Gahendra Martini Henry range report.

[WOLF257]

Recently traded with another forum member for this...


It's a Nepalese Gahendra Martini Henry rifle built in the late 1800's.
Overall the rifle is in very good condition and from all indications it's mechanically sound.
I had to repair the mainspring and firing pin, common problems with this particular rifle, but other than a very few cosmetic dings in the wood nothing else needed to be done to it.
The rifle fires a 577-450 black powder cartridge.
Here it is next to a 150 grain 30.06 cartridge.


The bore is somewhat smaller than a true British Martini Henry so slugging the bore on this and all other Nepalese guns is an absolute must.
The original cartridge for the Martini Henry infantry rifle was a paper patched 480 grain hollow base bullet with a beeswax plug on an 85 grain charge of black powder.
The Gahendra however was meant to shoot the carbine cartridge which was a 410 grain paper patched bullet over 70 grains of black powder.
I decided to err on the side of caution and go with a 405 grain hollow based 45-70 bullet cast in pure lead over a 60 grain charge.

After 2 rounds with the rifle sandbagged and fired with a lanyard there were no signs of any sort of trouble so I felt it was safe to start shoulder firing it.
Nepalese rifles tend to shoot high but I shot center mass on a half sized silhouette at 50 yards just to see how far off the sights were.
The rifle seems to be shooting consistently 10 inches high and about 2.5 inches left at 50 yards.
POA for the number 1 group of 3 shots was center mass as indicated by the red dot.
POA for the next 5 rounds was at the bottom edge of the silhouette indicated by the lower red dot.



Not too shabby for a 130 year old rifle that hasn't been fired in well over 100 years.
I may have to do something to the front sight post, it's narrow, shiny and my eyes aren't what they used to be but all in all I'm very happy with the performance of the rifle.

Jim

[WILCO]

Impressive Jim!!!! Thanks for the report.

[Tatume]

Thanks Jim. One day I'm going to get a Martini!

Take care, Tom

[Bo1]

Nice rifle, and shooting Jim.
Bo

[Argentino]

Nice! I always wanted to see a range report of one of this rifles.
What bore size did you get and what bullet size did you use?

Thanks

[WOLF257]

The bore slugged at approximately .458 so it's smaller than a true British Martini Henry which can be up to .010" larger in diameter.
The Lee mold produces a reasonably consistent .461 diameter but since I'm using pure lead I felt that a slightly oversized bullet wouldn't present any danger.
I didn't see any evidence of leading so it's very possible the bore might be slightly larger than .458, the 7 land rifling makes it somewhat difficult to get a consistent measurement.
The gentleman I traded with had done a very good job of cleaning the metal and wood so that took a lot of the work out of putting the rifle back together.
I'm going to have to get a neck sizer for the brass due to the undersized bullets but the chamber appears to be in good shape since the fired cases didn't show any excessive swell.
I took a couple of the fired cases and turned them in increments of 90 degrees and rechambered them and all chambered with no problem so it also looks like the chamber is concentric.
Since I don't plan on shooting my Francotte Pattern Martini Henry anymore the brass will just be used in the Gahendra, so I think I can get by with just neck sizing.

Jim

[john hayslip]

I ordered one from Atlanta Cutlery 2 days ago. They have a discount going. Cost with shipping was $190 if I remember correctly. $179+ shipping of $21 less 15 percent. Good article on restoring one in the Shotgun News Gunsmithing Projects book by Reid Coffield. His had a crack in the receiver and he doesn't plan on shooting it. Friend had one at the last gunshow that he is also shooting. Apparently many of them have wood pegs instead of metal pins. Friend and Reid both reported that.

[WOLF257]

Did you order this...
https://www.atlantacutlery.com/p-736...untouched.aspx

Or this...
https://www.atlantacutlery.com/p-153...untouched.aspx

Reason I ask is that the first is the Francotte Pattern Martini Henry and they are generally regarded as being unsafe to shoot due to questionable metallurgy and the way the action fits in the receiver.
The second link is the Gahendra Martini Henry like the one in my range report and if the rifle checks out ok they are generally safe to shoot.
But in any event, make absolutely sure you slug the bore, the bore on the Nepalese rifles tend to run undersize compared to the true Martini Henry and whatever you do, don't try to shoot any of the commercial 577-450 ammo.
It uses smokeless powder instead of black powder and bullets meant for the .468 bore of the British Martini Henry, shooting it in any of the Nepalese 577-450's is very dangerous.

Jim

[rwa325]

Jim, I got a Francotti Martini about five years ago and put about 15 rounds of Ten-X ammo thru it, but those are black powder loads. Thanks to your warning, I'll not try any of my old British paper-patched Kynoch .577-450 in it. Do you think my Gahendra would handle it?

Bob

[seaboltm]

Any one rebarrel these to 303 British or 30-40?

[seaboltm]

I found a smith who would rebarrel one to 30-30 IF the action were in good shape. $450. He would not push to 30-40 or 303 British. He may do 38-55, but I didn't ask. Not much difference between 30-30 and 38-55 as far as strength of action needed.