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At our shoot today, a nice ooman had brought along a 577 Martini Henry and insisted we had a go with it. The rounds for this are great brass milk churns filled with black powder, by the pound we estimate, and with a whole wheel* sat on top of it. A crowd gathered as we picked up the rifle and tried to look expertly along the top of it. 100 mards away was our 'tater shy, and we thought that would make a good target by virtue of the rectangle of bare earth on the embankment behind the hanging taters. The ooman offered a word of advice: "Aim a foot low at this range, the sights are set for 300 yards, not 100 yards"

We 'efted the gun to our shoulder, took careful aim a foot below a danglin' tater, gently exhaled, squeezed the trigger ...

Boom !

The day brightened and then darkened as a flash of sparks and then a cloud of smoke issued forth from the muzzle. Everyone fell silent for a moment then a cheer went up.

"Bloody hell, he's hit the tater !"

We tried not to look surprised as we pawed the gun back to the owner. There are times when it is best not to acknowledge a fluke as such...

Impressive bits of kit, those 577 Martinis. We can see why people like 'em.




*Dromia and others of that ilk advise making cast boolits from lead wheel weights, but we are of the opinion that this ooman had used a whole wheel for his boolit. It was mahoosive !

.577/450??

.577 was the Snider round

Yes, 577/450. We are quite happy to believe that in this case the '450' was the weight of the bullet in grammes...

Would love a go at one.

Back in the mid 70's in my early teens, it was .22RF versions of the MH that were the first things I ever learnt to shoot with........and as someone brought up on watching Zulu endless times, those 1870's and 1880's dated MH's I was shooting fasinated me - even though I cursed the bloody things on many occasions.

shooting a Martini leaves you shaken, AND stirred !!

Had two of shots with one a couple of months ago at one of our clubs bring anything days, instructions were given and we were told to put right thumb on indent on the action. My turn came and got down on the point, loaded and instinctively put thumb over the stock. Squeezed the trigger, boom big flash, smoke and white burning wisps of cotton filled the air and my thumb whacks me in the nose. Have another go said the owner, needless to say I put thumb well out of the way the second shot.

We've always said that thumbs are over-rated...

You normally only do it once, mine was with a No1 Mk3 SMLE and made my eyes water, never again....

I have a read affinity for the Martini Henry service rifle and over the past 10 years I have shot and handled dozens of them. This first time I shot my Mark IV on A range at Kingsbury the bullet passed through the target and the butts radioed up to the firing point exclaiming WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!!! as apparently a freight train had passed overhead.
I shoot;
a Mark I/11 1875 BSA
a Mark III 1885 BSA
a Mark IV 1886 ENFIELD
and a .303 Mark II Martini-Enfield
I have a few other ones in my section 58 collection including a rare cutaway gauge action.