There is never a never when it comes to EAL rifles. I saw one that came in to a store that was new in a plain cardboard box. It was wrapped in brown wax paper. The bolt and mag were separate and each were wrapped in the same brown wax paper.
The stock on this particular rifle was made from exceptionally figured wood and the left side of the receiver was drilled and tapped for a Weaver side mount base. The fore end was also carved in a beaver tail style. The mounted sights were the same as those found on the military versions.
The rifle also came with a bill which listed all of the mods and the fee for those mods. Ridiculously cheap by todays standards.
EAL would and did build rifles to customer specs. Some of the customers were individuals but for the most part, they were bigger commercial outlets, like Army and Navy, SIR, Lever ARMs etc. I'm not saying they brought in thousands because they didn't. I was at Lever Arms one summer and helped unpack just over a hundred of them. That's where I saw the custom stocked example. They were different though. Most were standard but there were sight variations on some. Never saw a Marbles or any other such sight on any of them. I don't remember seeing any of them with machined trigger guards and would be skeptical about their originality.
Considering all of the different offerings out there at the time and companies like Globe, Parker Hale etc, the EAL rifles were not cheap. The thing is, they were well done and Canadian.
In many ways, it's to bad they didn't catch on. Mind you, some of the aftermarket offerings were more modern looking and appealed to more customers at the time. I suspect Essential Agencies went the way of the Dodo bird from lack of sales.
I need to edit this because EAL is still a viable company. They deal in sporting goods and accessories and are located in Toronto.
The last information I have is they have two employees and do less than $400,000 in business per year.
I sent them an email asking whether or not they are the same company and if they have any old records buried away. Never got a reply. Maybe someone in their area could drop in and pique their interest????
I am also under the impression that EAL farmed out all of the work done on both the military version and the civilian version. I know it was possible to place an order with them for variations on the model chosen. I have seen them with double digit serial numbers as well and I have seen them with serial numbers in the high nine thousand ranges. I think the rumor out there about the numbers made are contradictory at best. Then again, maybe they started a new serial number range depending on options???? These are a real mystery and almost impossible to pin down definitive descriptions on. Considering the time the rifles were built in, I am surprised they made as many as they did.
One rumor I don't believe is that they only made up a thousand for the military. Allen Lever once commented to me in a very POed manner that he felt they made 3 to 5 times that many for the Canadian Forces. He wasn't happy with the way the bidding was done to make up the rifles either. That was over 45 years ago. Just can't remember all of the details clearly. I do remember that beautiful EAL custom stocked rifle like it was yesterday though. Whoever EAL hired out the work to were craftsmen indeed. In some ways, I miss those days but whether or not I could get by as well without all of the luxuries I enjoy now is a toss up. Mind you there was a lot less to take care of and life wasn't nearly so cluttered. That is likely more reminiscing than reality though. We were much less informed and much more emotional about everything. The common response for men was the John Wayne approach. For women, it just depended on how much they were beaten. I kid you not. They may not have been beaten physically but jobs were determined by ### and legal lines were drawn and allowed such discrimination. What a deplorable waste of good minds and abilities.
