NZ's Cadet Rifle Auction

[5thBatt]

Heres my 3
Had another bidder for me, so picked up 2 No8s as well as a No9, had hoped to pick up a pair of consecutive serial numbered No8s (there was many opportunity's to do so) but feel i went 1 better
Check them out

Information

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[Hal O'Peridol]

Verrrrry Nice!

I have a No8 but No9s are scarce as hen's teeth her in the US.

What were the rifles going for on average?

[5thBatt]

The average on the No8s was about $370NZ with the No9s at about $850/900NZ pretty much halve to get US$
I hope in future, if the Defense dept ever offer up Guns for auction in NZ again (unlikely) that they don't use the same Auctioneers.

[Lance]

Very nice, especially the No.8 s/n's! I wonder how that made it through??

[RJW NZ]

Hi 5th Batt,
Not sure if we met at the auction but if not plse check out my enfield links site, 100 essential links for Enfield Rifles 08, I'm trying to collect the owners of the sequential serialed rifles before we all disappear, your icu6 is one of a rack set of six rifles eg. I've ID'd a few of the sets and buyers I'm after.
you might have the missing ICU3 there too.

at one point there was a series of 5 sequentialed no 9's!

Too bad the rules were one of each, that meant the sets had to be broken up, wish I had a buddy bidding too but hey, I didn't have any spare lotto money either.
My one no8 absolute POS! $380, and a no4 303 $220, almost POS and three wood sets $150, cost an easy $1500; after two days driving,gas $250, motels, 3 days $350 food, etc etc.
not sure if I'd do that again.

BUT...many kudos to all the people who cooperated in saving from the blast furnace or the deep six ...285 no 8's, 101 no9's and 53 303's, at a total fund raise I guess around $250,000.
Apparently there's a little thing around from the UN called an arms non proliferation act that requires scrapping of surplus arms, the rumor is that apparently NZ kind of forgot to sign it...oorah!.

[RJW NZ]

BTW, they're already on trademe,

[Peter Laidler]

Can I assume that the No9's were ex RNZNavy issue to recruits and Navy Cadet forces? I know that the RNZN had loads of Lanchesters when I was there. I took a few from the Royalist when it was due for scrapping. Went to a place called Devonport ( I think that's what the name was.....) and collected some. Never saw any No9's though. All the RNZN kit was in VERY good condition

[5thBatt]

I didn't go though the No9 s/n's that closely, could only afford 1.
Now for the No8s
Set of 5: 2
Set of 4: 1
Set of 3: 9
Set of 2: 31
& of course 1 set of the same s/n, there was one other set listed, but turned out to be a typo.
This list may have some errors but it adds up to 115 out of the 285 available
My rifles as shown in photos are
Lot 314 No9 s/n A1567 $920
Lot 255 No8 s/n DA 156 $320
Lot 141 No8 s/n DA 156 $400

[wazza2222]

Here is my orphan to PC...
$383 NZ including buyer premium. Would have paid a lot more just so they could survive. Job well done.

[RJW NZ]

Hi Wazzz,
You were there after all. I was the bloke handing out the bit of paper with the enfieldresource web site address on it, just in case you were one of those still in line two hours after the auction.
I screwed up royally on my no8, with 30 seconds or less running per rifle my ear caught a rifle going at my price range instead of over 400 so I stuck in a bid. It turned out to be the rifle that looked like it had been dropped off a moving vehicle onto a gravel road, I was/am ticked off as it was on my list marked as do not buy this one as the wood was too damaged. of course there was no way to back out either, or to buy a better one as well. oh well, maybe next time.
I did get a beat up no4 that is a bit of a diamond in the rough though, and its even has a wigram brass disc, so I like it but its hard to justify hanging onto a common rifle.
Someone mentioned that the auction had been advertised in wellington newspapers, which might explain why the prices were so high, a lot of cashed up looky loos who just had to buy something, anything.
I really really hope there's a way to keep contact with the buyers to track matched sets.

Hi Peter L, you would have enjoyed this one, great to see hundreds of enfields laid out on the tables. The no9's mostly, except 2 I remember were rnzaf, seemed to be navy. They were all very well used, but not abused. The descriptions of the bores was much more strict than had to be, a frosted bore was usually hard to detect, and all of the bores I saw sparkled clean and shiny, kudos to the folks to did all of this and laid them out in serial number order.
What was very nice about them was the rifles character and patina, they reeked of NZ history and with brass disks on the butt often marked to ships or stations it was great to see the bits of history not lost. The bores were all nice, wood worked rubbed, worn , oily, but nice overall.