Any Martini-Henry shooters here?

rufrdr

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I have a Martini-Henry Mk IV 577/.450 rifle that I obtained from IMA's Nepal stock some years ago.

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The bore is .468 and rightly should be used with paper patched bullets but being lazy I employ Western Bullet's .466 diameter lead slugs and give up some accuracy at long range. I use Pyrodex RS loaded to the volume equivilant to FFg powder: 80 gr with a puff of carded wool to hold the powder in place. Next is a a thin cardboard disk punched from a cereal box, then a grease cookie of beeswax and olive oil, another cardboard disk, and then the bullet.

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I mop the bore about every 10 rounds but I'm thinking I should leave it be as the fouling may actually tighten the bore and give more accuracy to the bullet. Groups are about 5-6" at 100 yards but I have managed to hit the 400 yd steel plate at my club a few times with the rifle. Recoil is pretty stout but it is loads of fun to shoot! Cleaning is easy. The breechblock is easily removed so that running a rod from the muzzle and inserting a patch at the breech allows cleaning from back to front plus easy access to the chamber.

I also have a Martini-Enfield in .303 and a Cadet .310 both of which use smokeless.

Shooting the MH is addictive and I find that I can go through a lot of ammo in one sitting if I'm not careful!
 
I have a couple of the BSA martini, but they are 22RF.
Lots of fun.
 
I have an Aussie BSA Martini Cadet chambered in .218 Bee (hornady.com/ammunition/rifle/218-bee-45-gr-hp#!). Nice little rifle and a pretty hard hitter.
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My BSA cadet is a fun plinker. I shoot .32 SW longs through it that I reload and get close to 1000 FPS near the muzzle. Very accurate at 50 yds and pretty quiet.
 
Left is a Mk II made in 1876 by London Small Arms Co, Right a Mk III made in 1881 by Enfield. Both .577/.450 caliber. Right is missing trigger and breech block. Both in Afghanistan at the moment waiting bringback paperwork to be done.

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CD
 
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