Gahendra Martini Henry

[Beekeeper]

Hope this is the right place,
I bought one of the Gahendra's being sold by IMA and am looking for a disassembly diagrahm or instructions!
Since they were hand made I doubt anyone will have spare parts for them so it behoves one to take the utmost care when disassembling it.
Any help anyone has would be greatly appreciated.



beekeeper

[Rockydog]

Beekeeper, I'm interested in one of these and wondered about the condition of yours upon receipt. Do you plan on firing the old girl? RD

[Beekeeper]

If it looks good and cleans up as good as some I's seen I intend on shooting it.
If not I will have the barrel relined into 45/70 or 30/30 and shoot it that way

beekeeper

[Gunfreak25]

Please read this article written by RichardWV our leading Martini Henry expert. Care must be taken when you decide to fire your Gahendra rifle. While they are of alot higher quality than Khyber pass afghani made weapons, the mettalurgy is still not up to par with what the British would have used in their Martini's. The bores on the Gahendra's are also significantly smaller than standard Martini bores. So any .45 bullet will not work.

http://www.britishmilitariaforums.yuku.com/topic/8959/t/More-on-the-Gahendra.html

Mine will be here Monday. I plan to give it a good looking over, a careful cleaning and hopefully i'll have a candidate for a shooter with some mild BP 577 loads after I can get the bore slugged. If you google "Gahendra rifle" there's alot of topics being covered on many forums on people getting these fresh in from IMA. The low price made the word on these get around quite quickly.

[no34570]

Beekeeper
Here is a link to the Martini Henry website,there you will find what your looking for,I hope it helps?
http://www.martinihenry.com/index.html

Cheers
no34570

[deltaenterprizes]

Deleted

[Beekeeper]

The one I got has an excelent action with all the pieces and all in good shape.
The barrel is another story.
The bire is fair with some pitting that will not allow it to be shot.
Didn't find it until I removed the barrel from the action.There is excessive pitting at the woodline and the forestock crumbled in my hand from the blood rust and rot.
If I had a decent barrel it would be an excellent rifle.
I intend to complete it with new stocks and make it a safe queen until I can find a good barrel (new or used) to complete the rifle.
If you read all of the posts on other websites you will never buy one as the so called SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS seem to be of the persuation that no one except they should own one and no one except them should have the ability to access the condition of one so don't buy one.
gunfreak 25 your richard wv is one of them.


beekeeper

[Gunfreak25]

Rich knows his stuff, he's been in the Martini game longer than most of has have, and owns more Martini's than most of is will ever have. So I tend to shy his way when it comes to informative postings on the Gahendra rifle.

As for the "subject matter experts"......:coffee:

[Beekeeper]

maybe so gunfreak, but even that does not give him the right to have the attitude that only he and his cronies have the right or knowledge to own ,restore or shoot a Gahendra.
I know of a number of people who have been turned off by his " don't buy one , their junk and you have no knowledge of how to restore one " attitude.
That sort of turns me off , and makes me not want to look at any of his advice as it is slanted in that direction
But thats just my opinion and everyone has one.


beekeeper

[Beekeeper]

Rockydog ,
You asked me to give you an update on the Gahendra I ordered.
Well after a week of cleaning and over several days 10 hours in an electronic cleaner I finally got it completely apart. The picture in the advert doesn't do it justice.
The one I got was worse.
The receiver and internals is pretty close to perfect once all of the Yak-crud was removed. The barrel is another story completely. In a nut shell it is toast.
Heavy pitting on the outside along where the woodline should be
The bore is pitted badly for about 6 inches just ahead of the chamber and the chamber altho rusty could be cleaned up I suppose.
The stocks are so badly eaten by blood rust , rot, and decay they crumbled in my hands.The butt cap just laying on my workbench went "ping"
and decentagrated , It is 120 year old cast Iron
I intend to build new stocks of cherry as it was a wood in use in Nepal at the time.
Tried to find Mahogany which the original was made of and the man at the hardwood supplier a 100 miles from where I live gave me that look of "you want what, is that a wood" so I settled on the cherry.
I will make minor repairs to the receiver and reassemble it and reinstall the barrel and make her a safe queen until I can find a barrel.
IMA says they will eventually sell parts for them and maybe I can get a barrel for one then.

Did I get my moneys worth? I think so. Would I buy another? No I don't think so
It was worth the price to see and have a little piece of history. It amazes me at the abilities of the craftsmen that made them. I wonder at how much we have lost since then.

When I get it done I will take some pictures and post them.
Hope this helps you make up your mind as to wheather to buy one.


beekeeper

[Gunfreak25]

Beekeeper, just how deep is your pitting? You'd amazed at how deep the pitting on these can go yet there's still plenty of meat there to keep the barrel safe. The pressure blackpowder creates literally halves itself as soon as the bullet has moved as little as a few inches down the bore. Mine is very deeply pitted below the woodline, but these barrels are so thick I have little to worry about.