A small business based near Portsmouth makes one of the most stunningly accurate sniper rifles in the world and it all began in its co-founder’s garage
Snipers aim to remain unseen but one made headlines last month when he killed six Taliban in Afghanistan with a single shot , by hitting the trigger of a suicide bomb.
The near 1,000-yard shot the British soldier took was made using an L115A3 rifle produced by Accuracy International (AI), a small company based on the outskirts of Portsmouth.
This feat is just one of many achieved by troops armed with AI products. The world record of 2,710 yards more than a mile and a half is held by Corporal of Horse Craig Harrison, of the Household Cavalry.
Shooting at a Taliban machine-gun position that was attacking an Afghan army patrol, it took Harrison’s bullet nearly three seconds to hit its target a shot he then repeated twice more.
That AI can produce rifles capable of such precision is incredible in itself. That the company which makes the weapon of choice for Britain’s elite marksmen and special forces started out in the garage of one of its founders is perhaps even more remarkable.
Sniper rifles are manufactured and assembled at Accuracy International in Portsmouth Photo: Christopher Pledger
Dave Walls was a young toolmaker with a passion for competitive target shooting that saw him represent England at the sport. In the 1970s, he and fellow shooter Dave Caig, who shot for Scotland, used their engineering skills along with the lathes and milling machines at Walls’ workplace to make a pair of replicas of 19th century Colt revolvers.
The quality was so good that a historic weapons expert was able to identify them as replicas only because of one tiny detail.
“I was doing little jobs for shooting club friends in my lunch break for a drink,” said Walls. “Eventually, I had to start charging and I soon worked out I was earning more from them than from my real job.”
This side job turned into C&W Products, run out out of Walls’ garage but only because it was bigger than Caig’s. “When I left my job as a toolmaker, the boss said I would never make any money out of it,” said Walls. His former employer has long since closed and Walls is now a director and owner of an international business with a turnover of £14m and more than 70 staff.
C&W would go on to develop into AI after Walls and Caig met Malcolm Cooper, another competitive shooter who later won back-to-back gold medals in shooting at the Los Angeles and Seoul Olympics.
Impressed by their abilities, Cooper said the pair had the potential to build a rifle.
“I told him that we’d already designed one,” said Walls. “Cooper went out and shot a world record with it, and that’s when the military got interested.”
The business was still operating out of Walls’s garage when the Special Boat Service bought eight rifles in 1985. The Special Air Service was also impressed, placing an order four times as large a few months later.
Shortly after, the business entered its newest weapon design into a competition to replace the British Army’s long-serving Lee-Enfield sniper rifle. The company didn’t expect to win but, having incorporated improvements suggested by British special forces, hoped to gain valuable feedback.
To its surprise, the new L96A1 nicknamed the “Green Meanie” by troops won and the MoD ordered 1,000 of them.
With business taking off, Walls, Caig, Cooper and his wife Sarah, and Martin Kay became directors to form Accuracy International. “The 'International’ was because we had represented different countries at shooting,” said Walls.
Demand exceeded the capacity of Walls’s garage and AI first tried subcontracting but soon brought production in-house, establishing a base near Portsmouth and buying computer-controlled machinery to fashion the intricate parts.
AI’s reputation soon spread beyond the UK and the company began to receive international orders from military, law enforcement and shooting enthusiasts. Driven by user feedback, the company continued to refine and develop its products along with its reputation.
In 1999, the directors sold the majority of the company to investment group 3i, but while AI’s products were always on target, the business model wasn’t and in 2005 the company ran into financial difficulties as it struggled to pay loans, outsourcing and costs ran out of control.As the business went into insolvency on February 18, aerospace engineer Tom Irwin stepped in.
Originally from Belfast, dual US-UK citizen Irwin had been contracting for AI in international sales since 2000. He worked with Walls, Caig, financial director Paul Bagshaw and other investors and within days they had secured the backing to buy the company out of administration, with the deal taking place on April 29.
“AI was closed for 10 weeks,” said Irwin. “At that point it had four owners, four directors, seven employees and two machines.”
Irwin’s engineering background and knowledge of “Six Sigma” management techniques designed to eliminate imperfections and inefficiency turned the company around, allowing the preferred shareholders to be bought out within four years and winning a Queen’s Award for exporting along the way. Last year, the company sold 1,400 rifles, which start at £2,500 for the base model. Based on the price of the rifle, 66pc is manufactured in-house, with the remainder accounting for components such as the barrel and telescopic sights.
Before getting involved with AI, the closest Irwin had got to a speeding bullet was in his former career working on Concorde, which famously flew faster than a bullet.
“It’s one thing knowing how to shoot a sniper rifle, it’s another knowing how to manufacture one,” he said. “I’d never touched a gun before 2000.”
The reason that AI’s rifles - designed in-house by an eight-strong team led by Walls are so highly rated by the military is the “three Bs”: bullets, barrels and bedding. The first AI doesn’t manufacture, the second it buys in and meticulously inspects to make sure that only the very best form part of its products. The final B is where AI comes into its own, producing the stable bed the rifle is constructed around to ensure accuracy. Walls believes his ultra-rigid design contributes to accuracy.
AI conceives its guns as sniper rifles from the outset, rather than converting existing hunting models, making its products particularly “squaddie-proof”.
“We build for a military application, meaning it’s rugged and easy to maintain with the minimum of special tools,” said Irwin.
AI uses the slogan “the best sniper rifle in the world” and it’s a well-earned one, said Irwin. “We did not just come up with it. Real (Xetra: RQX.DE - news) users in the forces said it, so I thought we should. How many other British companies can say they make such a world-class product?”
Walls added that AI’s long links with the military mean that the company gains insight and adapts to soldiers’ needs, such as enabling the magazine to be pushed into place from an angle, meaning snipers do not have to lift the weapon off-target to reload.
“We need to be the very best at what we do,” said Walls. “Lives depend on our products. The last thing I want is to make something that is not up to the job. I couldn’t live with myself. That’s why we spend more on research than some companies make in profit.”
The end use of products made by AI, which has to gain a government export licence for every foreign sale, isn’t lost on Walls.
“It’s a tool in the hands of someone with the skills to use it, under the instruction of their government,” he said. “My background is target shooting and I want to put a round down a range as accurately as possible. I try not to be political.”
Whether its rifles are tools or not, AI makes some of the world’s finest examples.
Snipers aim to remain unseen but one made headlines last month when he killed six Taliban in Afghanistan with a single shot , by hitting the trigger of a suicide bomb.
The near 1,000-yard shot the British soldier took was made using an L115A3 rifle produced by Accuracy International (AI), a small company based on the outskirts of Portsmouth.
This feat is just one of many achieved by troops armed with AI products. The world record of 2,710 yards more than a mile and a half is held by Corporal of Horse Craig Harrison, of the Household Cavalry.
Shooting at a Taliban machine-gun position that was attacking an Afghan army patrol, it took Harrison’s bullet nearly three seconds to hit its target a shot he then repeated twice more.
That AI can produce rifles capable of such precision is incredible in itself. That the company which makes the weapon of choice for Britain’s elite marksmen and special forces started out in the garage of one of its founders is perhaps even more remarkable.
Sniper rifles are manufactured and assembled at Accuracy International in Portsmouth Photo: Christopher Pledger
Dave Walls was a young toolmaker with a passion for competitive target shooting that saw him represent England at the sport. In the 1970s, he and fellow shooter Dave Caig, who shot for Scotland, used their engineering skills along with the lathes and milling machines at Walls’ workplace to make a pair of replicas of 19th century Colt revolvers.
The quality was so good that a historic weapons expert was able to identify them as replicas only because of one tiny detail.
“I was doing little jobs for shooting club friends in my lunch break for a drink,” said Walls. “Eventually, I had to start charging and I soon worked out I was earning more from them than from my real job.”
This side job turned into C&W Products, run out out of Walls’ garage but only because it was bigger than Caig’s. “When I left my job as a toolmaker, the boss said I would never make any money out of it,” said Walls. His former employer has long since closed and Walls is now a director and owner of an international business with a turnover of £14m and more than 70 staff.
C&W would go on to develop into AI after Walls and Caig met Malcolm Cooper, another competitive shooter who later won back-to-back gold medals in shooting at the Los Angeles and Seoul Olympics.
Impressed by their abilities, Cooper said the pair had the potential to build a rifle.
“I told him that we’d already designed one,” said Walls. “Cooper went out and shot a world record with it, and that’s when the military got interested.”
The business was still operating out of Walls’s garage when the Special Boat Service bought eight rifles in 1985. The Special Air Service was also impressed, placing an order four times as large a few months later.
Shortly after, the business entered its newest weapon design into a competition to replace the British Army’s long-serving Lee-Enfield sniper rifle. The company didn’t expect to win but, having incorporated improvements suggested by British special forces, hoped to gain valuable feedback.
To its surprise, the new L96A1 nicknamed the “Green Meanie” by troops won and the MoD ordered 1,000 of them.
With business taking off, Walls, Caig, Cooper and his wife Sarah, and Martin Kay became directors to form Accuracy International. “The 'International’ was because we had represented different countries at shooting,” said Walls.
Demand exceeded the capacity of Walls’s garage and AI first tried subcontracting but soon brought production in-house, establishing a base near Portsmouth and buying computer-controlled machinery to fashion the intricate parts.
AI’s reputation soon spread beyond the UK and the company began to receive international orders from military, law enforcement and shooting enthusiasts. Driven by user feedback, the company continued to refine and develop its products along with its reputation.
In 1999, the directors sold the majority of the company to investment group 3i, but while AI’s products were always on target, the business model wasn’t and in 2005 the company ran into financial difficulties as it struggled to pay loans, outsourcing and costs ran out of control.As the business went into insolvency on February 18, aerospace engineer Tom Irwin stepped in.
Originally from Belfast, dual US-UK citizen Irwin had been contracting for AI in international sales since 2000. He worked with Walls, Caig, financial director Paul Bagshaw and other investors and within days they had secured the backing to buy the company out of administration, with the deal taking place on April 29.
“AI was closed for 10 weeks,” said Irwin. “At that point it had four owners, four directors, seven employees and two machines.”
Irwin’s engineering background and knowledge of “Six Sigma” management techniques designed to eliminate imperfections and inefficiency turned the company around, allowing the preferred shareholders to be bought out within four years and winning a Queen’s Award for exporting along the way. Last year, the company sold 1,400 rifles, which start at £2,500 for the base model. Based on the price of the rifle, 66pc is manufactured in-house, with the remainder accounting for components such as the barrel and telescopic sights.
Before getting involved with AI, the closest Irwin had got to a speeding bullet was in his former career working on Concorde, which famously flew faster than a bullet.
“It’s one thing knowing how to shoot a sniper rifle, it’s another knowing how to manufacture one,” he said. “I’d never touched a gun before 2000.”
The reason that AI’s rifles - designed in-house by an eight-strong team led by Walls are so highly rated by the military is the “three Bs”: bullets, barrels and bedding. The first AI doesn’t manufacture, the second it buys in and meticulously inspects to make sure that only the very best form part of its products. The final B is where AI comes into its own, producing the stable bed the rifle is constructed around to ensure accuracy. Walls believes his ultra-rigid design contributes to accuracy.
AI conceives its guns as sniper rifles from the outset, rather than converting existing hunting models, making its products particularly “squaddie-proof”.
“We build for a military application, meaning it’s rugged and easy to maintain with the minimum of special tools,” said Irwin.
AI uses the slogan “the best sniper rifle in the world” and it’s a well-earned one, said Irwin. “We did not just come up with it. Real (Xetra: RQX.DE - news) users in the forces said it, so I thought we should. How many other British companies can say they make such a world-class product?”
Walls added that AI’s long links with the military mean that the company gains insight and adapts to soldiers’ needs, such as enabling the magazine to be pushed into place from an angle, meaning snipers do not have to lift the weapon off-target to reload.
“We need to be the very best at what we do,” said Walls. “Lives depend on our products. The last thing I want is to make something that is not up to the job. I couldn’t live with myself. That’s why we spend more on research than some companies make in profit.”
The end use of products made by AI, which has to gain a government export licence for every foreign sale, isn’t lost on Walls.
“It’s a tool in the hands of someone with the skills to use it, under the instruction of their government,” he said. “My background is target shooting and I want to put a round down a range as accurately as possible. I try not to be political.”
Whether its rifles are tools or not, AI makes some of the world’s finest examples.
