Rebarreling a Nepalese Martini Henry.

[WOLF257]

Anybody rebarreled one of these?
I have one that appears to be in great shape but the ammo is so expensive that 20 rounds costs almost as much as I gave for the rifle.
These don't seem to have any collector's value since they aren't British built so experimenting on this one doesn't bother me a great deal as long as what I end up with looks more or less like what it does now.
I was looking into rebarreling it for either .45 Long Colt "Cowboy" or 45-70 BP, both of which are not only cheaper but much easier to find as well as both being low pressure ammo.
Biggest problem I'm seeing is that to keep it looking like a Martini Henry the barrel will have to be 33 inches long and so far I haven't found one that long.
Anybody know of a source that might have either a barrel or .45 barrel blank that long?
I'm also aware that the metallurgy on the Nepalese Martini Henry's is suspect which is another reason I'm interested in replacing the barrel.
It's a nice looking rifle that deserves more than being a wall hanger.

Thanks in advance.

Jim

[autofix4u]

I did one up in "45-65" a while back. Just a 45-70 shortend a little so a factory round will not chamber. I turned oout nice. Got the barrel from Green mountian.

[WOLF257]

Thanks, I'll give them a look.
I was leaning more towards the .45 LC since even a factory load probably wouldn't be enough to damage a modern barrel that thick.

Thanks again for the reply and advice.

Jim

[truckjohn]

Are you talking about the Gehendera rifles or the actual Martini Henry rifles?

The Martini Henry rifles are bona-fide British manufacture rifles made in England..... Quality is excellent and on par with anything else you would expect out of England at the time....

Gehendra rifles were a Nepalese domestic manufactured knockoff of a British MH...
The action is made and works a little different - though is looks basically the same from a distance.... Workmanship wise- they appear identical to the MH... They aren't crude knockoffs.... The early ones had some issues with the barrels not being well made and/or well cared for... and were cut quite a bit tighter than the British barrels... and some of those barrels blew up when shooting British ammo.... They redesigned it to make a Gehendra Mk1 or something - and those were better... but they are VERY uncommon.... Records show only a few hundred or maybe one thousand were made in the Mk1 pattern....

Thanks

[Rojelio]

If your talking about the Nepalese Francotte design, I rebarrelled one to 33 Winchester which is a 45-70 necked down to .338. My load pushes a 200 gr. bullet to 2350 fps.

I didn't try to keep the military look as the wood was pretty bad and I wouldn't recommend going through the trouble unless your action is tight and in good shape.

I don't know where you could get a barrel to match the contour of the francotte barrel. Maybe relining would be an option, but, then you have that big cavernous chamber to deal with.

Here's how mine turned out. Not a work of art, but, functional and not a wallhanger the way it was to start with.


I took a nice boar with it last hunting season.

[andremajic]

If your talking about the Nepalese Francotte design, I rebarrelled one to 33 Winchester which is a 45-70 necked down to .338. My load pushes a 200 gr. bullet to 2350 fps.

I didn't try to keep the military look as the wood was pretty bad and I wouldn't recommend going through the trouble unless your action is tight and in good shape.

I don't know where you could get a barrel to match the contour of the francotte barrel. Maybe relining would be an option, but, then you have that big cavernous chamber to deal with.

Here's how mine turned out. Not a work of art, but, functional and not a wallhanger the way it was to start with.

I took a nice boar with it last hunting season.

Nice! Where did you get the wood for it? Did you make the stock yourself, or are there places where they are available?

I'm wondering because I just got the barrel off mine, and it didn't come with any wood. The parts were jumbled together with a box of odds and ends that was at the gun club.

One of the fellows at the club had died and the members had already taken what they had wanted from the box. They told me that I can take home whatever was left. I lucked out and got an almost complete rifle, minus the stock and a broken hammer spring that needs to be re-made.

With the new barrel you made - Did you silver solder on a new lug to keep the forend on, or did you use something else? Could you show some pics of the stock and how it attaches? Thanks!
Andy

[Rojelio]

andre, you can buy stock sets from IMA and Atlanta Cutlery. I used a buttstock that I already had and I made the fore end from a junk mauser stock forend. To attach it, I cut a dovetail in the bottom of the barrel for a threaded ferrule. Then made an escutcheon for the forend where a screw goes through and screws into the ferrule.

If you need pictures, I'll try and take some tomorrow.