Just aquired a Greener-Martini in 45/70 cocking indicator? Tang sight?

[AbitNutz]

I just picked up a Greener-Martini in 45/70. It started life as a weird gauge shotgun...sort of a 12/14ga thing. Navy Arms did a really nice change to a 45/70. It has a 26" very heavy octagon barrel barrel and some really nice color case hardening of the metal.

The trigger isn't horrible but I think I can improve it by a bit of judicious polishing. The stock is pretty mediocre at best. It almost looks like some very plain maple....nothing I can do about that. I wish they had kept the steel or brass butt plate instead of going to a quite ugly rubber one. I use recoil pads in my shooting vest so the butt pad does little to ease recoil for me.

For whatever reason they removed the cocking indicator on the right side. I'd rather have that as I think it looks cool. I found one...at least I hope I have...for the original Greener-Martini when it was a shotgun. If that doesn't pan out, I'm wondering if anyone knows if any of the Martini-Henry cocking indicator will work? The Greener-Martini action is clearly larger. I suspect that a Martini-Henry indicator would be too short...maybe the one I ordered will work.

Most important change I want to make...really only important change...is this thing needs sights! The front sight is just a dovetail, looks like maybe a 3/8ths so that should be no problem. The rear is a lot more challenging. I would really like to have a tang sight but man there is no damn tang to mount it on. There is space enough to get one screw on some metal but the second screw would likely be in wood. I've seen a Marble sight made for the Marlin 336 that has a super short base.

I guess I could try and mount something interesting in the rear dovetail. It has a sort of buckhorn in it now that not only do I not like, but really doesn't fit the character of the rifle.

Any ideas from you imaginative folks?

[Ballistics in Scotland]

They didn't necessarily remove it. When this action was used for the civilian Greener GP shotgun it didn't have a cocking indicator, just a round stud on the axis pin. Here is an illustration of what your gun most likely was, the Greener Police Gun. Even of these, I don't know if they all had the cocking indicator.

http://www.gunstar.co.uk/greener-w-w-mk-iii-riot-shotgun-12-bore-gauge-shotgun/Shotguns/694209

It wouldn't be too difficult to file the head of that pin to a very thin disc, and silver solder on a cocking indicator in your choice of shape. Or you could just cut a groove in that pin hbolead, and insert some white or coloured paint and leave enough of the slot to feel in the dark. The trouble is, military Martinis had a square section on that pin, engaging in a square hole in the sear and therefore rotating with it. You very likely have a round pin in a round hole, which won't rotate anything.

It is worth looking on eBay for old Parker-Hale aperture sights, though they can be expensive, and the Model 8, a very common tang sight without a tang, isn't for sale overseas, although they often are. It would require some metalwork to fit. Beware of the 7a for rimfire target Martinis which don't fold at all.

http://www.rifleman.org.uk/BSA_sights_and_accessories.htm#ST

My choice would be the Sportarget, visible on the same website, which is rather like a tiny micrometer tang sight, working sideways in a frame. I don't mean the one illustrated, though. What you would need is one with a side mount for Martinis, although one made for the rimfires would probably require adapting. I have one with a rounded side mount for bolt actions which may someday be adapted by a silver soldered plate instead.

[marlinman93]

On old Creedmoor rifles the rear tang sight mounting was done in the stock, and they shot very accurately to very long distances! If I was doing a tang sight on a gun with no tang, I'd inlet a brass or steel base into the wood in the typical top tang location, and bed it in with epoxy bedding compound. Then I'd D&T for the spacing of the tang sight I wanted to use and mount it up. With a metal insert, the sight can be removed if needed, and the threads will hold up better than wood screws.
I did this to a Buffalo Classic many years ago, and it worked great!

[Ballistics in Scotland]

On old Creedmoor rifles the rear tang sight mounting was done in the stock, and they shot very accurately to very long distances! If I was doing a tang sight on a gun with no tang, I'd inlet a brass or steel base into the wood in the typical top tang location, and bed it in with epoxy bedding compound. Then I'd D&T for the spacing of the tang sight I wanted to use and mount it up. With a metal insert, the sight can be removed if needed, and the threads will hold up better than wood screws.
I did this to a Buffalo Classic many years ago, and it worked great!

Good points, and the wood-mounted sight was particulary useful for the back position, where there couldn't possibly be a tang. Your epoxy bedded plate should often be good, but in a Martini it would have to go where the wood is exceptionally thin over the stock bolt. I would, at least, want the plate to be very thin at its rear end.

It could be welded to the rear of the receiver socket, at just the place where an ordinary Martini is likely to shed a chip of wood. I would shape it to its bed in the wood (pre-epoxy), tack-weld it with MIG in the centre, where that shouldn't damage the wood, tap it a little this way or that if required, and then finish the welding before replacing the stock.

With or without this, good bedding of the stock to the bottom of the socket, not just its rim, is essential to avoid that chipping. I would wax the socket and glass-bed it.

[Von Gruff]

You could always do what I did and make one. Just use longer bolts in place of the action bolts and the originality of the action is preserved.

http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv39/VonGruff/577-450%20Martini%20Henry/Photo0966_zps5a05182d.jpg (http://s667.photobucket.com/user/VonGruff/media/577-450%20Martini%20Henry/Photo0966_zps5a05182d.jpg.html)
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv39/VonGruff/577-450%20Martini%20Henry/Photo0967_zps482b0e3d.jpg (http://s667.photobucket.com/user/VonGruff/media/577-450%20Martini%20Henry/Photo0967_zps482b0e3d.jpg.html)
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv39/VonGruff/577-450%20Martini%20Henry/Photo0974_zpsfdf3f2ba.jpg (http://s667.photobucket.com/user/VonGruff/media/577-450%20Martini%20Henry/Photo0974_zpsfdf3f2ba.jpg.html)

[Bad Ass Wallace]

Yet another Martini range sight, fully adjustable 1/2min clicks and it folds down beside the action. The name on the sight is MUES Special.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v152/BAWallace/Meues_upright.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/BAWallace/media/Meues_upright.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v152/BAWallace/Meues_folded.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/BAWallace/media/Meues_folded.jpg.html)

[pietro]

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I've successfully refinished Maple gunstocks to remove the blonde look by removing the old finish, then inking on some black wood stain in wavy lines that mimicked a fancy wood grain, prior to staining the entire stock with a medium reddish-brown stain, then a TruOil tops coat(s).

Many an old/original/antique muzzleloading rifle, that was made with a Maple stock, was also stained to a rich, darker color.

The stock below is Tiger Maple, which didn't require the inking-in of a woodgrain pattern.



http://www.trackofthewolf.com/imgPart/aap-222_2.jpg

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