Martini Receiver inquiry

[Dukeoflawnchair]

Good evening aged and learned ones,

I picked up this pretty Martini receiver just recently, and the seller was only told by the former owner that it was a Greener action. (New Old Stock).

I was wondering - is there any way to decipher the markings to determine the provenance of the action? More for personal interest than anything else

Untitled by Dukeoflawnchair/url], on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2hyzzJz]Untitled by Dukeoflawnchair, on Flickr

Untitled by Dukeoflawnchair, on Flickr

Untitled by Dukeoflawnchair, on Flickr

 

[pmatuk]

have one like it from SARCO thats similar and is marked as such .This one does not have a BNP stamp on it and is the same size action as Egypt contract 12 martini

 

[tacfoley]

BNP = Birmingham Nitro Proof is a post-1954 Birmingham Proof house Stamp.

The excellent colour case hardening SHOULD be there on both sides, but the LH side seems to be lacking it unless the camera angle is iffy.

I'm no expert on Greeners, but the brand name is more often seen on the RHS of the action, unless the gun was going to be made into a so-called police gun. This version fired an all-brass 14g cartridge that obviously did NOT fit into a standard, and was intended for use in riots, prison control and large animal put-downs, like an escaping bull from a cattle market, or putting down an animal at a farm. These odd-calibre guns were also issued to colonial police, for putting down uppity natives and so on, from the early part of the 20th C.

See - https://modernfirearms.net/en/shotguns/great-britain-shotguns/greener-police-gun-eng/

There would have been other stamps on it, depending on the age - either a set of crossed scepters with letters 'inside' the cross, like A X C and a number in the middle denoting the seniority of the inspector, or a a circle divided into three pie slices with the same letters and numbers. All of these on the breech-end of the barrel - stamps such as 12 FT TONS PER SQ IN and the chamber length in decimal inches.

Obviously with such an odd chambering, this gun was proofed as a complete action, and then dismantled.

 

[tacfoley]

Duplicate post, sorry.

 

[chasseur]

I had one of those years ago basically it s a greener martini GP action.Most of the GPs were takedown actions as yours is and yours appears to be a late action with clips holding the pins in place instead of screws like in the second pic by pmatuk .The ones with the screws are more desirable.Some of the later guns were made by webley and scott as they took over from greener in the later years I believe.The actions with pin retention screws are better suited to build into rifles say based on the 45/70 etc.That said they really are at their best as shotgun actions as they ,especially in takedown form not as strong as they smaller military and sporting actions.

 

[pmatuk]

added a pic of the other side

 

[antiqueguy]

greener made martini actions mainly for shotguns and riot guns I think into the 70's pretty strong actions just like large martini actions they can be rebarreled/chambered in just about any cartridge that will make the turn

 

[Dukeoflawnchair]

Awesome. Many thanks for the information!

I'm curious - most interweb searches are suggesting that someone rebarrelling a Martini-Enfield or Martini-Henry should stick to a cartridge or loading below 45000psi.

Would the loading for a post WWII action need to be to the same expectation? (Not comparing them to a 125ish year old receiver...)

Many thanks,

 

[chasseur]

Before you rebarrel your action do a search for Greener GP Martini action strength.You will find that these actions the split reciever(takedown version) like yours especially ones with clips holding the pins like yours are not as strong as the other military and sporting versions.
Your gun is not a martini henry it is a Greener martini GP shotgun action there is a difference.If it were mine I d put a nice 12ga slug barrel on it with express sights and shoot modern slugs and the 12 ga brass cases loaded with black powder and slugs for fun.

There is a greener martini done up as a slug gun on Guns international jus as I described.

 

[antiqueguy]

Awesome. Many thanks for the information!

I'm curious - most interweb searches are suggesting that someone rebarrelling a Martini-Enfield or Martini-Henry should stick to a cartridge or loading below 45000psi.

Would the loading for a post WWII action need to be to the same expectation? (Not comparing them to a 125ish year old receiver...)

Many thanks,

I think chasseur gave pretty good advice military actions you can pretty much rebarrel to anything that will make the turn into the chamber and will fit within the actions I don't know much about greener gp's. although having one with a rifled 12gaa barrel as chasseur describes with full bore lead bullets(groove to groove) would be an awesome big game gun basically a 12 bore rifle. accurate molds has some interesting designs including one for 12ga that has a nice semi wad cutter profile that weighs 700gr in wheel weight alloy