Martini Henry?? NOPE!!

First time I ran across one of these I thought that the British had gone nuts building a junker that I was looking at. Well, they didn't build it.

The Martini Henry was THE rifle of the British Empire. Adopted in the 1870s, it was used all over the world. Throughout their empire this rifle saw action. The Zulu wars were fought with this rifle. Africa, Asia, Australia, these rifles are everywhere the British went. Well there were and still are copies made. The Kyber Pass area in Afganistan has produced copies of this rifle for many years. Known as a "Kyber Pass Martini" they can look nice from the outside and fool even experienced collectors that they are British made. These guns are NOT safe to shoot. Not even with mild black powder loads. NEVER shoot one of these guns, NEVER!!!



Open one up though and you can see that most of the parts were hand made and not machined. The fitting is sloppy to just plain bad. You see the tool marks that look like it was done with a chisel. The metal on the example I was able to look at was very soft. It took a wonderful blueing, and was a nice high polish on the outside. They live up to the saying of what you get when you polish a turd. . . well you get something that is nice and pretty on the outside but on the inside all you have is. . . .well you get the idea.

So I found one, actually ordered one that was advertised as a real british Martini Henry, and took the thing apart and took pictures so maybe someone else won't get scammed by picking one of these up thinking that they have the real thing. So here is what to look for-

I have never seen a british gun with these part markings or proof marks on the lever. These were repeated on most of the parts in the Rifle. Also a "D" was stamped on most of the parts too.













Bad stamping of the receiver markings. The crown is crude. There is no period after the R in V.R. The Enfield stamp on british guns was one whole stamp. This one you can see where they stamped each letter separately and didn't stamp them even. This example was a short lever Martini, and the 1890 date is wrong for the version of the rifle. There is no Armorer stamp under the date.






Proof mark on receiver is wrong. There should be a VR under the crown, not an E and then it should have a set of crossed flags with a number under it. Also the proof marks were in the wrong spots. They Should be on the left side, top, front. This gun was marked on both sided on top and bottom.











Hammer forged stock screw made by blacksmith!?!?












My favorite, the odd chisel marks in the rear of the receiver where the stock attaches. Quality workmanship right here!!












Also, the barrel had no barrel proof mark or the assembled rifle proof mark. The rear sight was welded onto the barrel and the front sight was just a blob of weld filed down a little.

So there are the pics of the fake Martini Henry. I will edit this post and add pics of how a real one should look. I just need to take them.