Is what the 'boo birds' of a Brit rifle forum called this... as well as some thinly disguised references to my low intelligence for even buying it in the 1st place. The spittle-flecked tirade resembled:
Well, I don't claim to be the sharpest pencil in the desk, but I dare say I can survive its opwnership.
What appears to be a Martini-Henry artillery carbine is a 'Peshawar scratchbuild' - that is to say, it was made entirely by hand in some back alley gun shop. The attempted fakery is obvious - while 1897 is a correct year for the Queen Victoria cartouche, ( she died in 1901 & any M-H with her cartouche dated later is a fake) the fakirs/fakers used the 'L' stamp upside down for the letter 'F' in ENFIELD. The 'proof marks' are a real mixmaster, too. Also, the brass unit roundel on the butt has no valid markings.
The seller did not mis-represent it & said outright that it came from Afghanistan so I was 90% sure it was a fake. But for 100 busks shipped, I could not refuse! The seller said it had a lot of surface rust from his poor storage of it, but I believe a copper dish pad & some Hoppes or WD-40 will spiff it right up!
Shooting it? Well, I've done a little research into ammo & reloading & it would really be an expensive proposition. Lee makes dies, but you need a bigger press than 7/8 -14 , and the cheepest I found was 80 dollars. At the outset, I think I'll just order a round or 2 of the brass from BAC... pour in a little black powder & make a ball of wadded up tin foil. Have wifey take a pic of me shooting that & post the smoke cloud on that forum just to hear them screech!!
Other than that, I might contact a machinist to see about having a sub-caliber adaptor made. Maby just a device to shoot small lead balls with a light BP charge... I have plenty of time to plot & scheme about that while I get it cleaned up.
Bottom line? I am NOT sorry I bought it!!! I find it interesting and a genuine historical artifact!!
Shown for size perspective is my 1903 Bulgarian M95. Also shown are my 'Iron Knuckles' that Don mentioned in another thread. These have been rusted too badly to decipher the markings... I had no idea they could be military.
I also got my Italian desert helmet today, but pics have already been posted in another forum.
And the boo birds?
SW
*edit* I just had it clear apart for a good cleaning, and you wanna talk about CRUDE!!! I believe all the threads were hand cut with a file! The barrel is pretty good though... makes me wonder if it's a cut down Brit barrel.
But it HAS been fired - from the residue in the action, I'd say several times. Actually, something like this only has to be fired ONCE - when you are sufficiently close enough to a nice Kalashnikov or some rifle you really like to apply "Rule 577/450"!
So I'm not going to sink much money at all into shooting it... maybe just the foil 'bullet' rounds so I can say I shot it & lived.
I really like it, though... it makes quite a statement about the futility of gun control. 8) SW
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