I decided to ask a respected peer with military service experience with the AW, asking what he thought of the need for spare parts: "Nope, and my AI AW has about 35,000 rounds on it."
I could maybe see keeping a spare firing pin around, just for good measure. But after all I've seen of how AIs are built, and the tighter tolerances that exist today verses yester year, I am impressed with the robustness and capability of any of these rifles, and cannot see the need to stock up on spare parts unless its from the user's abuse.
For the record, when I asked the Irish Military Snipers about their AI96 Arctic Warfares, they confirmed that their rifles were all original... every last part, right down to the barrel, bolt and firing pin, all from 1993. That's 31 years of use and abuse; that's 31 years of fieldcraft on these rifles as well.
All photos are from the 2024 International Sniper Competition, and showcase real world military use of the AW [Original Content].
Conclusion being, if military snipers can run their AWs in 7.62/.308 with original stainless steel 1:12 4R barrels without a single destructive failure since 1993, I'm pretty the rest of us who are running our rifles on any given Sunday for recreational or competition use are going to be just fine, right down to the original firing pin.
Enjoy the photos... they're the best high resolution and detailed photos I have of AWs in current military use.
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