Martini Henry - Royal Armoury

The gent from the Museum knows his stuff and is fun to watch. The other two are a solid reminder why I cancelled cable. Dramatic music, three shots fired, ten shots shown, two in slo-mo. High excitement if you're twelve, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I'm some distance from twelve lately...
 
Jonathan furgusson is an asset for this community his work on the EM1 and EM2 is really interesting and he welcomes collectors. If the M-H interest you look ar c&rsenal on YouTube
 
The the part of the Royal Armouries in which Jonathon Fergusson works is not the museum. It used to be called the Ministry of Defence Pattern Room, first of all at the Royal Small Arms Factory Enfield Lock, then BAe Nottingham and finally settled into its current location as part of the Royal Armouries, a government organisation. The Pattern Room, as many here probably know, has been engaged since the late 1600's as THE storage and curation of each and every one of the military arms of the UK, up to and including 20mm calibre cannon. Not only that, but every variation of every firearm designed and developed here in UK, and in many other countries, too. A couple of Sharpe's prototype rifles are there, as are many hundreds of others that never saw the light of day.

Basically, as a weapon was designed and developed, trialled and trouble-shot and finally perfected, a so-called 'sealed pattern', literally with a red wax seal hanging off the trigger-guard, was placed on the rack. The definitive jigs and gauges for making every single part of that firearm, for future reference, were placed into store for future generation to use for research.

It was to the Pattern Room in the late 60's that Parker-Hale came cap in hand to borrow the priceless tool-set for the Pattern 53 rifles musket, in order to truly replicate it for a shooting public panting to get their hands on an affordable replica.

It was not until the early/middle 1990's that, after many acrimonious letters, they brought them back. The then-curator, the much-missed Herbie Woodend MBE and I opened the crate and checked the contents against the list, him the expert, and me, as a visiting and otherwise unconnected third party.

It is for this reason that I can take the lock off any of my Sniders - all of them former P53 rifles - and replace it with any of my Parker-Hale locks - the same goes for any other metallic component of either type of arm.

And it is for this reason that none of the johnny-come-lately copies of the P53 and its brethren come near the Parker-Hale versions.

The collection is not open to the general public, only for serious enquiries on research matters. The pair of dwongs you see in the YouTube sessions look as though they've never handled real live guns before, because they haven't handled real-live guns before, so their apparently inane comments - 'wow, isn't it heavy' and 'the kickback is some serious stuff!' is what you ought to expect from a pair of noobs who are shooting full-size military firearms for the first time.

Imagine - being in your late 20's, never even having had a cap-gun, being handed a Martini-Henry service rifle and requested to hold it up [dang, that's heavy], aim [what am I looking at?], and shoot [Holy S......................!]

Try and be gentle with them.
 
tacfoley said:
The the part of the Royal Armouries in which Jonathon Fergusson works is not the museum. It used to be called the Ministry of Defence Pattern Room, first of all at the Royal Small Arms Factory Enfield Lock, then BAe Nottingham and finally settled into its current location as part of the Royal Armouries, a government organisation. The Pattern Room, as many here probably know, has been engaged since the late 1600's as THE storage and curation of each and every one of the military arms of the UK, up to and including 20mm calibre cannon. Not only that, but every variation of every firearm designed and developed here in UK, and in many other countries, too. A couple of Sharpe's prototype rifles are there, as are many hundreds of others that never saw the light of day.

Basically, as a weapon was designed and developed, trialled and trouble-shot and finally perfected, a so-called 'sealed pattern', literally with a red wax seal hanging off the trigger-guard, was placed on the rack. The definitive jigs and gauges for making every single part of that firearm, for future reference, were placed into store for future generation to use for research.

It was to the Pattern Room in the late 60's that Parker-Hale came cap in hand to borrow the priceless tool-set for the Pattern 53 rifles musket, in order to truly replicate it for a shooting public panting to get their hands on an affordable replica.

It was not until the early/middle 1990's that, after many acrimonious letters, they brought them back. The then-curator, the much-missed Herbie Woodend MBE and I opened the crate and checked the contents against the list, him the expert, and me, as a visiting and otherwise unconnected third party.

It is for this reason that I can take the lock off any of my Sniders - all of them former P53 rifles - and replace it with any of my Parker-Hale locks - the same goes for any other metallic component of either type of arm.

And it is for this reason that none of the johnny-come-lately copies of the P53 and its brethren come near the Parker-Hale versions.

The collection is not open to the general public, only for serious enquiries on research matters. The pair of dwongs you see in the YouTube sessions look as though they've never handled real live guns before, because they haven't handled real-live guns before, so their apparently inane comments - 'wow, isn't it heavy' and 'the kickback is some serious stuff!' is what you ought to expect from a pair of noobs who are shooting full-size military firearms for the first time.

Imagine - being in your late 20's, never even having had a cap-gun, being handed a Martini-Henry service rifle and requested to hold it up [dang, that's heavy], aim [what am I looking at?], and shoot [Holy S......................!]

Try and be gentle with them.
Click to expand...

I know what you’re saying…but, these two idiots HAVE fired several different types of firearms in various videos (All with Jonathan Fergusson), so that makes their asinine comments even worse!
 
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I have to agree with you. I just think how sad it is that two grown men in their late 20's had never handled real guns before they were offered the opportunity to do so. I started shooting at age six. That was almost seventy-one years ago....
 
Not to be overly critical, but the vast majority of objects stored at Leeds have never even been photographed which suggests a possible better use of their staff's time.

milsurpo
 
Quote - 'The Royal Armouries, of which the National Collection is part, was established in its present form by the National Heritage Act (1983) and is a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) sponsored by the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). We receive of Grant-in-Aid funding from government but raise additional funds through and from . The Royal Armouries is an exempt charity under the Charities Act 1993.'

We are governed by a Board of Trustees who are appointed by the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).'

Mr Ferguson's part of the Royal Armouries, formerly known as the Ministry of Defence Pattern Room, was gifted by the Ministry of Defence. It is still under the aegis of government restrictions with regard to the production of contents documents that may be accessed by the public.

IOW, if you can show a valid reason for requiring access to any particular firearm for research, then you might get it - otherwise, it is not open to the general public.
 
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