Martini Enfield converted to .22

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ianwd

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Here is a novelty i just picked up . its a Martini Enfield thats been converted to .22 by someone , anyone feel free to shed some light on this beastie . the bore is shiny and bright and quite snug with the bore brush and the ejector works really well. . it looks like it has a rear tang site mounted at some point . she looks a little rough but im sure she will be a great shooter. she been scrubbed prety clean of all previous markings. and im hoping there are some clues in remaining markings to figure this one out . apparently because of the 52 stamped on Barrel , this rifle was a Martini Henry not Martini Enfield
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a lot of them were converted to .22 for teaching marksmanship it was easier and cheaper to set up a range for .22lr then .577-450 or .303 this is why we have .22 Lee Enfield's and even .22 adapters for the .55 boys ATR
 
It's been bored out and tubed, like many obsolete Martinis that were converted for sale to rifle clubs. Sometimes an offset firing pin was fitted, sometimes the block was arranged to not rise so far, so that the central-fire striker would impact off-centre.
Parker-Hale's version was called the C.M.T. (Converted Martini Target) and was sold until just after WW2.
 
Your rifle is a beauty! I love these .22 rimfire Martinis and find that a box of cartridges is like a box of smarties, I keep popping one at a time and then in no time find that the box is empty and they are all gone.

You are correct in that this is a conversion from the original 577/450 Martini Henry. The marking '52' is the 'bore' which translates to a bore diameter across the lands of .453 inches. The barrel wears Birmingham proof marks, no martial markings that I can see (other than a Enfield style broad arrow on the sight leaf spring, probably a replacement) but would imagine that the fore stock has been cut back from its full length military style.

I can see that the barrel has been marked LLH, which signifies that at least the barrel was made by Laurent Lochet-Habran, a Belgium gun maker of some esteem in the late nineteenth century. It was common for Belgian made rifles to be shipped to England and have British proofs applied for sale through the British gun trade.

I found this tidbit on Belgium Little-Gun website -

LLH is the mark used by the company Laurent LOCHET-HABRAN & G brother and sister of Jupille. This company manufactured weapons and barrels under various corporate names of 1898 to 1951.

Non of the other markings give up much more of a clue. I see 66 (or 99) is marked in several places, so this might be a matching assembly of the original gun.

So all that I can tell you is that it is a Leige made gun from the 1890s made for the British commercial market. Converted to .22 rimfire and reproofed post 1912.

Howzit shoot?
 
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Thanks for that info, i shall be taking it out to the range with a bunch of other .22 today , just got to find a tang sight for it , i got a feeling its going to shoot well .
 
Sometimes the block hinge pin is used as the basis for it; sometimes it's a stirrup bracket fastened to the small; sometimes it sits on top of the small like those ones for Winchester '92s etc.
 
Definite evidence of hand stamping on that sight base, typical of the handcraft methods of Belgian gun firms of the period (and some Birmingham ones). The Birmingham trade made many Martinis for Empire and foreign sales, often minimally marked.
 
Something that I have pondered upon on these butt mounted sights, is that if not mounted so the sight is perfectly vertical when deployed, the sight's windage will be off. The higher the sight is raised, the more it will be off. Unless there is a windage adjustment built in that can be tweaked, how does the shooter compensate?

The standard leaf sight bed that is screwed an soldered to the barrel is mounted 0.6 degrees (if I recall correctly) to the left to compensate for bullet drift at longer ranges. Would this be critical when mounting the long arm of a tang sight?
 
pmatuk said:
here is one mounted behind the receiver
Click to expand...

the picture above does appear to have windage adjustment . i believe the one that was fitted many years ago was more of the winchester type , the screws in the holes are very old and 2 inch center of the one i have ,
i took it out to try it and even with the rudimentary sights was able to get a 1 inch group at 25 meters . and someone in the Know posted this on another site
" the receiver was an Enfield Mark I/II conversion ca 1873/4 based upon the "E" inspection stamp and serial number J3526 (#113,526 produced so you'd have to look up cumulative production figures to be specific on the year)

The barrel is Birmingham commercial proofed and marked "52."
 
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englishman_ca said:
Something that I have pondered upon on these butt mounted sights, is that if not mounted so the sight is perfectly vertical when deployed, the sight's windage will be off. The higher the sight is raised, the more it will be off. Unless there is a windage adjustment built in that can be tweaked, how does the shooter compensate?

The standard leaf sight bed that is screwed an soldered to the barrel is mounted 0.6 degrees (if I recall correctly) to the left to compensate for bullet drift at longer ranges. Would this be critical when mounting the long arm of a tang sight?
Click to expand...

I was/is quite common for tang mounted sights to require an "alignment" to center them upright to the center of the gun. The most common fix was to just loosen the screws and slide a thin shim under one side of the mount or the other to lift that side, moving the staff whichever direction was required.

Most newer tang sights have a screw actuated windage change mechanism, however some new ones and most of the old ones have a solid staff and windage changes required a movement of the front sight.
 
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