https://thedevizesgunsmith.co.uk/rifles-service-and-sniper/" rel="nofollow - Service and Sniper Rifles for Sale - Devizes Gunsmith

I’ve been thinking of a L42 CES as my retirement present, wished I could find one! 

Geoff, for my retirement I had Fultons build me my No.4 SR"b" and I then followed that up with a Schmidt & Bender 3~20x56 scope.

My wife reminded me that when she retired she paid off the mortgage for us both!  

I used to lust for a Barrett MRAD for long distance shooting.  And then I shot a friend's Tikka T3x CTR and found out you can get to the same place for a LOT less jingle.  :)

That's an impressive list above.

Best,

So why are Accuracy International selling there heritage collection? Is just for the money?

Call me a cynic Shaun but I do wonder if the company is about to change hands and a little asset stripping is taking place...

The clue here is that here are no prices shown; if you have to ask what the price is, you can't afford it! 

Edited to add:

I believe the last "standard" L96 I saw sell went in the region of £18k...It'll be interesting to know what they want for these rifles. 

When our original bosses wife sold the company (after he passed away), she sold his classic cars as soon as possible; some before the final take over.

It was bought by somebody I know; although as soon as I saw it was sold I just knew it was him who had bought it. 

Picture taken this morning on a range in I think East Anglia, if it's the range I think it is I last shot there in 1967 as young army sprog!

 

As bad as I want a L42, I’m afraid it would be my luck to get one with a shot out barrel and no spares to be had. Those L42’s must have had a rough life, sniper course after sniper course for how many years? That is in addition to their previous life as a No. 4 T.  

It’s at the top of my list though….

Perhaps I'm unique, but after 30 years of sniper rifles, machine guns, etc being part of my life, I just don't feel any particular urge or desire to even shoot them again (assuming I couldn't just walk up to the firing point, fire, and then walk away when that was done).  Certainly wouldn't turn down ownership to treat as an investment if somebody were giving them away.

I think that might be because I still have no trouble remembering the misery of sniper and recce courses, the hours and hours spent scrubbing and cleaning machine guns after firing, etc.  Prevented any feelings of fondness from developing.

I doubt I have ever been colder at any point in my life than the particular week I spent on course up Slesse Creek in endless freezing pouring rain in a January many, many years ago.  I must have been miserable to be a jumper and sitting there asking myself if I really wanted to continue.  I definitely remember that.  Our packs were heavier when we finally walked out than they were when we were dry and loaded up when the helicopters inserted us in.  Walking half dead asleep, probably about as stealthy as a mullah calling the faithful to prayers by that point.

I have some sympathy here; I used to hate range days with the accompanying range stew served up in the wet and mud.

These days I can enjoy my shoot without the pressure of yesteryear, and if it is raining I can sit in the car or the clubhouse and have a coffee. A very distant dream when we wore green! 

All that aside, M.U. 4-01 which I'm sure you're familiar with was my go to hunting grounds.  I took a Grizzly bear, a Black bear, several Whitetail deer and Mule, deer , and a Mountain Goat in the Flathead Valley.  

Being in the South West of England we got to train a lot in Wales & the Brecons.

Then there was Sennybridge Training Area (SENTA). Oh gwd, it made The Beacons look like paradise!

Sapper740 wrote: I feel ya Rick, anyone who trained at CFB Chilliwack knows the weather and terrain in the area can make any training exercise a real "bag drive".

It wasn't by accident they hauled courses to that training area.  Aside from the almost always 24/7 freezing rain at that time of the year, most of the time you were trying to "patrol" through the dense scrub, even if it wasn't dark you usually couldn't see any of the surrounding mountains to shoot a resection to figure out where you were.

Long hours and days of being not only near-hypothermic freezing wet cold, but also totally lost.  Leading to one patrol, when the det I was leading finally found an open spot and COULD shoot a resection - I discovered that I had just invaded the USA, stumbling across the border into Washington State.  As the other three in my det were also Jacks, we agreed that nobody would ever hear about our bold strike into the heart of America!  The next leg was a bearing of 3200 mils and crash through the brush and the health with silence and stealth.

All that aside, M.U. 4-01 which I'm sure you're familiar with was my go to hunting grounds.  I took a Grizzly bear, a Black bear, several Whitetail deer and Mule, deer , and a Mountain Goat in the Flathead Valley.

Grew up hunting and fishing there.  It became a zoo of buzzing quads and 4x4s early in the 1980s.  Back in the day the Trail Creek border crossing was still open down there in the South Country.  

You could be camped nearby hunting Sage Creek or the other areas near what is now the Ak-Kish provincial park, take a short detour on the way back to where the tent was set up to the border.  The US Customs guys would allow you to cross over along with your hunting rifles to grab a beer and a burger at a tiny little bar and restaurant at Moose City a few hundred yards on the other side.  Canada Customs was equally as disinterested when we returned to the other side. No Form 6NIA required at that time to do either that or cross the border to shoot in a match in the USA; that came later.

It's closed now.  Canada completely demolished their facilities there including the pretty nice quarters they provided for the border guys to stay in while working that crossing point.  The US buildings are all boarded up, but you do see Border Patrol vehicles parked there as they do some patrolling from there via horses, quads, etc.

It's a nice easy and scenic dual sport ride from either Jaffrey/Elko/Sparwood via Lodgepole FSR on the BC side, and Columbia Falls via the Flathead North Fork Road on the Montana side.  The little bar/restaurant at Moose City is gone, but a bit further south down the road, the Polebridge Mercantile makes a killing selling food, drinks, and swag to tourists.  It's become a tourist attraction that reels them in from people wanting to access Glacier NP from the North Flathead road.