No4 Mk2

[old hound]

A friend recently passed and he left me a full wood No4 Mk2. Was manufactured by Fazackerly in 55.
I would like to help the widow out and am wondering what the rifle might be worth?
The rifle has been cleaned up but never fired. Has a couple minor dents and scratches.

 

[nomad 68]

Post this in the milsurp sub forum. You will get a much more accurate assessment.

 

[enefgee]

Out here, $800-$1000. YMMV. It should be noted that these are some of the best shooting LE's ever made - they were built with the best materials by people who were absolute experts at building these rifles. They may not be as collectible as "veterans", but generally, they shoot like a house on fire.

 

[Moodie]

Out here, $800-$1000. YMMV. It should be noted that these are some of the best shooting LE's ever made - they were built with the best materials by people who were absolute experts at building these rifles. They may not be as collectible as "veterans", but generally, they shoot like a house on fire.

Yep. Agreed completely.

 

[fire@will]

A GS near me was selling one, last year, for $1200 - still in the original papers and still covered in Cosmoline. My SOL really wanted to buy this, so I sold him mine (exactly the same) for 1G and saved him a few bucks.

 

[Ganderite]

Put it on EE for $1000. It will sell.

I had one. Most accurate LE I ever shot.

 

[dan belisle]

I still have one. Good to know what it's worth. - dan

 

[old hound]

thanks guys, appreciate it.

 

[NAA]

Thread moved from General Discussion to Milsurp.

------------------
NAA.

 

[trilobite]

The postwar Lee-Enfields have a good reputation. They were made to old-school standards, but didn't go through the wear and tear of an actual war, mostly.

The factory and date are consistent with it being an Irish Contract LE, just based on limited information. Serial number would help. These were #4s made in Fazakerley for the Irish Army, but which for some reason were never delivered, and stayed in the grease for decades. Not sure what the back story was, but they would have been among the last LEs produced, since the Commonwealth armies were adopting the FN. They have distinctively light-coloured stocks.

tl;dr - you might try pricing it north of $1,000, with lots of good-quality photos (including one showing that the bolt is matching) and being patient.

 

[TheTooner]

Out here, $800-$1000. YMMV. It should be noted that these are some of the best shooting LE's ever made - they were built with the best materials by people who were absolute experts at building these rifles. They may not be as collectible as "veterans", but generally, they shoot like a house on fire.

And, if I heard it correctly, R.O.F. Faz got new machinery to make the Mk.2 on, so that also helped with quality.

 

[TheTooner]

The postwar Lee-Enfields have a good reputation. They were made to old-school standards, but didn't go through the wear and tear of an actual war, mostly.

The factory and date are consistent with it being an Irish Contract LE, just based on limited information. Serial number would help. These were #4s made in Fazakerley for the Irish Army, but which for some reason were never delivered, and stayed in the grease for decades. Not sure what the back story was, but they would have been among the last LEs produced, since the Commonwealth armies were adopting the FN. They have distinctively light-coloured stocks.

tl;dr - you might try pricing it north of $1,000, with lots of good-quality photos (including one showing that the bolt is matching) and being patient.

Irish army was equipped with the No.4 and they had ordered a batch of new rifles to update and replace their existing stocks, but then decided to hold off and get a more modern rifle as everyone else seemed to be switching to semi-auto battle rifles e.g the FN FAL and new cartridges like the 7.62NATO. The Irish cancelled their order and the MOD took the rifles and put them in "war stocks." (There was still large scale conscription in U.K. with global deployments in the Empire and Commonwealth and a large army in Germany committed to NATO, and war plans in case the Russians tried to take Western Europe included recalling large numbers of veterans and post war conscripts who would have been trained on the No.4 rifle.)

There is nothing particularly Irish about these "Irish Contract" rifles other than they were production batches that Royal Ordnance had scheduled to fulfill the Irish order.