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I am wondering what the most expensive L42 A1 has been to date.
I have been keeping an eye on them in the belief that they would be cheaper than a No4 Mk1T or No 1 Mk3* T.
Apparently I am wrong. On used guns dot com dot au I see an 'excellent' L42 A1 for $10,000 AUD ( with the current exchange rate that would be about $9999 USD ) .
After seeing the M40 that apparently went for $36k and this, I am wondering where it will end.
I think I feel some replicas in my future.:surrender:
Why do you think an L-42 would be cheaper than a No. 4 Mk1(T)? Compared to the numbers of No 4's made, the # of L-42's is a tad over 4% of that number. Supply and demand!
You being in the land down under should get you one of those AIA L-42 clones. I wish I could!
Regardless of whether I am right or wrong about the pricing, $10k is a lot of money. Perhaps it is worth it but not for this little black duck. I'd buy two No 4s which have some more history for that.
I might build up my own clone, I have the 7.62 No4 already. I might see how well I can follow Peter Laidler's instructions.
Jeff, your dreaming again. It's only 20 x the price of a reasonable No4 down here. Sell the missus' washing machine, car maybe some of the furniture. I'm sure she said to me you could. for such an investment. Then go build a dog house in the back garden for yourself. Maybe not a good idea, that would be a bit close, when she found out.
Myles
If I had a lazy 10 K I'd be on that in a flash, but if I were to buy it, it would fire one round, I'd be dead, and the wife would have it back on used guns for $11K. So unfortunately it's not for me at this stage...
Maybe I will buy it with the left over from the divorce settlement ... after paying my medical bills.
I did see a possibly unfired no4 for 750 .. now that got my interest.
I know of one that sold for £6,500 in UK.
6500 pounds is near enough to $10k ... I guess I am surprised at how much they are rising by. I suppose with the left wing governments we seem to get ( even the conservatives are more left than right these days ) it is pretty well never going to happen that anything remotely contemporary will get released back to the public.
xa-coupe, does it have to be the real thing? The AIA clones are pretty close. I can vouch for how well they shoot.
I recently picked up a Savage No4 MkI* for $250. It isn't a jewel by any exaggeration. The serial number is in the 54C0xxx range. It is in full wood that is quite nice. Someone, did a very good job milling the receiver to accept some sort of low scope mount. I suspect, one of the commercial Weaver mounts that were used on some of the Canadian ERA rifles. The same fellow, modified a No1 MkIII magazine to accept and feed 7.62x51. He also glass bedded the action area and put in a fore end pressure pad. Oh, before I forget, he also installed a Canadian Arsenals 7.62x51 barrel. That was the rifles main selling point. For some reason, all of the markings on the receiver ring are filed off. There aren't any other marks on the bolt, so I doubt it was one of the DCRA rifles. For the price, its turned out to be a pretty good buy. I had a vintage Williams mount for a flat sided receiver that needed a couple of extra holes drilled into it to mount it to the three holes already d & t ed on the flat side. It also needed a cut out to clear the extractor screw. Not a big deal.
I also had a vintage Weaver 3X collecting dust and mounted it on the base. I had an extra cheek piece kicking around and mounted that on the butt. All in all, not a bad looking old girl. As luck would have it, it shoots very well. It isn't fussy either and will shoot milsurp as well as hand loads equally well.
I was going to cut down the fore end to make it into an L42 clone but then I asked myself if I wanted to take the chance of spoiling a decent shooter, just for looks. After all, the AIA B2 10 covers the cosmetic aspect quite well. It also looks great with the 6X Pecar scope that recently went on it.
Another thing, I don't know the situation in Australia for period scopes, brackets and pads but they are the next thing to non existent in Canada. When you do find them, they are very expensive. I saw an REL MKIII that went for $2000 less than a month ago. It never even went out on the display table. The fellow that was selling it, was well known for having "T" stuff and before I could get to him, another guy beat me to it. I couldn't afford the $2000 anyway. By the time I got the rest of the parts and put a "T" or L42 together, I would have as much into it as the real thing would cost and it wouldn't be real.
Good luck in your quest. Sometimes, I think the quest is as much or even more fun than the rifles. Not really but definitely part of the whole aspect.
Hi Bearhunter,
I am in the process of working out how to get what I want to make a clone as I am clearly out of my depth with the real thing.
I already have a 7.62 no4 that has a local scope mount on it. I just need to trim the wood a bit, add a proper scope mount and somehow find a weaver K3 for a decent price. The only thing I have to work out is how to put a front sight on given the barrel profile. Might have to make a 'almost' clone.
Parts are not cheap here when you can find them. I am looking on ebay and gunbroker to source stuff. Some people don't like sending overseas which makes it tough but I will get there. As you say, the quest is half the fun.
I know of one that sold for $6500.00 canadian two years ago!
:rofl:
I happen to know that the specific rifle listed on usedguns dot com dot au was sold a year ago in the USA. Obviously they are extremely rare in Australia :D
Bear in mind too that the U.S. State Department will no longer approve them for export because they're in the dreaded 7.62x51 NATO caliber. They're very rare in Australia and New Zealand. I managed to export four to NZ back in the 1990's, a couple back to England and a few to Canada. I'm glad I was able to make it happen.
Funny how they will allow 308W out as fast as they can make them. Without going into THAT argument, the situation is pretty stupid... we are all getting governments that are saving us from ourselves. In one way, I am glad that there are more there than here, I predict that in my lifetime even more firearms will be crushed in the interests of 'public safety'.
I suppose I have just not been up with the times. It's now the Attack of the Clones, but the trick is to make it as close to the real thing as possible.
I asked in Fulton's a couple of weeks ago for a mate of mine down in Aus who was looking for an L42A1 - was told (with much shaking of heads and intakes of breath) that they are like the proverbial rocking horse muck and i should budget around £8000 for a good one with all the trappings!
That makes this one about AU$3,000 under price....BARGAIN!!!!
He told me about this one a few days ago adn was heading down the ATM to check his balance!
Wow, I am clearly out of my league here.
Seems to me that rarity combined with the dreaded "s" word is a license to print money.
Maybe it is time for some guidance notes on how to build a replica L42A1?? :D
A few years back when I got mine I paid what I considered was waaay too much at the time, not too much for the rifle, just I couldn't really afford that amount for somethign that Pater laidlers book said numbered in teh thousands. However I'm an impulsive idiot and got it anyway and haven't regretted it. Since then Peter I understand has revised estimates of how many L42's were made down significantly to about 1100 or so, maybe somone can confirm that. Someone on this very forum said - you never pay too much for an enfield, you just buy it too early. I've only been collecting these things about 6 years but I have NEVER seen the prices go down on anything LE oriented when sold in the maintream area. You get the odd bonus by wandering into a pawn shop or secindhand stoire or estate sale but the internet and wide amount of available information has made sure that pretty much everyone knows what they have got before they go to sell it.
All this discussion is making me wish I had the 10k all of a sudden ... but I also have the paranoia brought about by having to watch 3 separate batches of firearms being taken from me under various 'public safety' smokescreens over the years. Not sure if I want to watch a bit of history get crushed again.
OxfordAndy
I was in Fultons last year(might just have been 2008) and they had an L42 on the counter - in the box and I think it was with all the trimmings - for ( I'm pretty sure it was) £3,500.
Not knocking Fultons - they are more in touch with the market than most - but is that a bubble, or what?
John
Ref your (L42 ) Iin 1972 ) We Took Over Chelsea Barracks London From the Irish Guards . I Was a member of The 2"nd Battalion Grenadier Guards .Very shortly after we were posted to British Honduras Now HONDURAS.
During my time there I.took a Snipers Course. The weapons We used were L42s . Connsisting OF FOUR boxes From chelsea Barracks and previously used by the IRISH GUARDS I Yours could Be one of them judjing by the markings . Unfortunately I did not keep any numbers Allan
Not necessarily a bubble. Just a realization that in the last year the US gvernment has screwed the Mislurp pooch royally and is stopping ALL exports of mislurp rifles. Ask Brian Dick about this, it was on a thread here recently I think too. So basically our wonderful communist leader Barry has done for the sales and prices of potential exports from the USA what he did for sales of AR-15s IN the USA just by getting elected. It really bothers me that we can't do anything about him for another 2 years and that probably NOTHING will ever be done about that. History shows that relaxing gun laws once they are enacted just doesn't happen.
Oneshot that’s very interesting as my L42A1 was an Ex “5 Coy Irish Guards” Rifle, was converted in the 1970’s, It was reported to have been a part of the HDDC possibly at purbright as 5 Coy I understand was a recruitment depo. The “story” was that they might have done a snipers instructors course as part of that company?
Newcastle, The ban doesn't encompass "ALL" milsurp rifles. It encompasses milsurp rifles in calibers 7.62 and 5.56 NATO. Read my posts again. Brian
---------- Post added at 12:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:47 PM ----------
The figure of 1080 rifles converted to L42 isn't an estimate. It's the actual production figure as released from MoD. These figures were classified up until a mfew years ago. Maybe Peter can elaborate.
We have that figure of 1080 too. But some disagree for reasons best known to themselves. L42's......., rare or what!
Re DanL and the L42. The snipers were all trained at Warminster then. But now, Warminster and Brecon. Sniper instructors are culled from the various regiments under SASC staff. They are taught to teach, then go on to teach the students. Probably the best course in the Army
DO you hav e any ideas about how many of teh L42s are still around now Peter? We can't do anythign but guess at any bubbaed or chopped or stolen in civilian life, but were there casualties recorded during the service life of these rifles whihc must have been 20 years or so??
Peter many thanks for the information defiantly the best in the Army, but only after the people who train them in the SASC!! Especially back then…
right now there's one for sale in germany for 4200euro's. (just the rifle, the scope and the case)
Problem with a 7.62 No.4 which you trim the wood on, is that there could be a step donw in barrel outer diameter to accomodate the older .303 front sight, which is hidden under the wood but becomes apparent when the wood is taken back.
I've been looking in Canada for an L42 or an Envoy for 35 years. I saw one, a few years back. Way beyond my financial limits. I bit the bullet and opted for an AIA B2 10. It's everything I hoped it would be.
At a show, 5 years ago, I picked up a barrel wrapped in waxed cloth. It had some illegible marks on the outside. When I opened the sleeve, the barrel inside had a heavy profile, was chambered for 7.62x51 and was threaded for a Lee Enfield action. The original length was 26 inches. On the muzzle, is a straight section to mount a sight, .690 od and 1.090 long, the rest of the barrel is tapered to a chamber area which is 1.140 in od. There wasn't a knox on the barrel so I really had no idea what it was from. To make a long story short, I cut the chamber area off enough to get rid of the original chamber and rechambered it to 30-40 Krag, cut new threads and fitted it to a Bisley Works AGP, Martini Action. The steel in that barrel was tough to machine. The reamer was new so that wasn't a problem.
Looking at it, I'm wondering if I didn't screw up an L42 barrel. I've only seen one in real life and don't remember the contours or length of the rifles barrel. If it is, that's probably as close as I'll ever get to owning an L42.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gnr527
John
I'm not knocking Fulton's either but that is what the guy said - sure, he could have just been picking figures out of the air but the price of the rifle in Aus indicates the days of £3,500 with all the trimmings are in the past.
Incidentally my mate told me yesterday that he contacted the seller and it has already gone.
Looks like there was no shortage of interest or people prepared to pay the AU$10K.
Cheers
Andy
It's worth what someone will pay for it and $10k AUD is apparently what it's worth!
The L42A1 barrel is 27.5" so you're OK.
I know of an L42A1 which sold for £10,000 (in the UK) but it was very special, and was so original it still had the RM mud on the box, all the bits as well as night sight all the paperwork as well a real operational bit of kit!!!
I think apart from it being a unique bit of kit, it had a good background and could prove it origins from when it was a No.4 (T), through to when it was an L42 being used in the Gulf war in ’91. Once in a lifetime offer for a bit of kit like that!!
Or someone came up with a good story for it.... Not sure that any service records exist for any 4(T) converted to L42 - the only clues would have been discarded along with the original transit chest.Quote:
Originally Posted by DanL96a1
I think there are some people pulling "fast ones" with wealthy-but-ignorant buyers, at least in UK. I've heard about some of the £6k+ ones sold in UK, but also recently witnessed perfectly decent ones changes hands for just over £3k. I'm led to believe by those with the most turnover of rifles - Fultons - that a bare rifle is worth about £1200, a mismatch c.£2.5k, and a full set not much more than £3k.
I see that usedguns.com.au has moved the L42A1 to the military section where it shows as still being available for sale:
http://usedguns.com.au/used_military_rifles.html
Is it my imagination, or are many of the items on that site way overpriced?Quote:
Originally Posted by Amatikulu
I just noticed a No.4 cut-a-way being advertised for $2,500 !! :yikes:
Regards,
Doug
I think Australia is a unique market as what they don't have in abundance, they have to import with all the costs associated with that. I happen to know where a few more L42's are sitting, so if anyone can confirm that its sold, hmmmmmmmmmmmmm :dunno:
I suppose in the UK most of us enfield enthusiasts don't really see L42s come up for sale very often. The rareness means that if dealers do put them up for sale in public then there is a certain element of 'trying it on'. Sometimes an L42 priced at a very expensive sum is sold - whether it's sold at the asking price is very much open to question, but it adds to the 'how much did that go for' debates amongst us chattering classes. I tend to suspect that most rifles pass between the network of dealers and don't often come into the hands of us shooters, instead sitting in a dusty dark gun room somewhere, never to see the light of day on the range.