Martni Enfield Range Rifle

[Bad Ass Wallace]

This is the only rifle of this type that I have seen in over 50 years of collecting. The aperature sight is a Mues and folds down the side if the action. It even has a front sight pressed metal protector. I have put some loads through it comprised of 190gn cast boolits sized to 0.316" and driven with 28gns of 3031.

[GregLaROCHE]

That’s a beautiful gun. Did you recently acquire it?

[pworley1]

Thanks for posting that.

[Bigslug]

NICE!

My radome has been turning for a .303 Martini, but as best I can tell, not many of them made it out of the Empire and into the USA.

Out of curiousity, how far does it bump the shoulder forward on a fired case? My Dad's got a 7x57 Rolling Block that clearly was a case of "We're still figuring this smokeless stuff out", & I think they deliberately left a lot of room for fouling that wasn't going to be there.

[Rapidrob]

That is one nice rifle! What is with the muzzle?

[Bad Ass Wallace]

That is one nice rifle! What is with the muzzle?

A pressed steel sight protector.

[Rapidrob]

That makes sense. Any idea how old the target sights are? I too have been collection for over five decades and have not seen a set up like that.

[Bad Ass Wallace]

The rifle is a Mk3 577/450 dated 1896 and the conversion to 303 also dated 1896. The sight has a patent date of 1903. I paid a premium for this mainly because the barrel looks 8+/10 no pitting and mirror smooth. I've only put approx 250 cast boolits through (cleaning after every 25) and the internal finish is just getting better and better.

It matches a Martini Henry 577/450 that I refinished/rebuilt from parts some years ago: the wood and metalwork was terrible condition and the wood had 100+yrs of crud imbedded. Scraped back to bare wood it had black walnut with great figure.

[Ilwil]

I had a straight military Martini in .303 about 30 years ago. I wasn't reloading rifle then, so I shot modern .303 ball in it. I was just savvy enough though, to know modern ball was probably not a good thing in an 1890's rifle built for black powder ball, so I moved in on. I've never seen another one since then. Sigh.

[Bad Ass Wallace]

Must be the week for good fortune, just bought an 1893 MM (Martini Medford) cavalry carbine privately for $AU200. These are as rare as the proverbial rocking horse ****!

[Rapidrob]

These rifles are crazy strong! The original CORDITE loading was with a much heavier bullet than the MK VII Ball used from later on.
A .303 converted rifle was just sold in my club that is an outstanding shooter at 500 meters with said MK VII Ball ammo.

[Bwana John]

A pressed steel sight protector.

Question about the sight protector, is it intended to be used as a "hood" and be left up while shooting, or simply slid forward and rotated down when ready to shoot, or only to be used during transport and totally removed from the rifle when shooting?

[Bad Ass Wallace]

remove for shooting.

[john.k]

The target sights are designed for the Lee Enfield action......the first allowable aperature sight had to fold along side of the reciever ,so the service sights were not obstructed,as the target rifle was in fact for militia duty,most Australian made ones are copies of the BSA#9.....later on ,the sight didnt need to fold ,but the charger loading of the SMLE (by then) could not be obstructed..........Ive seen lots of the privately owned target rifles,in some instances ,the three rifles stored in the one box......Martini Henry,Lee Enfield or Lee Metford,and after 1934 ,only the SMLE was used .