Lever gun from Nepal

[jfg_4]

A couple of months ago I picked up an untouched Martini-Henry Gahandra rifle. I finally got around to cleaning her up... Not to shabby!

[J Miller]

jfg_4,

Knowing little about Martini-Henrys I got a couple questions.

What caliber is it?
How long is that barrel?
Are you going to shoot it?

Where you at, I wanna come over and shoot it too

Joe

[jfg_4]

It shoots a .577/.450 round. Below is a pic I lifted off the net...



It is a 32 inch barrel and 50 inch overall length.

There are a bunch of folks that do shoot them and I have no doubt this guy would do a good job. I could find a few rounds I would put a few down range.

The story behind the weapon is that there was a cache of arms that had been stashed in the late 1800's in Nepal. International Military Antiques and Atlanta Cutlery purchased the bulk of the items. They are coated in dust and dried grease. A little elbow wax and you can see what I ended up with.

Cheers

John

[earlmck]

John, I opened up Nonte's "Home Guide to Cartridge Conversions" to see if he showed anything convenient to make the brass from. Nope, he doesn't. It's quite a lot larger diameter than .348 Win that was my first thought for a base case. Dang! Be nice if you could shoot that old babe.

[J Miller]

That is a whopper of a cartridge. I'll bet they are Berdan primed as well.
No matter, I'd be reloading them any way.

Just remember, if and when you do shot that old warrior you gotta post some pics of it.

Joe

[kid_couteau]

You can get reloading supplies for these
My friend has one

Brass is like 2-3 bucks each

Cries like a baby when he messes one up

Kid

[perry owens]

Jamieson and Bertram make 577/450 brass and you can get brass and bullets from Buffalo Arms. If you get into shooting it a lot the cheapest way to get brass is to form it from 24 gauge Magtech brass shotshells. You can get dies from CH4D. If I might offer two notes of caution:
Make sure it really is one from the Nepal cache. There are a lot of fakes currently made in Afghanistan for sale to returning servicemen and they are not safe to shoot. A good pointer is any number or letter stampings, which are often crooked or even reversed on the fakes. If you got it direct from IMA or AC then no worries.
If it is genuine, when you cleaned it up did you look under the woodwork on the forearm? On many of the Nepal guns moisture got under the woodwork and caused serious pitting of the barrels.
Hope you can get it shooting.
Perry Owens

[Ysabel Kid]

Very cool. Looking forward to the first range report on this one as well!

[markinalpine]

Shooting Your Martini Henry Rifle

Here's an old article from the SurplusRifle web-site. He did reform 24 ga. brass shotshells.
Mark

[jfg_4]

Yup.. walked into the show room and picked it off the rack at Atlanta Cutllery. That is a dangerous place! When I cleaned it I took the stock off to make sure everything was go
True restorers would probably balk at what I did. Wrapped her in paper towels, put her in a trash bag and set her in the sun for about 8 hrs.

Then I wiped it off and hit it with easy-off. The grease immediately started bubbling. I wiped it down and rinsed with vinegar followed by water. I dried everything then oiled it all.

Been rubbing the stock daily with furniture polish and conditioners.

May not be the best way but it worked for me.

John

[jfg_4]

I may have to invest in a handful of rounds.

[Rusty]

Oh man, I saw those in an Atlanta Cutlery flyer a while back and thought about it really hard. I was afraid it was one of those deals where you had to buy 3 of them to get enough decent parts to make one decent rifle so I passed. Maybe I should have taken my chances and took the plunge. It looks like you did OK with yours.

[Pisgah]

Some folks have done OK with the luck of the draw on these -- some folks have gotten pure junk. One thing's for sure -- you will not be too happy with the cost of loaded ammo, brass, or dies! But if money is no object, it sure could be fun. I had a chance to by a nice one a couple of years ago. When I checked up on the cost of dies and brass, it seems to me that 20 rounds of brass plus the cheapest dies I could find came up to something north of $200...

[jfg_4]

Yup... I waited a long time before deciding to get one. Being able to see them on the rack was nice. They said the just bring out a few from the back at a a time.

There were rifled Enfield muskets, long lever Martini-Henrys and a few other things. I had been in the store about six months prior and did not see anything worthy of bringing home.

[hfcable]

brass at midway:

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?p ... g-_-598853

think i would use the modified 24 gauge. been tempted to get one of these myself
good luck

[jfg_4]

brass at midway:

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?p ... g-_-598853

think i would use the modified 24 gauge. been tempted to get one of these myself
good luck

box of 20 for 127$. Ouch!

[perry owens]

Jamieson brass is "only" $68/20 from Buffalo Arms.Most Martini Henrys need a bullet diameter of .460-.470 so ordinary 45-70 bullets give disappointing results. If you don't have the correct dies you can sometimes get away with just neck sizing with .480 Ruger dies. As with all black powder cartridges avoid any airspace between powder and bullet. Carded wool or dacron cushion stuffing is ok but granular fillers like Cream of Wheat are not good in bottleneck cases.
For the full Martini Henry experience try shooting it wearing one of these:

Perry Owens

[JB]

I have some of the Gad Custom Cartridges loads. They've formed from 24 gauge brass shotgun shells.