1955 No4 Mk2 unfired

I live in Oklahoma, so Enfields arent the most popular, but I personally wouldnt pay more than $1300 just because you can get about the same quality of rifle for $1000 that just has a few dings here and there. Ultimately, I think i could've saved money estate sale hunting or just hunting for deals, but that's just me

I know the rifle you are describing.  The problem with the owner claiming that it has NEVER been fired is that, it was fired originally from the factory. No ifs ands or buts about that. The other item of contention is that the photos he has of it show an aftermarket non typical sling attached to it making it in essence a used rifle now. That and he removed the mummy wrap and cleaned it effectively letting it be exposed to the elements. The biggest issue is that you will never know with any amount if certainty if he has fired it. Obviously a very nice specimen but not worth the price of admission.  Also, when something like this shows up on the market, Buy the rifle not the story...

Wrapped (& unwrapped) mummies are an immediate source of contention.

Do you leave them covered not knowing whats going on inside the wrap?

(some have actually been ruined that way by being stored poorly & creatures have used them for latrines)

Or do you unwrap them? Is that somehow destroying the history of something that was never issued & went basically nowhere?

Were they ALL proofed? Not really, but kinda-sorta!

I have 2 one is proofed, the other not.

But they have both been fired before being wrapped. Was it some kind of proof (military arms are not NP or BNP proofed in the U.K. until sold into the civilian market. There are military proofs to pass though.)

Or was it a function or accuracy test? I don't know. But I do know there was firing residue inside the factory applied cosmolene that I had to clean out 40 years later.

The best reasoning I've heard (& this is contested by many) is that the BNP proofed ones were sold to British markets but the ones lacking it were sold from Irish stocks (Irish do not NP, or BNP sold out of service arms) Another "clue" is the presence, or absence of a serial number on the included bayonet. The Irish do serial number match but the British do not.

'53 & '54

If you take two out of the wrap and neither bolt head has an etched ring you have two un-fired MkIIs

Fire one round and you have an etched ring on the bolt face.

That is an expensive one round.

Look at the bottom photo of Shamu"s rifle and there isn't a ring.

Another point; my Mother, RIP, worked at Springfield armory in 1942 in QC after the stock shop and before the drafting room. She told me t first she spent two months firing M1 Garands. OMG I thought but she added on one rifle per rack and even then that is still a lot of pounding to endure. She said " But there were four position shielded stations and eight people a shift." Now I don't recall how many M1 to a rack and I had to unload two boxcars of racks at FT. Sill and surly I have no idea how many #4's to a factory wheels rack and post was production without an accelerated emergency time frame pushing production would affect thing but still a big number. Would they have still been running shifts and proofing every gauged new rifle ?