Quote Originally Posted by Alan de Enfield View Post
I have no personal experience on this, but, I have been told you can have a collectors ticket with "occasional" use variation which allows use and authority to buy ammunition.

Define 'occasional' !!!!

A collectors (only) ticket, I assume, would not allow ammunition purchases.
The Home Office guidance to the UKicon police 2002 (section 13.53) does give examples of where a 'collector' would be able to also shoot their rifle(s). Such a reason is for 'occasional' test firing on Home Office approved ranges.

Having proved myself a bona fide 'collector' to the local police, I have 6 Lee-Enfields now on my FAC, with this 'collect and occasional use' status, along with a couple lever action, pistol calibre carbines for 'target' shooting. The Historic Breechloading Smallarms Association (HBSA), which I'm a member of, actively promotes the range shooting of historical 'collections' - otherwise, how would we know what it really felt like to shoot a Martini Henry or a SMLE?

Apologies for hijacking the thread!

More on topic - I have a UF55 No4 Mk2 I bought last year (re-imported into the UK and with CAI US import stamps). It is unwrapped (not by me), but doesn't look to have fired many rounds at all. In the latest Lee-Enfield Rifle Association (LERA) newsletter, there is an article about getting your service rifle to shoot well. There is a comment about the 1950's rifles:-

"So, what about one of the brand new 1950's, unissued No.4 Mk2 rifles that comes straight out of the brown paper and cosmolineicon grease; surely that'll shoot well? Sorry to disappoint, but it'll still need some TLC if you want to dial in a sight setting and have bullets consistently go where the sights say they will. (Indeed, if you start to shoot it before it's had that TLC, you risk expensive damage to the vital bearings where the metal action attaches to the wooden furniture.)

For someone like me, yet to fire their 'new' rifle, is it a question of ensuring all screws are tight (particularly the front trigger guard screw), or more radical 'tender loving care'?

On the subject of guns as an investment - here in the UK I think many people are 'investing' in the more rare examples, as bank savings interest rates are extremely low and even in the few years I've been collecting, gun values seem to have gone up markedly compared to potential bank interest.

All the best

Mike