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And finally, there has been a number of cases where the Nepalese martini's have been banned from the ranges here, or refused to be proofed, with the age of the steel I don't blame them either, I have one order from the Uk already for the Mk2 in 45-70 as the guy dropped the block from his old favourite, and it shattered, need we say any more,

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I must say I am bit skeptical about this statement. Not that I don't thinks it's true, I do. It's just that the statement shows a clear lack of knowledge of the guns in the Nepalese Cache and which of the guns are bad and which are not.

There are three types of rear hinge block rifle in the Nepalese cache.

Two are Martini patterns and the third is a variant of the Westley Richards 1872 patent single shot.

One of the Martini pattern rifle is a complete Nepalese made Martini using a Francotte pattern detachable action. If a block from a Nepalese cache Martini shattered it would be this one. I have my serious doubts this rifle would pass proof. They have some serious defects, including the glass hard parts.

The other Martini is the British Military Martini Henry. The cache has two versions, the MK II and the MK IV. They are original British made rifles. I seriously doubt they would fail proof and especially not in a 45/70. I don't know what the proof process was when these rifles were made, but they are probably still under proof. These are the rifles I was referring to for $425.

I would not hesitate to build on one of these British made actions. If you build the MK II action you will have to compete against these rifles.

Sorry, if you say some one dropped their block from a MK II Martini and it shattered you are going to have to show me the rifle and the block to convince me.

The third rear hinge block rifle from cache are the Gahendra. They are an internal hammer hinge block action that bases its design on the Westley Richards 1872 so called improved Martini.

I suspect individuals rifles from the Gahendra group might fail proof. And, the failure rate would be higher than norm. I think it is more likely the barrels would fail before the action.

None of these rifles should be confused with so called Khyber Pass rifles out Afghanistan. Those are some very questionable guns for sure.

Before you get two wrapped up in this project I suggest you do your homework. Look at the Peabody Martini. It is like the first MkI Martini with sliding trigger and finer trigger like found on the What Cheer. You will find a good market for that model.


The other gun to look at is the Francotte pattern as used by Westley Richards.

If you are really interested in doing this right let me know, I can probably help or find you help.

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DD, Ret.

Edited by DoubleD (28/05/12 11:22 PM)

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