"Unissued" (not JJCO) Lithgow

[Homer]

Personally I would be extremely wary of an "unissued" 1941-dated Lithgow because Australia had been well and truly involved in WWII for two years by that point and things would soon be heating up in the country's backyard (particularly New Guinea) so the Australian troops needed every rifle they could get. Add to that Australia still using SMLEs in Korea a few years after WWII finished and it just doesn't seem likely a rifle of that year would somehow end up in storage without an exceptionally good reason (production archetype for that year for SAF Lithgow, for example).

I could see a late 1944 or early 1945-dated Lithgow SMLE managing to avoid being issued and eventually surplussed off, but a 1941? I'd be taking that with a Himalayan salt mine.*


*And having said all that, I'm sure someone will be along presently to show us pics of their genuinely unissued 1941 Lithgow SMLE Mk III*, complete with papers and/or an Advisory Board thumbs up.

Ha your small print is very funny. Never say never with enfields. I hate the word unissued, but there are 1941/42/43/44 and 45 dated lithgows around that appear almost as new, as if unissued i suppose.

No pictures though.