Cadet .22 conversion of No4 rifle

[Chris7171]

I think that it is highly unlikely that the UK government will sell the last No8's they have, people use the New Zealand sell off as a bench mark but I think that what was done here would not work in the UK.
The NZ government had already started to destroy their No8 rifles only 285 rifles were sold at the govt auction out of 2000 odd rifles (I have spoken to a NZAF armourer who had cut up more than a few).
A lot of lobbying was done too the NZ govt at the time to save these historically important and non threatening rifles which was successful. The main angle was that they are collectors pieces and are part of NZ's military history and should be preserved.
The NZ govt made the decision to sell the remaining No8's along with a small number of No9's and DP rifles at a public auction, because of the lobbying they were sold as collectors pieces and limited the buying at the auction to only one type of rifle per person, so 285 No8's went to 285 individuals (I believe that clubs could have purchased 2 of each kind at the time if they had registered prior to the auction), this was done to stop bulk buying by Individuals and gun dealers. This way they could control the release of them in a fair way making sure that collectors would be the ones that purchased them at a reasonable price ($250-$450NZd)
Remember NZ has a small population and a small but strong firearm/collecting community and that there was only 285 rifles, there for this was logistically easy to sell them off to Individuals/collectors.
I guess the UK has a lot more than 285 No8's and too follow how NZ sold their No8's off, trying to run a auction with a lot more rifles selling only one to each person would be logistically difficult.
We live in hope that they may find away to sell them off without dealers making large amounts of money, but it can be done NZ is a member of the UN as well.
If not the No8 will be a very rare rifle indeed.