577/.450 blocks were surely used unaltered, perhaps unofficially, and a concave block which has been shortened to "cure" the problem would explain the condition the OP found. (He may have meant hardenable steel and/or the firing pin tunnel ending further from the breech face as well as the inlaid steel strip version.) Apparently this wasn't dangerous, as it impeded opening first. 303 Martinis tended to deform the block, which was why a special block became necessary. The use of a Lee-Enfield barrel is fine (Enfield did it), except that you need to shorten its longer threads from the rear, which lets you in for needing a reamer to deepen the chamber. I wouldn't trust a twisted one not to be cracked, either. Twisting a receiver probably lengthens the sides, and twisting it back again certainly wont shorten them. But they just convert safe junk into potentially lethal junk. I suppose plenty of Martinis are just wall hangers even nowadays, and some of those "repairs" won't do any damage to the wall. Everybody makes a reloading mistake someday, or has an oily or wet chamber. When you find badly excessive headspace, you need to find out why it happened.
The only fractured Martini I have ever seen had a very slight crack that probably derived from using a pry-bar through the action to unscrew a barrel. Not to mention the possibility that some intellectual realised that that case would hold a most exciting amount of smokeless powder, and when he picked himself up was too disoriented to notice that he had stretched the action sides. In Saudi Arabia I once found an old Societé Française des Munitions balloon head case with the head stretched to a ridiculous angle, although it hadn't ruptured. Besides the Francotte design with the removable action frame, and a block rebated around its pivot pin, they did make copies of the British pattern.
I think the most likely explanation is parts substitution, perhaps even from a Belgian Martini. While that isn't ideal in a high-pressure rifle from which you expect the highest degree of accuracy, I can't see anybody getting into serious trouble with it.īut half the primer's depth is far, far too much. 40-82 backs out its primers by a harmless. The Martini-Henry is probably most remembered for the role it played during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 at the Battle of Rorke's Drift where a small garrison of British soldiers repelled an attack made by a very large force of Zulu warriors.It is common for old rifles of moderate pressure to back their primers out, and it doesn't take any unnatural adhesion to the chamber wall to do it.
It was a real bargain, there some chips in the stock and I'm probably going to ahve to re-finish her and the metal is corroded in some spots and needs a good cleaning (I got the receiver to clean up pretty nicely) but still this was something that couldn't be passed up! To add icing on the cake, I think she's in good enough condition to fire! I lowered the lever once I got it loose and pulled the trigger to here a good, strong "tink" noise (I know there's more to it than that and she needs to be examined by a gunsmith first but it's a step in the right direction!). These Martini-Henry's were unearthed at an old british arsenal in Nepal. Finally came yesterday! There's a beautiful, Victorian lady under all of that grit! I bought it from IMA-USA "untouched" for $200.