Khyber Pass Martini

Johnny_Canuck

Johnny_Canuck

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I have what I believe to be a Khyber Pass Martini enfield copy. Lacks most proof marks that I normally associate with british made guns. I am unfamiliar with Martini rifles in general so it may be a genuine article. I am unsure. Currently chambered in .303.

If anyone can help me identify it further I would much appreciate it. I can send pics and such.

As to my intent. Even if it is a Khyber Pass copy I want to check on general opinion for a rebarrel and chambering to either 22 K hornet or .218 bee (ackley)

It is already sportered with a shortened barrel and marbles front sight so even if it is a true martini. The collectors value is long gone.

Secondly. Trigget work on martini's how difficult is it scale of 1-10 and anybtips or tricks to help me along? Currently in the planning phase of this build.
 
If it is a Khyber Pass copy, don't even think about shooting it, let alone reworking it for another cartridge. You have no idea what metal was used in its "manufacture".
 
Martinis usually have loads of proof marks all over. This thing is bare. Only the queens crown with NP underneath for a mark. Very small on the barrel. Reciever, block and such. 303 Nitro proved marked on the barrel
 
You may just need to do some due diligence on that Martini. There is a good chance it was made at the Royal Arsenal in Afghanistan. Several of those have shown up in the last 7-8 years. I know some of them went to the US with documentation. The US troops bought them in the local bazaars and were allowed to take them home.

I don't know if Canadian troops were allowed to or not. Rumor has it they were allowed to for a while as they were considered antiques. I can't substantiate that. Maybe one of the good folks that served there could give more credible information.

I have one of those rifles. They were built under British supervision. They are very well made, very few markings but the give away is the checkered thumb rest on the left rear side. Instead of the boundary being nice and even it looks like it was engraved by hand and rather quickly but still not bad. Mine is chambered in 303Brit but rumor has it some are chambered in 577-450 as well. I like mine, it shoots better than I can hold. It has a 1-10 twist rate.

One way to tell whether it's a Khyber Pass rifle is the bore. The bores in KP rifles are often irregular and the rifling looks the same, if there is any. KP rifles will usually have spelling mistakes in the markings as well.
 
bearhunter said:
You may just need to do some due diligence on that Martini. There is a good chance it was made at the Royal Arsenal in Afghanistan. Several of those have shown up in the last 7-8 years. I know some of them went to the US with documentation. The US troops bought them in the local bazaars and were allowed to take them home.

I don't know if Canadian troops were allowed to or not. Rumor has it they were allowed to for a while as they were considered antiques. I can't substantiate that. Maybe one of the good folks that served there could give more credible information.

I have one of those rifles. They were built under British supervision. They are very well made, very few markings but the give away is the checkered thumb rest on the left rear side. Instead of the boundary being nice and even it looks like it was engraved by hand and rather quickly but still not bad. Mine is chambered in 303Brit but rumor has it some are chambered in 577-450 as well. I like mine, it shoots better than I can hold. It has a 1-10 twist rate.

One way to tell whether it's a Khyber Pass rifle is the bore. The bores in KP rifles are often irregular and the rifling looks the same, if there is any. KP rifles will usually have spelling mistakes in the markings as well.
Click to expand...

Not to mention Khyber Pass rifles usually have all sorts of other random crap stampings. Wouldn't be surprised if there was a 577 Martini floating around with Waffenapts, US Flaming Bombs and British proofs smuckered anywhere.
 
So. Possibly ARA or Egyptian assembly of a proved/scrubbed Birmingham made action... or something else. Maybe I'll take it to work and shoot it with the radioactive science gun that tells me whats in the metal
 
Johnny_Canuck said:
So. Possibly ARA or Egyptian assembly of a proved/scrubbed Birmingham made action... or something else. Maybe I'll take it to work and shoot it with the radioactive science gun that tells me whats in the metal
Click to expand...

The Royal Afghan facility actually made their own receivers on obsolete British machinery and as far as I know all of the rest of the parts. The reason for the British proofs is because the factory was working under British supervision and they brought their stamps with them. The Soviets did the same thing when they were working in China at the new plants building SKS rifles. The early Chinese SKSs had Cyrillic letters which the Chinese quickly changed after the Soviet supervisors left.

I have seen a few Afghan rifles with a castle emblem stamped on the left flat with roman numerals. Supposedly this indicated property of the Royal Family.
 
If it is a full size martini action, I think you would very disappointed if you tried to re-barrel to something small like .22 Hornet. A tiny cartridge for a very big action. Let alone all of the issues with extractors, firing pin bushing and the like. .22 Hornets were much better suited to the much smaller Martini Cadet actions .
 
Bonehill converted thousands of them to 22 long rifle. Most of them have terrible bores because of the quality of the 22rf of the period. If they have decent bores, they are .220 diameter and very accurate. Mind you the 30 inch barrels give a great sight radius.
 
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