Save the No.8s!

[DW58]

I was a CCF cadet in the 1970s.

The main stock of our Armoury was umpteen No.4 Mk.1s for routine use, and 2 dozen No.4 Mk.2s for target shooting.

We had around 2 dozen No.8s, half a dozen Brens, and then there were the odds and sods - a dozen or so No.1 Mk.IIIs, a few Long Lees, and even a few Martini Metfords plus cut-aways, DPs etc.

It was a pretty impressive sight, the source of many happy memories, must have been close to 200 weapons all told.

[Gundoc]

My cadet unit has 7 x No 8's (possibly more as we inherited some). Sadly they are not used much such is the difficulty in doing any shooting. My initial enquieries at local level were met with the expected response.

I do wonder as to who actually owns them. The cadets are not a branch of the armed forces, they are a charity. However I will accept this is not my area of expertise.
If the No8's are owned by the charity I would have thought that they would be easier to deal with than the MOD.

DM

Which cadets are you?

IIRC it used to be that CCF and ACF received weapons and armourers' support direct from the MoD, whereas Sea Cadets were a private charity and tended to own their weapons. Some schools with CCFs also owned their entire stock of rifles for historic reasons (normally No1 rifles, which were sold cheaply to schools under some scheme post WW1).

I guess it has all changed now, especially with all the changes to cadet funding.

As far as I know, all No8s are MoD property and were never sold privately (unlike, for example, the "7.62mmCONV" version of the L39A1, which was produced for private sale to the ARA and other clubs).

Yep, many of my brethren have 'dependencies' who they look after.
Some of them have up to 20-30 cadet units to check. Most now have Cadet GP rifles, with a handful of. No.8's. Problem with them is, there are no repairs now. If one fails a safety check, it gets sent back to donnington to be looked at, and usually stripped for spares.

[Gaz]

I got hold of the New Zealand Historic Arms Association and they very kindly forwarded me a copy of the letter they used to lobby their MPs: https://ukshootingnews.wordpress.com/20 ... er-to-mps/