Very early BSA L1A1 lower ..

[mrclark303]

So, in MY View. If you HAVE to Deactivate a Firearm. Even THAT process SHOULD be approached with a View to neatness & visual appeal when completed. Even the act of decomisioning should be executed with a view to doing a professional Job. Or am I wrong here?...........

Morning Mike,

Absolutely right, the fact that an L1A1, left its main employment with a wholesale value of about £25 and joined the collectors market with a value today of £1,500+ shows the reason for careful and sensitive deactivation!
Quality of workmanship differs widely, from proper craftsmanship like Mikes work, to what looks like sheer vandalism!

The worst example I have seen was a very rough 1989 deactivated L1A1, the barrel had been cut in random manner with a grinder ... they obviously then got bored with grinding and attacked it with an an oxyacetylene cutter !
Even better, they deactivated the receiver by hammering/pulverising/grinding off the ejector arm and mig welding (very badly) the ejector block in place, the magazine wouldn't even fit correctly after this assault !!
VERY SLICK WORK!!
It was a real bloody mess and it took some extensive remedial work to cosmetically restore that rifle, but it was an all matching Enfield example, worth persevering with, once the "damage" had been repaired, the rifle re-painted and a set of restored woodwork had been fitted it looked great.

---------- Post added at 12:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:33 PM ----------

There were quite a few de-act L1A1s like this (but not quite that bad ) at Stoneleigh last Sunday. Really sad, as John says, all welded up, no bolt carrier etc. But there was one very nice old spec FAL G1. I'd not seen one 'in the flesh', the quality was stunning. Dare I say it, somewhat better than the L1A1s made by BSA? Unfortunately I didn't have the £1000 the dealer was asking (luckily says my wife!).

Hi Charlie,

Those G1's are very nicely built and finished Fals, I guess Fn pulled out the stops to secure more orders from the Germans, alas they only built 100,000 before they switched to the G3, something to do with a spat regarding Fns refusal to allow the Germans to licence manufacture the Fal as I recall.

Did you buy anything interesting at Stoneleigh mate? We must go shooting soon, I am getting "range restless"