Where is everybody?

[oldyella]

Whys it so slow here. Not a lot of posts to talk guns?

[Eddystone3006]

I noticed that also. Maybe visiting / away for the holiday?

[Frederick303]

I have a slightly alternative idea. Perhaps many of the contributing folks have nothing new to show off, and the amounts of new “stuff” coming out of countries simply is not there to raise the interest of folks that post. If you consider the last 10 years, we had the following lots of new material at reasonable prices to consider:

Last of the “New” Irish No 4 MK II rifles (2002) came on the market

New Indian No 2A1 rifles came on the market in ~1998, then again a new lot around 2006. Prior such rifles were virtually unknown.

The 1985~1888s dated Indian No 1 MK III rifles came on the market around 2004, that made a big splash.

There were a number of well-done Pakistani “kyber” copies that came in around 2003 that merited comment, followed by dreadful copies we see today.

Around 2004 ~ 2006 the Turkish motherload was sold off, including lots of run of the mill No4 mid war rifles but quite a few interesting WWI and Gallipoli era variations.

I think it was in the last 10 years but it might be from the late 1990s: There were a bunch of rifles that came in from Malaysia, mostly police marked jungle carbines that sparked interest.

Nothing new has come on the market since around 2007~8, at least I cannot think of anything all that special since the Turk import lot.

All of these rifles were still quite cheap when new stocks were coming in, which brought in new blood to the activity. I recall buying a like new Australian No 1 MK III for 100 dollars at a show around 2004, without thinking it was a good deal, I just had the money to burn and it was there. Today it is hard to find a really nice Australian for less then about 250~300 dollars. The costs have gone up rather drastically. Because of the end of the surplus era, the cost of ammunition has risen even higher.

Lastly I note very few young collectors in Enfields; perhaps because there is no cheap material out there. The young chaps that are into surplus guns seem in my area to be drawn to M1 Garands and Mosin-Nagants. Which in terms of availability of surplus, both seem to be a tad cheaper then current 303 prices (30-06 is drying up but even 3 years ago if could be had from the CMP at reasonable prices). .

Finally, if you find a new treasure and do a search on the various forums devoted to that class of arm, you are likely to find threads on those arms that really go into depth on the topic, far more information then you are likely to find in posting a direct question.

I think it is a combination of all of the above.

[Eddystone3006]

Frederick303, good points made. I remember when I first got into Enfields, plenty of rifles and ammo dirt cheap. I'd go on the net and look at pictures, read articles and posts and this would be my every night deal. but everything was said and done and nothing new to get excited about.

[JB White]

Well, this isn't only an Enfield board but also a British Arms board in general. Nobody seems to post here about the others though. There are other boards out there that are handling that traffic quite well. While this board used to be a jumping place, many stayed put after the spam attacks shut the site down and the temp home over on Milsurps. Now it's more of a convenience to have a place to talk about LE's for CSP'ers.

[John Sukey]

Everybody is out Christmas shopping.
The day after Christmas folks will be here telling about their new toys

[sop2510]

Let's see, I load 10 rounds of .303 into my No. 4, it goes "Bang" ten times, I load another 10 rounds, it goes "Bang" ten more times, I bring it home, clean it and put it on the rack. Hard to get into a lengthy discussion when the rifle does exactly what it's supposed to do. If you think this group is not very active, check out the Soviet weapons group.
All that aside, Merry Christmas to all!

[Guamsst]

Let's see, I load 10 rounds of .303 into my No. 4, it goes "Bang" ten times, I load another 10 rounds, it goes "Bang" ten more times, I bring it home, clean it and put it on the rack. Hard to get into a lengthy discussion when the rifle does exactly what it's supposed to do. If you think this group is not very active, check out the Soviet weapons group.
All that aside, Merry Christmas to all!

Or check out the Jap rifles section sometimes that is just me talking to myself for weeks on end.

Only interesting Enfield I got lately was a 1903 or 5 or something Turkish with some arabic on the stock. I had a decent JC but that got sold off already.

I bought a No4 Mk1 with no trigger. So far I have not been able to find any of the several spare trigger housings with triggers that I F_!@ING KNOW I HAVE....LOL Oh well, I just bought a trigger/guard set off a buddy on ebay and am sure I will find my spares as soon as the new one arrives.

[madcratebuilder]

In my AO most of the new and/or younger guys are into the Russian stuff because of the low cost of the rifles and the ammo.

There were a number of well-done Pakistani “kyber” copies that came in around 2003 that merited comment, followed by dreadful copies we see today.

I sure wish I'd been here for that. I picked up this No1-No5 Kyber special last year just to have an example of the kyber rifles.

When I first picked this up I thought it was a No1, it took a close look at the wrist to see the engraving was slightly different. I'm impressed with the quality of this fake rifle.

[MJ1]

Fishing.




Pura Vida
...MJ...