The “Untouched” Martini- Henry, Part Two

In Part One we worked on the stock of an "Untouched" Martini-Henry and gave you some techniques to help you match the new wood that was added to replace where wood had rotted during storage of the rifle. This time let’s look at some ideas on how to restore the metal parts. The size of the metal working project in front of you is going to depend on what you are starting with and what you want when you’re done.

If you want a pristine example that looks like it just left the factory, you need to spend the money for a higher-grade gun. If you want a shooter that looks like a 150-yearold military rifle that was issued and used, you have a lot of work to do on an "Untouched" grade Martini. I mentioned previously this isn’t a job for a beginner. That is mainly because restoring a firearm in this condition takes skill in gunsmithing, metalwork, and woodwork, as well as a lot of patience.

In the case of this gun, my partner and I concluded that it was really not a candidate for restoration to anything but a shooter. There was simply too much deep pitting on the outside. We were left with restoring it to asho o table old war horse that looks like it has seen more than its share of action. We will not be rebluing it or draw Here is the rear sight as it was when the rifle arrived. Top: As received the left side of the receiver is covered in a century of dirt and corrosion from careless storage.

Some of the dirt and corrosion has been removed to identify the rifle as an Enfield-manufactured piece rather than one made in Nepal.

Here is proof it was a good choice on our part. Otherwise, the internal parts looked far better than the exterior of the gun. filing out the pits in the metal as that is simply impractical. Instead, we’ll leave as much of the patina it has spent 100 years building and concentrate on repairing the metal hardware. We used simple nuts and bolts from the hardware store to lend that support.

The nuts were simply run down the bolt, the assembly was placed in the receiver, and the nuts were then unscrewed and tightened against the receiver walls with open-end wrenches. As each metal piece was removed from the stock, we evaluated if it could be saved. In most cases, a wire wheel on a buffer was able to remove the rust. Many of the screws were rusted in place and called for We pulled the barrel to clean up the threads and wire brushed the barrel and receiver.

The Martini has a very thin-walled receiver and it is important to support the receiver walls before you put a wrench to it to unscrew the barrel. It would be very easy to bend it and ruin the gun. We used simple hardware store nuts and bolts to reinforce it by cutting the bolts to just short of the internal width of the stripped receiver, screwing the nuts on to the bolts and then unscrewing them until the head of the bolt and the nut were firmly against the inner receiver walls.

Although the metal work was tough, there are no secrets to removing rust from metal. Wire brushing and plenty of time and elbow grease with steel wool and oil took these parts as far as we wanted to take them. Once again, it is up to you if you want to leave any patina on apart or to polish and reblue instead. That may be dictated by how deeply pitted it is. We found many screws rusted in place. In order to remove one of soaking in penetrating oil.

Some simply had to be drilled out and replaced. the barrel bands it was necessary to cut the screw. After removal from the stock, it was drilled out and replaced. The rear sight ladder was bent and had to be s tra ig ht-

Adding wood to the top of the forend allowed us to eliminate the broken-out places as well as hide the pitting. A hundred years of neglect had taken its toll on both the metal and the wood. ened. A fairly easy project for anyone with a vise and a hammer. The thin metal parts, such as the edges of the barrel bands in some cases, were rusted to the point that the edges were ragged.

In such cases, the only options may be to either find a replacement or to grind the edges until the thicker metal is reached to leave a smooth edge. All of this will make collectors cringe but keep in mind, we are taking a gun in poor condition no collector would want and returning it to a shootable condition. Probably the most difficult part of a restoration project like this is the need to think your way through each step, identifying the problem, and then deciding how you want to fix it and to what degree.

When I first looked at this Martini when it was delivered I wondered if it would ever shoot again but looks can be deceiving. Although the outside surface was discouraging, the bore and internal parts were in very good shape. The dirt and rust can be cleaned off. The stock can be reworked with the techniques we discussed in Part One or anew replacement stock can be purchased. However, once you pay for a replacement stock set, you could have simply bought a higher-grade gun in the first place.

As I have mentioned, these types of issues will The head had completely rusted away and there was no way to turn the screw. crop up and be different forever y such project and really isn’t a suitable task for a first timer. If you are reasonably competent and really want a challenge to see how well you can restore a really rough piece, this may be the deal for you. A word of caution regarding shooting the Martini-Henry. The .577/450 Martini-Henry case is cavernous and it is strictly a black powder round.

The barrel walls are thick enough to support black powder pressures even when the exterior is deeply pitted but if you have any doubt, err on the side of caution. The military load was 85 grains of Curtis & Harvey No.6 Coarse black powder under a 485 grain soft lead bullet. The gun was renowned for its recoil.

Unless you are actually going to hunt big game with it or just love guns that beat the heck out of you, smaller charges of 1F or 2F powder and lighter bullets can make them a much more comfortable gun to shoot. That’s likely ideal for shooting a restoration project that you’ve put a fair amount of time into making shootable again. AG