I have come into possession of a Henry Martini mkII that has been converted to 22lr with a 30in barrel. I have seen some mention of this as a target rifle but am not able to find much about it. It is the large action not the Cadet and I am wondering what this might be converted to. Would it accept a 45/70 or 44-40 or such? Who does these? Shoots pretty good so far for a rifle made in 1874.
Henry Martini Mk II
- Thread starter bogie
- Start date
vagrantviking
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Southern Alberta
I shot a Martini converted to 45-70 for years. Mostly Black powder loads and a little bit of light smokeless. On a good day I had no trouble keeping up with the high walls and Sharpes partly due to the good lock time. Can't remember what version it was though.
Only sold it because it didn't have a tang to mount a sight on. Was an excellent rifle and I would make another. Anyone that rebarrels should be able to do it for you.
Only sold it because it didn't have a tang to mount a sight on. Was an excellent rifle and I would make another. Anyone that rebarrels should be able to do it for you.
- Location
- St. Paul AB
There was an article in the Black Powder Cartridge News a few years back about a guy who built one into a .50-90 and took it to Africa to hunt. He remarked that the .50-90 was about as big of a round as he thought one could stuff in there.
vagrantviking
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Southern Alberta
They can handle mega calibers -
Very strong -
They are strong but I have seen one that had cracks around the breachblock pivot holes. Not sure what it was chambered for at the time but it must have been something hot.
A custom builder bought the action, welded up the cracks and made a nice little 32-40 out of it.
stevejones
Regular
- Location
- Courtenay, BC
Conversion
You might reconsider doing this as the gun may be a collector. Why not post an ad on the exchange forum and see if someone has an action they will sell?
Cheers. Steve.
You might reconsider doing this as the gun may be a collector. Why not post an ad on the exchange forum and see if someone has an action they will sell?
Cheers. Steve.
vagrantviking
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Southern Alberta
If its already been converted to a 22LR there is certainly not going to be any harm in changing it too something else. Collector value is not a concern.
I'm willing to bet that its a bit of a pain to shoot as a 22 actually as the shells would have to be inserted into the mouth of the chamber where as a bigger shell can be dropped in the openning and will slide right into the chamber.
Actually by chambering it to something greater than 8mm it could be deregistered to antique status as an added bonus.
I'm willing to bet that its a bit of a pain to shoot as a 22 actually as the shells would have to be inserted into the mouth of the chamber where as a bigger shell can be dropped in the openning and will slide right into the chamber.
Actually by chambering it to something greater than 8mm it could be deregistered to antique status as an added bonus.
After doing some Google searching it turns out that there are a lot of these around converted to 22s and are not as valued as the originals anyways. 45/70 would be an appropriate choice tho as it was originally a BP round too anyways and carries about the same date. Still waiting to hear from 2 guys but they seem to have lost interest. Shoots 22lr easily as the load trough lines up perfectly. Just looks kinda big for a 22 action. The Cadet version is almost half the size action wise. This action was made for some of the bigger .45 plus rounds.
