Those in collections have probably been there, polished and cared for, for absolutely ages. Those in Police Armouries were stored there untouched and uncared for in the 50's through into the 70's when there was no real armed crime to speak of that would warrant their use. Those with the Army were in semi-regular use so were worn. Many of which were culled at Enfield.

Incidentally, the Police at the time also had hundreds of Inglis Brownings and .38" Enfield anf Webley revolvers. I collected a couple of hundred rifles and pistols from some Southern police forces and while they'd been 'cleaned' for the purposes of handing in, the Station handyman at Nxxxxx told me that he'd struggled to find the key to the locker they were in - which itself was stored in a garage (albeit a lock-up) but next to the power washer and sprayed them over with WD40. As for anything like resembling a CES or chest or........., well, anything, forget it! They were pretty-well unaccounted for, believe me! All taken to an Ordnance Facility at Longmoor initially.

There were so few suitable that the traveling examiner told me several relaxations in the FTR standard were introduced for the L42 including the height of sear stop as I recall plus a few other minor bits. Happy days. But I did manage to get myself a spare telescope/bracket/tin out of it.........