In 2005 the Italian Navy decided to rid itself of a huge stockpile of Lee Enfields. It's not exactly clear where they came from, but most likely were contributed by the Allied powers at the end of WW2. The arms were split up between the Italian Services, with the Navy getting a good number of rifles. For the most part these rifles were never used, and reportedly warehoused and kept in good condition. When the time came to get rid of them, some intrepid member of the Italian Navy got permission to sell them rather than melt them down, like they did to so many Carcano rifles. Euroarms has acquired them and are now for sale on the European market.
The images in this story are from Euroarms Italia
Euroarms Italia was established in the early 70's by Luciano Amadi, and then the company was known as Armi San Paolo. They originally built a selection of blackpowder arms. In the early 80's they moved to Concesio in the Val Trompia Valley, where they are now. In 2000 they changed the name of the company to Euroarms Italia, and also got into the surplus arms business. A lot of military surplus sources have dried up in Europe since then and according to Euroarms, finding quality is getting harder, but they remain upbeat. They say there are still plenty of old guns in state arsenals around the world, and the problem is getting the countries to want to sell them, rather than just melting them down.
The Italian Enfields were stored without their bolts, which weren't kept in any kind of order, however Euroarms put in the effort, and at least half of the Enfield cache has been reunited with their original bolt. A lot of No. 4's were still in their original crates and covered in the grease they were sent to Italy in. The guns they have available range from the No 1 Mk III to No. 4's from 1911 to 1943 from all the British arsenals, Canadian Long Branch guns and some from India. They have plenty of bayonets also.
The problem for us is getting them into the states. The only American representative is Euroarms of America, and they sell black powder reproductions to the Civil War Reenactor bunch. There are no American distributors of these Italian Enfields. It's possible all this is held up by the US Government, who recently stopped the importation of old Garands from South Korea. The UK distributor for these Enfields told me it's possible to get one from them, but by the time it gets imported into the US, the price is over a thousand dollars. So for now, the European collector of old Enfields is having a field day!