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Legacy Member
I seem to recall a London RFD eminent in the practical rifle world was intending to gear up to do exactly that some years ago, though nothing has ever materialised. He had 500 No42 scopes, not #53's. I was offered them many years ago at 6 pounds a lump & turned them down, 'Who needs 600, I said!?'
One lives & learns.....
ATB
AS an aside; the RFD in question once bought a quantity of L39's from the RAF Shooting Club, I believe most of them went very quickly because when I phoned up about a month after the his advert broke in the shooting press they had all gone.
Whilst on the phone his wife interupted the conversion and said that one had been put aside for a customer who had not returned for it, if I could get there quickly with the money it was mine.
The good news was that the original customer had gone through the lot of them and selected the most pristine example he could find.
I bought it the next day!
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11-01-2009 07:06 PM
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Unfortunmately I didn't have your luck Mick. When I enquired some years ago re the scopes I was offered the No42's (now down to 400+) & the 'tooling & drawings'.....for £60,000odd! Needless to say I (politely) declined......& am still looking for No42's & 53's as sources of lenses for the ex-Indian No32's languishing in varying stages of decay in my garage!! However, advancing age has made me less impulsive & more patient; I know they'll turn up some day so I'll just keep looking & waiting!
ATB
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Legacy Member
I'm not sure if this driectly relates to the thoughts on pricing of originals being effected by copies or "reproductions" but it is an interesting parallell.
The Hensoldt scopes were running about $375 here in the US, &, like the Mk 32s becoming hard to find. Then there was a flood of cheper copies of the scope being mass marketed to the gun owning fraternity.
Those that wanted to own the real McCoy did so, even at the substantial price difference. Those bargain hunters bought the copies, but after a couple of years of the cheaper duplicates being available in volume the price today of a Hensoldt Fero Z-24 remains exactly the same.
Food for thought maybe?
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Thanks FugWit2 -- I certainly hope the originals will hold their value; after all, they're exactly that - originals - something the others will never be........
ATB
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We had this situation many years ago with the powerful MGB-GT V8's...., you know the ones, with the 3.5 litre Buick/Rover engine. Only 2591 were ever built (I had number 711) but after production ceased, it was easy to make one from bits and a bog standard MGB GT. Fine, but just so long as you knew that the repro was JUST that. A repro and it'd never be the real McCoy and further, never worth as much either..........................
I forgot to add......... that I made a killing afterwards by converting bog standard gearboxes, overdrives and axles to accept the powerful 3.5 litre gear train. But while they were identical, they weren't the real thing!
Last edited by Peter Laidler; 11-04-2009 at 06:06 AM.
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Legacy Member
Well there's certainly been a whole bunch of No42s appearing on ebay of late 'fresh from army storage' no less.
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They certainly ain't from any Army stores system that I know of because I regularly input the part number of them and other odds and sods that I can think of. Purely for academic interest you understand..........
What sort of prices are they fetching Prinz? That's not your brother that sings 'pretty little red corvette' is is Prinz? Or is it Chevette..., as in Vauxhall car of the 80's. Anyway, he goes by the name Prince!
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Advisory Panel
Peter,
Letter received, thanks very much for the additional info.
Cheers,
Simon.
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Legacy Member
They certainly ain't from any Army stores system that I know of because I regularly input the part number of them and other odds and sods that I can think of. Purely for academic interest you understand..........
Well they're often described in the listing (at least the recent ones) as being almost identical to the no32s - mostly go for about £80 maybe a bit more (I suppose it depends if people think they're getting an enfield scope...).
So what has the army got squirrelled away Peter? I'm sure we'd all be interested!

Originally Posted by
Peter Laidler
That's not your brother that sings 'pretty little red corvette' is is Prinz? Or is it Chevette..., as in Vauxhall car of the 80's. Anyway, he goes by the name Prince!
[Actually I prefer the song Marlborough's soldiers sung around the Battle of Blenheim 'Raise a glass, raise a glass, raise a glass to Prinz Eugene']
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On the subject of No42's and 53's for use as spares, I sold a mint (and I mean mint too.....) No 53 a couple of years ago only to find it winging its way back to me last month, with a No32 with a damaged ocular end. The owner of the No32 had been wise enough to spend £50 or so (I seem to remember.....) and when the time came, and he let his rifle drop and damge the rear of the scope, he had another. Just remember that next time you see one for sale!
Sorry Roger........, that's just put the price up a bit more!
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Thank You to Peter Laidler For This Useful Post: