Lithgow No.6 Mk1 Jungle Carbine 'Experimental'

[RJW NZ]

By shooters report I meant for you to go to the range and tell us how much fun it was to shoot.
What squadron did your grandfather fly with? There's more than a few fans here of that history. Did he fly with killer Caldwell in the defence of Darwin?

[olmate]

Mate - for a lot of us here... you now own the Holy Grail
And I, like many, would want to buy it from you as it would go great with my other 6 Jungle Carbines. But seriously ... I would hang onto it.

[lmeissner1]

Hey RJW,

Forgive my ignorance, I have shot it before in fact and she kicked pretty hard but my accuracy was fairly crap from memory. Probably much more to do with my shooting prowess than anything else.

I rang my dear old mum tonight about my granfather and she's sending me all the info she's got on his career etc so I'll post some pertinent points/docs as and when I get them to hand if you're interested. I remember seeing a transcript of all the different aircraft types he'd flown and it was about 80!!( He wasn't endorsed on all these obviously but it's still a staggering number)

Killer Caldwell rang a bell with mum but she couldn't say for sure. She also thinks that he might have flown with Kingsford-Smith at some point(possibly an instructor of his)? We'll have to wait and see. Unfortunately by the time I was old enough to really start to enquire about his career he croaked, as kids we were always told to shy away from asking him about it because it'd always be 'Hey Grandpa how many Japs did ya kill?" Somebody in the family got his logbooks and we're trying to track them down also.

More to follow I spose,

Luke.

---------- Post added at 10:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:48 PM ----------

May well hang onto it mate, dunno yet. I had a look at your collection there Troy, pretty impressive.

Take it easy,

Luke.

[Bindi2]

As a No6 owner i would say do not sell, be mindful we are only the minders for a short time. When it is time to sell for what ever reason put it up for auction unless you want to pass it direct to another minder to keep in Australia keeping in mind they could capitilize it out immediately.

[Son]

There's always the risk of a buyer immediately selling a rifle like that to cashed- up overseas interests. Keeping that in mind, the rifle really has two distinct values- the realistic value to a collector, or even a dealer that needs to be able to on-sell with some mark-up, and the price it might reach at auction. I've been keeping a bit of a book for a few years on the prices realised by some of the "high end" stuff both at auction here and overseas and private sales that I get told about.
The last 18 months or so we have seen items like this reach a peak, and now are settling towards what most would consider to be the realistic prices. What is the difference in the market causing this? I would say that there is less "new collector/ speculator" money about for them, so the competition between those who get caught up in the whole auction hype is reduced and maybe even a little reserved in their willingness to spend. Blame the global economic situation... Just recently there were a few holy grails not reach the low end of their expected sale range (possibly they didn't actually get a bid!) and were passed in well below figures that were easily exceeded twelve months ago. Is this the end of the "crazy money" type values? maybe so... but there will always be a collectors market here, willing to pay the realistic prices and keep it in Aus>

[mike1967]

Good post Son, i fully agree with your observations. Especially the "crazy money" comment.

Cheers Michael.

[RJW NZ]

Hi Luke, just as a slight aside to the Lithgow story, in the late 80's I made a full size repro of killer Caldwells spitfire Vc and ended up speaking with the man himself to research the paint scheme. sharp as a tack and full of Darwin war stories like it happened yesterday, I believe after the war he owned womens lingere shops, which I thought was either a completely mystifying career change or completely in character for a fighter pilot. I didn't ask him to clarify, lol, had to have some respect, and some fear too, probably still throw a good right hook.

[lmeissner1]

Hah hah, womens lingerie, sounds about right for those fighter jocks! Helicopter pilots are the real deal mate, we open *****houses after flyings over. I must correct myself also, my grandfather retired as an Air Commodore not an Air Vice Marshal.

That's great that you got to meet Killer himself, nice work.

Take care mate.

[Bearclaw]

Roger, what else do you expect from an Aussie.