Unwrap and cleaning a new No4 MKII

[bearhunter]

I saw at least a dozen opened MK II No4 rifles at gun shows last year. Most looked like they had just been taken out of the wrap and not shot.

One dealer was really POed because no one would even make an offer on his, which he had priced at $1200. High side.

He asked me what it was worth and I told him $500, he had sold off the matching bayo and scabbard at the same show. With the matching bayo/scabbard, $600 tops.

He was furious and started yelling at me. OK you asked.

He ranted for hours that I had spread the word about unwrapped rifles being worth less, etc, etc. What can I say.

This is a bad time of year for firearms sales. Just after Christmas, vehicle insurance coming due, Valentines Day coming up. February isn't usually a good time to sell a firearm. Good time to buy, if you can afford it.

There are a lot of people out there that would normally buy that rifle but many are waiting for the registry to disappear.

My advice, leave it alone. For one thing, it's a character building exercise.

That rifle is now an investment. Sometimes investments increase in value, sometimes they don't. Things can be a bit volatile at times.

If you just can't handle it, trade it. No, no matter how you look at it personally, most people wouldn't open it.

Opening that package will only give you about one minute of pleasure. Then you get to clean all of that grease out of it. etc. etc.

Is it all worth that fleeting moment of pleasure???

 

[macadoodle]

Our lives are made up of fleeting moments, choosing a pleasurable one isn't necessarily a bad thing. However, I won't be the one to open it. I will either sell it or trade it. If I had 2 I would open 1 and display them together.

 

[cadgo]

Our lives are made up of fleeting moments, choosing a pleasurable one isn't necessarily a bad thing. However, I won't be the one to open it. I will either sell it or trade it. If I had 2 I would open 1 and display them together.

How is opening it a "fleeting moment" ? Are you going to open it then throw it away? You are opening it so you can enjoy a brand new enfield to shoot and enjoy for YEARS, hardly a fleeting moment. To all the delay your gratification crowd I suppose you have never bought anything on credit card? Car or house on a loan? What exactly is he delaying it for? So someone other than him can open it? Because that is exactly what will happen.

 

[millwright]

C'mon open it up. You know you want to.

 

[sf]

Always open it and check unless you are into dating chick in burka. Your piece can very well be a LE bubba in wrap for all you know.

 

[McCDan]

Future generations be dammed. Instant gratification is becoming a virtue. The mentality of "rifles are meant to be shot, it's mine I can do what I want and there are still more out there" is the reason so many historical artifacts are lost to time and ruined for future generations.

This is pretty dramatic. I'm pretty sure macadoodle is not going to 'ruin' his rifle. As far as being a 'historical artifact', how can it be a part of history if in never took part in anything historical? I think that we can safely say that this rifle will not ever be featured in a musem if he holds off and does not unwrap it. A battle worn No4MkI that might sell for $350 on the EE is much more likely to be found in a museum. If it was in my collection, I would unwrap it, clean it, shoot it, clean it and enjoy it!

 

[ghostntheshell]

Future generations be dammed. Instant gratification is becoming a virtue. The mentality of "rifles are meant to be shot, it's mine I can do what I want and there are still more out there" is the reason so many historical artifacts are lost to time and ruined for future generations.

X2

I really hope you leave it wrapped. I realize it'd be amazing to unwrap and shoot too - but you do have something special.

 

[millwright]

Ya its the last of the line not the first of it. Man its just a rifle use it. With the untold numbers of lee enfields out there what are you worried about?

 

[macadoodle]

Reading the posts is like having a little devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other. I sold it, therfore avoiding eternal damnation I'm now looking for a good deal on an UNWRAPPED Irish or other contract gun, or maybe a nice Longbranch.... god help me, Is there any cure?

 

[millwright]

Nope no cure. Your cursed like the rest of us buddy. Why do you think they named a disorder after what we suffer from. " Enfielditus "

 

[DOOK]

Leave it wrapped up!
It is a bad time of the year for such an expense.
Seriously, if I had the extra money, I would buy it to be it's custodian.
I was looking for a wrapped one a couple years ago. Couldn't find one.
Unfourtunately, I don't have a rifle to trade of equal value. Most ones I have are worth more. I have pared down the extras over the years.
Unless you are interested in an AR 10.5" upper I have on the EE?

This is one rifle I covet. Wish we could make a deal.

It's only new once.

 

[RRCo.]

Unless you think the unwrapping going to be some sort of extraordinary experience, why bother?

Just trade it for an unwrapped rifle and you have the same thing without all the hassle of unwrapping and degreasing, OR all the angst and agony of "should I, should I have" blah, blah, blah.

They will command a premium one day as slowly, but surely, buds and bubbas all over the world succumb to the temptation "to do something" to theirs, as they usually do in the end.

 

[Otokiak]

I wish I had me an unwrapped new 303 ... I'd be opening that biznatch up, clean her and shooooost her lots!

Otokiak
Rankin Inlet, NU
CANADA

 

[Plink]

I have an unwrapped one that was given to me. Previous owner had unwrapped it, cleaned it and put it in his safe. It's absolutely gorgeous. Never fired... Matching numbers on everything, it's awesome just to hold it...

But, I wish I'd gotten it.. unwrapped.......

 

[Steppenwolf]

I would leave it wrapped, ymmv.

 

[polaris]

Just ten years ago, LeBarons had a stand at the Toronto Sportsmen's Show,
and
they sold these brandnew in the wrap # 4 Enfields for $225.00.
To buy a few cases of those rifles would have been a better investment than to put money in the stock market.

How times have changed... then, they still sold guns at the Sportsmen's Show.

 

[bearhunter]

Reading the posts is like having a little devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other. I sold it, therfore avoiding eternal damnation I'm now looking for a good deal on an UNWRAPPED Irish or other contract gun, or maybe a nice Longbranch.... god help me, Is there any cure?

No cure that's known to mankind anyway. Some wives claim to have one though.

I don't know enough about this but I do have a bit of experience with NIB No4 MkI and MkII Lee Enfields.

Back in the sixties, I used to help "clean up" the rifles that came into Lever Arms. Unless there was something really special about them, we just wiped them down on the outside, so that the customers didn't get their hands/clothes and money greasy.

I only remember the MkII rifles coming in wrapped, individually like the rifles in the socalled Irish Contract serial number range. Some, had been carefully sliced by either the shipper or customs to verify the serial numbers some weren't even opened at all.

I don't remember any of them coming in with matching bayos/scabbards. They may have been included I just don't recall.

Long Branches and Savages, used to come in cardboard boxes. They had a wrap of sorts, to stop the grease from soaking into the cardboard.

I recently picked up and unissued Savage No4 MkI*. Maple stocked and except for a scratch, lovely. It came in a new cardboard box, without the documentation, normally stuck on a tab on the outside. The box was the same size and shape as the issue boxes but it certainly wasn't an issue box. It turned out the seller had thrown away the issue box, because it was crumbling away and he was going to modify the rifle into a sporter. Thankfully he didn't do it.

I paid $450 for that rifle if I recall. He didn't bat an eye.

The only reason for putting this up is that other than the serial number range listed for Irish Contracts, I don't think any Lee Enfields came in such an airtight wrap.

I unpacked and wiped down hundreds of them and that has been my experience.

 

[stencollector]

A decade or so ago, the wrapped ones were around here for $225, and out of the wrap they were about the same, maybe a little less. Now 10 years later the wrapped ones are in the $800 to $1K range, and an unwrapped one is maybe $500. That alone should show you the direction each is heading. There will be no more releases of wrapped ones. But the odd guy is still unwrapping them, and making the wrapped ones rarer.

 

[enfield303t]

Brand new rifles in the grease are a curse. I have a mint Cno7 .22 cal rifle in it's wrap, with it's original tag, it's long term preservation tag, checklist and EIS, all in the original serialled chest. And it just sits there, calling at me. Way too nice to shoot, so therefore useless. But there it continues to sit.

Leave your rifle in the wrap. There are lots out there with the wrap removed...get one of those.

Why not sell it to ease your pain? I would be interested as long as it was a reasonable price.

 

[stencollector]

Why not sell it to ease your pain? I would be interested as long as it was a reasonable price.

The terms "CNo7", "in the grease" and "reasonable price" are rarely found in the same sentence. Relish the preceding sentence because you will likely wait a long time looking for another one with all three of those terms.