No4 and No1 cutaway rifles

[Calfed]

Are the training "cutaway" Enfields sought by collectors? Do they have any real collector value?

I recently ran across these at an auction and wondered what their value was.

Information

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[Calfed]

Some additional pics...

[paulseamus]

Thanks for the post - Nice Pics

Skeleton/Cut Away Enfields must be collectible as I have seen them sold at Auction for more than an equivalent rifle.

It appears that many were made by Armourers during their Apprenticeship, so quality may vary a bit.

Great visual training aid, that were used in most Cadet Units down here. Unfortunately many were scrapped during the cutbacks in the 70's

Paul

[Buccaneer]

I recently ran across these at an auction and wondered what their value was.

Do you know what it sold for???

[Frank LE]

Wonderfull pieces!!!
Thanks for posting these great pics.
I love these cutaway rifles as educational material.
They would fit in any Enfield collection( specially in mine). Can you tell a price and where, when they were sold?

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

I am by no means an advanced collector but would probably pay stupid money for one. Very interesting to the visual learner as to how all the bits fit and function. My guess is they sold for large $.

[Ridolpho]

I see quite a few "skeleton actions" for sale which, of course, include much less than this full sectioned rifle. The prices tend to be about what a decent No. 1 or No. 4 go for. Every time I go to buy one I end up deciding I'd rather have another intact rifle.

Ridolpho

[Peter Laidler]

The actual short skeleton actions wera all(?) converted on sub-contract by List &Co at Dagenham in Essex during several programmes during the late 40's and 50's. The full length ones were those done by apprentices to show off their skills and Paul is right, that the quality and variations will differ. I've been through the reasons why these were done in the past but in short, a group would be set a task and they'd have to discuss it among themselves to show what was asked for. It also showed off their bench fitting and machine shop skills (or in my case, LACK of both!)

But looking back, these were works of art. I did loads of Bren gun butt slides, butt buffer systems, Sterling breech and feed area, trigger mechs, Sten gun trigger mechanisms, No2 revolvers, full length No4's and so on.

They were marked and then scrapped - unless you were daring enough to 'liberate' your from the scrap bin prior to disposal.

The big metal scrap bin was in a part of the 'blacking room' where the oil blacking plant was so when the instructors were out or supervising the others, you could rummage through and 'liberate' what you thought you could get away with under your baggy overalls.

As an Officer later, I did ask the training school if the current trainees could do some such things for us at the Small Arms School - such as an old BESA feed mechanism and the interesting two-stage trigger mechanism plus an L9 Browning and SA80 etc but I got the impression that these projects were now not within their ability OR not within the ability of their modern day instructors.

Such a shame................ But that's progress

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

Such a shame................ But that's progress

Or lack of.

[Peter Laidler]

As a matter of interest Frank LE, legally, how would such a skeletonised rifle be viewed in Austria?