Although I've been lurking around here recently I've been so busy concentrating on sorting out problems with my Martini-Henry that I haven't posted for ages. Who said "Hurrah!" ?
To cut a long story short, my ex Nepal cache 1889 BSA MkII was causing me a lot of grief with misfires. The guys on the Martini forum have been very helpful with their advice (some of it contradictory) and I now seem to have cracked the problem.
I was using reformed Brazilian 24 gauge shotgun brass purely on grounds of cost. Kynoch cases are currently £2.75 each (Bloody hell!) but they are thicker walled, solid head as opposed to balloon head and take normal large rifle primers rather than large pistol. Did anyone tell me this? Oh no.
Anyway, here's a post that I've just added to the Martini Forum which explains some of the problems and my experiences at our range this morning:
My 20 new Kynoch cases arrived midweek so I spent an afternoon carefully loading them with CCI large rifle primer, 97 grains of German FO Triangle black powder, card wad, beeswax/Crisco/olive oil cookie, two card wads and Coyoté 480 grain paper patched bullet ready for this morning's trip to the range.
So far I had only been able to fire 13 of my 40 CBC cases that I had incorrectly primed with large rifle instead of large pistol primers. I pulled the rest. When I tried to size the fired cases I ran into problems.
As you will see if you look closely, the die has shaved metal off the base of the cases where they have bulged slightly.
Here you can see brass particles in the mouth of the die.
I was naturally concerned that all this indicated a serious fault with the rifle so it was with some trepidation that I set myself up at our 50 metre range.
There are eight target positions and I'm shooting on number 5 from the left. I've stapled two targets one over the other so as to use the lower one as an aiming point and, hopefully, to hit the upper one.
To my delight I had no further light strike problems with these rounds, this shot being number 13 in a pretty rapid series. I managed to chronograph two rounds at 1363 and 1325 fps respectively.
When I checked my original target I found that a plonker on the next bench had been shooting at my target, would you believe with a 45/70 Sharps so there was no way of telling which shots were which.
Here are my final four shots. Two of these (I don't know which) were slightly downloaded with 85 grains BP and a small over powder wad of tissue paper. (Round four is at 7 o' clock in the 5 ring and difficult to see)
When I closed the range I raked the backstop and recovered these two bullets. They are well mangled but clearly show the imprint of the distinctive Henry rifling. In front are three scraps of paper patch that I picked up just in front of the firing point. I didn't find any cardboard wads.
When I got back home I cleaned the bore with Windowlene/Windex soaked patches which went straight down smoothly and easily with no hint of any obstruction in front of the chamber.
The Kynoch brass went through the full length sizing die without drama and I have already reloaded the cases, this time with 85 grains and an over powder wad of pure cotton wool (as used in the original round).
People at the range think I'm some kind of nutter to be going to all this trouble ("Why don't you use Reloder 7 instead of that crap? etc") but one new member who flies to South Africa next Friday on a tour of the Rourke's Drift and Isandlwhana areas was amazed to be given the chance to fire a real Martini-Henry before his trip. I think I've got him hooked!
Looks like it's the expensive Kynoch cases from now on. Anyone want to buy some CBC brass?
Brian
EDIT: I missed this picture from the original post but don't know how to put it in the right place.
