Martini Henry Mk 4- 1887

C

Cam_S

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Hello,

I just was given this rifle by some family friends to sell after a death in their family. I do not know a lot about these old antiques. I can tell it is a Martini Henry Mk 4 and it was made in 1887. It appears to be all original. I have tried to clean it the best I can but I don't want to take the rifle completely apart since I have never worked with this kind of action.

Can anyone please fill me in on the details of the rifle and what a fair price for the EE would be? Sorry about the poor photos. I can probably do better with more time.

Thanks,
Cam

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Looks good, how is the bore?

Do some searches in this forum, there Lots of info on them here, prices from 600 to 800 would be reasonable, more if in better shape.
 
Martini-Henry MKIV Type A Cal. 450/577, most of these were used in India and Nepal by Native troops.
 
Yours looks like its been all over the world due to the multiple stamps on the butt!

If you look at the butt stock you can see when the lever base was filled and moved back when the short lever was "upgraded" to the long lever.

I have a long lever that I --ABSOLUTLY ADORE-- and shoot often, they are quite accurate.
The 455/577 cartridge is a real brute and just destroys the stumps and cinder blocks:D

These fine rifles served the British all over the world and indeed are one of the finest military rifles ever yet built by man, they were used by the British right up to ww1 "albeit in a secondary homeguard role" and infact they had a phosphorous round that was used to shoot down german blimps in ww1 "German blimps were filled with hydrogen remember"

If the bore is in good shape and the action functions well and not buggered loosey goosey 600-800$$ would be a good price in my biased opinion.

Or you can sell her to me for 100$$ and have my eternal thanks;)


Cheers


The -ZKR- on the stock, for some reason im thinking South African.....though Im sure to be wrong
 
The Mk. 4's go for $350.00 - $450.00 in Canada. That is ..."if" the barrel is shootable. I know they have a slightly larger bore than the Mk.1, 2, 3's. If it hasn't been messed with it could be a good shooter. Dave
 
Dantforth said:
The Mk. 4's go for $350.00 - $450.00 in Canada. That is ..."if" the barrel is shootable. I know they have a slightly larger bore than the Mk.1, 2, 3's. If it hasn't been messed with it could be a good shooter. Dave
Click to expand...

I agree with this, the $600 - $800 quote is too high, perhaps 5 years ago they were going that high but they have come down over the years due several factors, and that a pile of rifles from Nepal has hit the market. ;)

I have a MkIV and I shoot it whenever I can, getting set up to reload is the only way that you can get ammo for them, dies and brass are not cheap but it is a lot of fun. The rifle I have I got for $300, its a little rough but as I said its a shooter, setting up to reload cost as much as the rifle did.

If thats a shooter I would be interested in it.
 
I dont have any dies or complex reloading kit.

I aneel and handload all my own rounds and never had a problem after many many rounds.


Do you guys really think 600$$ is too much for a good solid martini??

If thats all origional blue I bet the bore is well maintained;)

One of the British ones sent to Nepal now offered are 400 bucks in --untouched-- condition....and who knows what the bore will be like.....
Then theres shipping costs and the time to clean it up.

Im thinking 350 for this rifle "if the bore is good" is waay too low.

And what about all the issue markings??? I think those markings on the butt may be interesting and may up the value on the piece.

Ask Mr Grant, he is a regular on here and is quite knoledgeable on martini markings.

Im not trying to cause trouble as I respect all your opinions, Im just thinking 350-400 is a bit too low.

Cheers
 
Thanks for all the help.

The bore and action looks good. It is a little dark because I don't have a large enough cleaning tool for it. All I have is a .45 pistol scrub brush.

This was in a family for about two decades so it would not have been one of the recent imports from Nepal.

Thanks,
Cam
 
First Import from Nepal was done by InterArms of Virginia about 25 years ago, Canadian Importers distributed some of the InterArms guns at that time. Quality of those guns was a lot better than the recent IMA/Atlanta Cutlery imports. I use to have an InterArms catalogue featuring some of the Martinis of that old Import, but I foolishly loan it to someone and it was never returned to me!
 
"When half o' your bullets fly wide in the ditch,
Don't call your Martini a cross-eyed old b itch;
She's as human as you are, you treat her as sitch
An' she'll fight for the Young British Soldier."

................. Kipling (who else could it be?)
................. "The Young British Soldier" in "Barrack-Room Ballads"

"We were marchin' on relief
Over Inji'as sunny plains
A little front o' Christmas-time
An' just behind the rains.
Ho! Look out there you bullock-man
You've 'eard the bugle blow:
There's a Regiment a-comin'
Down the Grand Trunk Road!"

..... and every drummer in the Army today can play it without even thinking about it.
 
I really like both my Mk IV Martinis... but I am still to take my first shot with one of them! This is primarily because I don't have time to go to an outside range and also because I need to locate the proper powder for my reloads, lol.

Besides not having any experience in actually firing the thing, I'd say that they are really well made and have a very rugged design overall. The single shot feature also adds a bit of magic to it (because everyone who carried one in battle had to be a good shot, as there's no room for error when you're being charged by 3,000 p*ssed off Zulu warriors, haha). Overall, I think that somewhere down the road I'll be interested in collecting them all - from the MkI to the MkIII...

:D
 
If you want something most memorable to tell your grandchildren, fire 3 rounds out of a .450 Martini-Henry CAVALRY CARBINE.

It is an experience you will NEVER forget.

Nor will your chiropractor, most likely!
 
762mm said:
The single shot feature also adds a bit of magic to it (because everyone who carried one in battle had to be a good shot, as there's no room for error when you're being charged by 3,000 p*ssed off Zulu warriors, haha).
:D
Click to expand...

Ive found a martini can be shot nearly as fast as a bolt action rifle with a bit of practise.
 
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