L42A1 current value?

[Gil Boyd]

Certainly any provenance would help the value, and any digging around on the serial number, which you can PM me and I will search the records we hold for you if you wish, to give you some indication, but I suspect you know the history already.
The rifle alone as an idea MUST be in the £4-5K mark if in good condition. I would leave the wood the way it was found, mine is also a lighter wood very similar to yours.
I have the same dilemna with mine which has full provenance from the Falklands War and I luckily have all the kit in the chest including the Charlie G cleaning plastic bottle and brush which on their own can sell for up to £400. I saw an L42 sold at Devizes Guns last year and that went for well over £10k.

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[Promo]

I would leave the wood the way it was found, mine is also a lighter wood very similar to yours.

I would agree with you, if you can't by the darker edges clearly can see the stock was cleaned up and this huge contrast between where it was cleaned and made blonde and the areas where it is still dark. This makes it very obvious the stock had been reworked. Therefore I had suggested to stain it darker to reduce the contrast and make the colors better matching.

[Gil Boyd]

Promo,
Yes sometimes its eye catching when done like that, but if the rifle has good clean blonde wood now, I would leave it as it was.
My L42 was written off during the Falklands War and brought back to life by Peter Laidler on return to the UK, so one has to assume Peter changed the wood when the new action was fitted, he can't remember it individually as I have asked him as he must have dealt with thousands of them over the years.
So my view would be leave it as it was with all its patina and knocks......blonde is blonde!

[Promo]

Yes sometimes its eye catching when done like that, but if the rifle has good clean blonde wood now, I would leave it as it was.
My L42 was written off during the Falklands War and brought back to life by Peter Laidler on return to the UK, so one has to assume Peter changed the wood when the new action was fitted, he can't remember it individually as I have asked him as he must have dealt with thousands of them over the years.
So my view would be leave it as it was with all its patina and knocks......blonde is blonde!

I would agree with you, but I don't think it was Peter nor any other armourer who had sanded the stock of this rifle to make it blonde since they either would replace it or leave it as it is. So when looking at this rifle again the stock was cleaned post being withdrawn from service by a private individual. And my simple suggestion was to "repair" what bubba had done to it since in my opinion it detracts value.