Rarity

[Old Lancer]

OK, from 1 to 10 what do we consider to be the rarest LE,s (manufacturers, dates, models) etc, dont all shout at once!!!

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[tlvaughn]

For me, it is the one that got away due to a legal battle almost one year ago -- .22 No.5 Trials Rifle (105 made).

This would be No. 1 on my list.

[arado]

My rarest is the Sparkbrook converted by Ankara of Turkey to 7.92x57. The "Enfamauser". It's withdrawn... nothing of the Enfield left....

[Bruce_in_Oz]

From an Australian perspective, the XP series ("Shortened and Lightened, No6 variants) would be right up there.

Then there is the interesting SMLE I fondled about 25 years ago. It had been brought to Australia from a Canadian collection. It looked like any other SMLE except the hole down the barrel looked a bit odd. Odd as in small. The other wild piece of kit in the bunch was one of the prototypes of the Ainley sniper rifle.

A quick and dirty measuring job on this SMLE barrel showed it as about .270"ish.

I just hapened to have some .276 Pedersen cartridges in my collection, so I went home and grabbed them.

They fitted the chamber neatly and the bolt closed correctly. Sorry, like most folk, I have never got round to getting a set of headspace gauges in .276 Pedersen.

I'd guess that what I had in my hands that day was used in cartridge trials during the production of the Vickers-Pedersen rifles in the early 1930s. It had an unmodified .303 magazine, so I am guessing that it was not (at that stage) part of an experiment to develop a second-line rifle if the Pedersen was adopted.

[Old Lancer]

I didn't really want the thread to turn into "whats your holy grail", thats been done. Just what would be considered to be the rarest 10 types

[Melanie_Daniels]

In my opinion the rarest are the

De Lisle Parachute Carbine (2)
No. 1 Mk. VI Type A (6)

[Son]

Haha, thats easy, the Charleton, Electrolux model first, then the NZ

Attachment 27995

Attachment 27996


Not quite as rare as this says... I know the rough locations of seven, plus one reproduced from original drawings...

[villiers]

Attachment 27994Attachment 27994Very rare indeed! My Charnwood .308 No. 5 Mk 2 ...

[breakeyp]

No.1 MkIII manufactured and assembled by Pratt & Whitney to prove out the tooling sold to Lithgow. I think two are in Australia and possibly 7 were sold to Val Forget from the P&W factory Collection.

[Son]

No.1 MkIII manufactured and assembled by Pratt & Whitney to prove out the tooling sold to Lithgow. I think two are in Australia and possibly 7 were sold to Val Forget from the P&W factory Collection.

There are two in the Lithgow SAF Museum. One complete and one missing most bits. I know of one other in Australia, but it may have been moved along by now, I'm afraid.


Attachment 28003
Attachment 28004