There is a very famous prototype of a left handed/left side eject L85A1 that was made in the early 80s, but these other prototypes are a little less well known.
The A1 shown here was a product of the same time period, around 1983. You only get around a 14″ barrel with the chamber moved forward and a lot of the new ‘stock’ is empty space like on an M16. There was a specific extended recoil rod assembly made to fill the gap, with the actual spring being the same length as the original design.
Mode recentlt in the mid 2010s, the MoD saw the writing was already on the wall for a stamped steel bullpup, so they attempted the same idea again during the L85A3 development process (hence the HKey handguard). This time as you can see the recoil rod and spring was shortened slightly, similarly to modern BRN180s and adapters like the LAW tactical that shorten the working parts/travel in an AR15.
Neither were adopted in the end due to the cost (as is always the case). The standard stamping dies remained in usage.
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