Shooting 45 colt out of a Martini Henry

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Edburns117

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I’ve been doing lots of research on reloading my Martini Henry, from forming brass to smokeless loads. Today however I came across a video of a guy shooting 45 colt out of his martini using an insert in the chamber. I’m curious if there is anyone on here who has done this before?
 
I have not tried it, but think you will find a .45 Colt bullet is considerably smaller in diameter than a 577-450 bullet. Goes bang but very little in the way of accuracy. The groove diameter in my Mk IV mikes .471" at the chamber and .465" at the muzzle - tapered bore. It likes .471 - .473 lead bullets.
 
It might have a chance of working if you used a hollow base bullet made from a soft lead alloy. Otherwise, you would be lucky to not have the bullets keyhole, let alone shoot accurately out of a barrel with a groove diameter so much bigger than the bullet diameter.
 
Read through the Martini-Henry sections on that forum. Probably the best site for MH information and advice. There is someone who makes brass from 24 gauge shotgun shells (brass) and also instructions on how to roll your own it you want. The fellow who makes and sell the brass has a very good reputation.
 
I use a chamber insert in my Martini.

The original bullets for the martini were soft lead and obduration was pretty good. Some rifles have very tight bores and shoot the 45 colt cartridge quite well, some are just to large and sloppy and need to have bullet cast specifically for that rifle.

I use HOLLOW BASE BULLETS in my 45 Colt cases for the MH. They are cast from soft lead and powder coated. They work well.

If you're going to use solid base bullets, you need to make sure factory 45 colt bullets will fit your bore properly. Flat base cast lead bullets do their best work when they are a few thousandths over bore diameter.
 
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