MARTINI - HENRY RIFLE, MARK II

My particular example of this British classic was produced by the Birmingham Small Arms and Metal Company in 1887 as part of a large government contract. It has survived in good shape, picking up considerable character along the way.

Markings on the right side of the buttstock indicate that the rifle was refurbished at some point by the Fort William Arsenal in Calcutta. Both the buttstock and the receiver are marked with the numeral "2," indicating reclassification as a second-class weapon. There are some markings in Hindi stamped on the buttstock, along with a stamp indicating (I believe) that the arm was sold out of service in November 1894. (I don't know why my scanner makes these marks look raised, but they're not -- they're stamped into the wood.)

I have been told that the letters stamped on the left side of the barrel, below the rear sight base, indicate "NATIVE SERVICE NEPAL," although I acquired this particular rifle before those from the Nepalese cache appeared on the U.S. market. Someone once told me that these rifles were once given away as premiums here in the U.S. with the purchase of a full case of motor oil -- sounds just bizarre enough to be true...

The top of the receiver is marked "S.X." indicating that the rifle was upgraded at some time by the fitting of a strengthened extractor.

Although many out there will differ with me, these rifles have always had the reputation of being a challenge for the reloader seeking any real degree of accuracy. Adding to this challenge is the high cost of brass and dies. In fact, it's not at all uncommon to end up sinking more money into the reloading gear and components that the cost of the rifle itself. I'm afraid that ended up being true in my case.

Although there are several options out there for cases, none is particularly inexpensive. I believe that the least expensive option may be to start with trimmed and re-sized brass 24-gauge shotgun shells. There are also cases out there turned from brass bar stock, but I decided to go the more traditional -- and decidedly more costly -- route of drawn brass cases made up by Bertram in Australia and purchased through Buffalo Arms. Including shipping, these babies ended up putting me out about US$5.00 each, and I invested in three boxes of twenty pieces each. You do the math...

Then there was the special order RCBS shellholder @ $20.00+.

Based on some information that appeared in an article in a 1995 back issue of The Cast Bullet Association's magazine, The Foulng Shot, I decided to contact Neil Jones of Saegertown, Pennsylvania -- a well-known manufacturer of custom precision loading dies. The three dies I bought from Neil included a bushing-type neck sizing/decapping die with three bushings (.483", .484", and .485"), and a neck expanding die (.462"), both of which screw into a bench press for use. The neck sizing die is oversized (1"-14 thread), while the neck expanding die will fit into a standard bench press (7/8"-14 thread). The micrometer-adjustable seating die is made for use in an arbor-type press, or simply for use with hand pressure (it is not made to screw into into a bench press). This seating die was described by Neil as a "micro seating die w/.489" #5 bushing." By the time I was done with this little experiment, I was suffering from sticker shock to the tune of US$430.00+. Between the brass and dies, I had now managed to exceed the initial purchase price of the rifle itself (US$732.00). Oh, well -- boys and their toys...

I knew that I needed soft lead bullets that would slug up into the Henry rifling when fired, and also that black powder would likely do the best job of this. However, I was not at all interested in fooling around with full loads in those cavernous cases. I think I read somewhere that they would take something like 110 gains to fill up. Ouch.

And, since my goal only involved punching paper at 100 yards, not knocking over charging Zulus or Dervishes, I didn't need anything like full loads.

Using information from an article by Dennis Bruns from a 1988 issue of Rifle magazine, I decided that a duplex load with a filler was the way to go, but first some trial-and-error experimenting was called for.

Without dragging you through all of my various ups and downs, I'll just cut to the chase. Here's where I ended up:

• Drawn Bertram brass
  

• CCI No. 34 primers (the firing pin on my rifle has a HEAVY fall; these extra hard military rifle primers seem to stand up to it better than standard large rifle primers)
  
• 5-1/2 grains IMR-4227 (loaded first) (Note: per Dennis Bruns, one grain of IMR-4227 is approximately equal to three grains of black powder, so 5-1/2 grains of IMR-4227 is equal to about 16.5 grains of black.)
  
• 40.0 grains (by volume using a simple black powder measure made for muzzleloaders, not weighed) of GOEX Fg (i.e., "1F") black powder (loaded second, directly on top of the smokeless powder)
  
• 70.0 grains (by volume using the same measure as for the black powder, not weighed) of Cream of Rice cereal (loaded third, directly on top of the black powder)
  
• .060" Walters fiber wad (between the Cream of Rice filler and the base of the bullet)
  
• Cast bullets from a Lee #90268 hollow-base mould, 405 grains, 1:30 alloy, sized .460" and lubed with Thompson-Center black powder lube (hollow base left empty). (This bullet design is intended to copy the standard U.S. government bullet for the .45-70-405 Trapdoor Springfield .45-70 carbine bullet.)

Fired cases were decapped/neck-sized in the Neil Jones neck-sizing/decapping die using the .484" bushing, and then expanded in his neck-expander die. Bullets were seated in his seating die (which only required hand pressure). The bullets were seated over the second band, for an approximate overall cartridge length of 3.08".

This recipe produced four five-shot groups off the bench at 100 yards averaging 2.798", with one five-shot group of just under 1-1/2". At that point I quit experimenting. Now if I could just manage to get my Snider to shoot like this!

August 2007