. He put like 100,000 round through a Gen2 that he still carries. It has around 250,000 through it today.

13

I had the Leader on my buy list for a long time as a sample of the design. It had several feature that seemed well ahead of their time. As I recall one of the comments I dug up was about some sort of buffer on the back of the bolt. Supposedly the user had the buffer, ala shock buff, disinagrate when he was using it. IF it has such a thing I’d look it over for signs of rot.

14

Good price, I hope?

15

Galen D. Taylor is an former US Army Ranger and Vietnam Vet. He was the Operations Manager at Gunsite during the early API days. He was a columnist for “Solider of Fortune” magazine, and then became the editor of “SWAT” magazine when it was launched. After he got booted from “SWAT”, Taylor had an ugly habit of recycling the same magazine articles from publication to publication, sometimes even the same publication albeit years apart. He started to push out new material after he was hired at “Front Sight” in the 1990s, but these also fell through.

16

Wow, rare bird indeed. Thanks for sharing. . .

17

In 1991 I almost purchased a pistol version called “Australian Arms SAP”, which was featured on the cover of one of the gun or survival mags of that era. Gun shop wanted over $1000 to order one. They had something else in stock for $975 that I’d never seen before, a 9mm SP89. I bought the HK instead. Glad I did, as time went by I learned replacement parts for the SAP were non-existant.

I looked up photos of the SAP, and the receiver, gas block, furniture all are virtually identical to your longer Leader.