Not a bad thing; it gives you an opportunity (time) to not only read, but to start eyeballing Lee Enfields at gunshows and wherever you might find them, while you start squirreling away the money to jump on one that you want.
For your consideration, if your intent is to also do a fair amount of shooting with it, is to up what you're willing to spend. Be willing to spend the coin to purchase a No. 4 in very good condition; particularly the bore if the intent is also to have one you will shoot a lot.
I have an unissued 1950 Long Branch, purchased with my Mortar Money when I got back from a deployment way back when. I shoot it a LOT, but I bought it precisely for shooting Service Rifle type competition, not collecting. I'm doing my best to wear out the bore before I go for the long dirt nap. I'm kind of a one and done guy, although if somebody offered me a jungle carbine or .22 in really good condition at about the prices they sold for back then, I'd feel obligated to purchase them as well.
I'm kind of astonished when I see what any No. 4 in reasonable condition sells for these days, never mind what No. 4s like mine go for. I'm from the age where the town's hardware store had a barrel of Lee Enfields, a barrel of P14/17s, and a barrel of Mausers. Take your pick; $20 at the till. I was about old enough to have the training wheels taken off my bicycle back then, but Lee Enfields and other surplus at the hardware store was still a thing when I got my drivers license. And it wasn't all that long ago at gun shows that a No. 4 Mk1 on a table was about $100. I can remember looking at the sniper rifles for sale in their boxes with their kit and wondering what crazy person would pay $400 for that!
A friend of mine has accumulated a one-of-each-collection of
Canadian
variants, each from the war years, all the way back to the Boer War, all in fairly pristine condition. He bought most of those earlier over the last 30 years, but the last one cost him a bit north of $2,500.
It makes me pretty happy that I'm a one and done guy, not a collector... it's a lot less expensive buying reloading components and bullets/bullet moulds.
I am pretty happy that I'm primarily obsessed with shooting them at distance, rather than obsessed with collecting them. My friend (who is also a competitive rifle shooter) does shoot each of the Lee Enfield's he's collected. But it's an event somewhat like Christmas: a special day when the rifle of honour that day goes to the range in a case, where the few rounds to be fired are laid out, and firing practically involves donning white gloves. My day usually ends with me on my knees, piling all the ejected brass laying around the firing point into a box or something similar. But both of us have fun.
The thing about collectors like him, is it allows those of us who also enjoy the rifle to have a collection we can look at and hold (and sometimes fire). Otherwise, we might only see them rarely laying on a table at a gun show.
So here's a toast to all the collectors out there, which many of us shooter types also benefit from.
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Originally Posted by AlleghenyMountain
