[Closed] Carry on up the Khyber. Old gun content.

That round is huge! The only gun I have used was the Smith and Wesson 38 revolver. Years ago but as far as I remember the rounds were tiny compared to those.

A quick google suggests a 38 round lead weight a third or a quarter of those ones.

Having watched the video I'm not as annoyed. It's an obsolete gun with a worn out barrel that takes ammunition that hasn't been made for years. Probably going to scrap if they're didn't do this.

@Murray, sounds fair enough. Haven't had chance to watch it yet.

The title of this post just reminded me of the old Pink Floyd song - Up the khyber! It's a crazy piece of music.

@blokeuptheroad, so I'm right in thinking you'll use the cartridge again after you've used it? How many times can you do that before it becomes to bent out of shape?

@nickc yes. I'm hoping for at least 10 uses from each cartridge case, and maybe a quite a few more. I'm aware of someone who got 20 firings out of this kind of case. They don't really get bent out of shape. The brass can become brittle through work hardening caused by the expansion/contraction on firing and any resizing I do (which I will try to minimise). This can lead to splits.

This can be minimised by annealing (careful heat treating) the case neck every 3 or 4 firings which will soften it and restore the required ductility.  You have to be very careful though as the brass needs to be soft at the neck and hard at the base to avoid catastrophic case separation!

Cases also stretch slightly after a few firings. They can be trimmed back to correct length but eventually this can cause case separation. This is much more likely in modern high velocity rifle calibres using energetic nitro powders than these old black powder rounds which work at much lower breech pressures.

I will clean then visually inspect them after every firing and discard any which are suspect. Black powder cartridges are very forgiving and the Martini is recognised as being a very strong action.

thanks for this post, it is really interesting and nice to see the attention to detail. love historic small arms... very well done

thanks for this post, it is really interesting and nice to see the attention to detail. love historic small arms… very well done

Thanks, it's been a fun project.  Now I'm really looking forward to shooting it!

Looking forward to seeing and hearing about the results from the range on Sunday.

I did hesitate to post this.  I hope people don't find it insensitive in light of recent news events.  I am happy for the mods to delete the thread if that's the consensus.

I had a good day.  My modest aims were: noise; smoke; holes in paper; rifle not blowing up.  I achieved these!

It all feels like much more of an occasion than shooting more modern guns.  Firstly, I was very aware that this was probably its first use in well over a hundred years.  I had given it a very good check over and confirmed it to be mechanically sound, but still... there is always a slight worry.  Especially dropping one of those huge rounds in the breech for the first time and recalling how much black powder I had stuffed into it!

As expected being propelled by black powder, there are huge clouds of smelly, sulphurous smoke and complaints from others on the firing point 'who's lit the barbecue'? 'Where have the targets gone' etc. There is also a small shower of confetti at the muzzle as the shredded paper jacket on the bullet falls away - very festive!  Everyone wanted a go, I obliged a few but my precious supply of ammo meant some were disappointed.

I shot standing, sitting and prone. Felt recoil increased the closer to the ground I got, being most noticeable lying prone.  It's not too bad though, heavier than my .303 Lee Enfield but somehow more agreeable because it's a firm shove rather than a sharp jab.

I shot at 25, 50 and 100m.  Our range goes back to 200m but I was running low on ammo so will save 200m for another day.  At 100m it shoots roughly to point of aim, a bit high at 50m.  Accuracy was acceptable for a Victorian military rifle, but I am sure I can improve on it as I get used to it, refine my technique and tweak the ammunition 'recipe'.

l finished the day with a few shots from my black powder cap & ball revolver.  After a two hour drive home, I then spent another 2 hours stripping and cleaning two very dirty black powder guns.  Black powder residue is very corrosive and if you don't do this within a few hours of shooting, your guns will rust very badly.

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Not a bad group. 🙂

I am loving your work 'blokeuptheroad'

I don't have a FAC but as a Mechanical Engineer I've always loved guns - and always felt a bit guilty because of that love.

I've fired guns and my brother has a FAC so I've tried a few over the years but I've never seen a Martini-Henry.

It's a very interesting old gun and I really enjoyed the details on the ammunition manufacturing process. Keep up the good work and I hope you enjoy shooting for many years to come :o)

Not a bad group. 🙂

Thanks, the rifle is capable of better though I reckon.  Watch me disappear down the frustrating rabbit hole of chasing incrementally smaller groups until the end of my days!

I am loving your work ‘blokeuptheroad’

I don’t have a FAC but as a Mechanical Engineer I’ve always loved guns – and always felt a bit guilty because of that love.

I’ve fired guns and my brother has a FAC so I’ve tried a few over the years but I’ve never seen a Martini-Henry.

It’s a very interesting old gun and I really enjoyed the details on the ammunition manufacturing process. Keep up the good work and I hope you enjoy shooting for many years to come :o)

Thanks!  It really does feel like bringing a small piece of history back to life.  I don't think I will be selling it any time soon.

I know what you mean about the guilt thing - I brace myself for an argument/look of horror whenever I am asked 'so what are your interests'?  Best strategy I've found is to mention mountain biking first, to throw them off the scent! It's marginally more socially acceptable.  It's not guilt as such with me, I don't feel I am doing anything wrong or have anything to feel guilty about, it's just a recognition that most people don't get it and often have a very skewed view of what recreational target shooting is all about.

An additional hoop is you need an explosives licence for the black powder, which (bizarrely) you don’t for smokeless powders.

it’s not bizarre at all. smokeless is a lot more stable and not as easy to ignite as black powder, you need a wood lined box for a ‘Mode B store' for black powder and when i used to load i definitely didn’t wear any synthetic fibres in case of a static spark!

smokeless isn’t going to ignite just by looking at it 🙂

Just on the YouTube channel that was reboring a rifle, I think its a American channel? They don't have proof house laws over there like we do in the UK so depending on which state you live in then you can pretty much what you like.

I did hesitate to post this. I hope people don’t find it insensitive in light of recent news events.

Not even vaguely similar in my eyes. Great posts.

Good interesting post @blokeuptheroad

My father had a Martini Henry which was converted to .22lr. Obviously not as exciting as the original! 😀

it’s not bizarre at all. smokeless is a lot more stable and not as easy to ignite as black powder, you need a wood lined box for a ‘Mode B store’ for black powder and when i used to load i definitely didn’t wear any synthetic fibres in case of a static spark!

smokeless isn’t going to ignite just by looking at it 🙂

I meant bizzare as in feeling not needing a licence for smokeless is odd, not that needing one for BP is! Whilst BP is more hazardous to handle and store, smokeless powder can also be seriously misused if someone is so minded and should, to my mind be licensed, from a security rather than fire safety perspective.

I meant bizzare as in feeling not needing a licence for smokeless is odd, not that needing one for BP is! Whilst BP is more hazardous to handle and store, smokeless powder can also be seriously misused if someone is so minded and should, to my mind be licensed, from a security rather than fire safety perspective.

And making the selling of fireworks to the general public appear what it is: absolutely stupid.

Lovely rifle BTW.

I'm a shooter but only 10m air pistol these days.

@derek_starship agreed. Re 10m air pistol, there's no 'only' about it. An Olympic discipline and extremely challenging to shoot well.  Good luck with it 👍