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Nice gun, looks like it needs to be shot.

Century Arms and J&G Sales both recently have been offering old Kynoch Ammo. http://www.centuryarms.biz/proddetail.asp?prod=AM1706 and http://www.jgsales.com/product_info.php/...roducts_id/4433 It's Berdan prime. Berdan primers are difficult to find anymore in the US.

Buffalo Arms will sell you brass and bullet moulds and reloading dies. As much as I dislike Lee, I suggest you get Lee dies. Midway is the better place to get the Lee dies. The Lee shell holder that comes with the dies may not work on drawn brass. Their shell holder is for CBC brass 24 gauge shotgun shells formed into Martini cases.

You will need to slug your bore, If the rifling is Henry style it should be odd numbered. It does not have lands and grooves like traditional Enfield rifling. It has flats and peaks. The top of the peaks and the center of the flats make the minor diameter. The end of the flats at the bottom of the peaks make the major diameter. Picture an octagon barrel, across the flats is smaller than across the corners,

There are some pretty fancy techniques to measure the odd side slugs, but an old millwright showed me a method that gets the same number the guys with the fancy tools get. It also gets the answer while those other guys are still getting all those fancy tools out.

Hold the slug between the slack jaws of a dial caliper, keep light pressure on the slack jaw and roll the slug between the jaws while watching the needle. Do this several times and watch the high number that repeats. That is is you major diameter equivalent to groove .

Military Martini barrels have a long tapered throat that extends 8 inches up from the breech. The major diameter of the throat is usually right around the .468-.469. 8 inches up the barrel from the breech the cylinder bore starts and this is usually .464.

Get your self some soft lead .50 lead balls used for muzzle loaders and drive them through from the muzzle. Once you get get the ball started down the bore you should be able push it through the bore fairly easily. If the ball and rod suddenly drop through 3/4 or so of the way down, them you most likely have a tapered throat.

The sporter barrels I have checked have had both Military dimensions and smaller .458 dimensions. Those with .458 dimensions in my experience have not had long taper throats like the military.

The 577/450 was a paper patched lead bullet cartridge. I am lazy and don't paper patch. For my military bores I use an RCBS .468-480 Martini mould. The only place I have seen this mould inventoried is Buffalo arms. Another excellent mould is the .468-480 mould from CBE. If I had a choice I would pick the CBE first. These are both grease groove bullets

Black powder shooters like soft lead bullets 20:1 and 30:1 alloy. The original Martini bullet was a paper patched 12:1. I have shoot a lot of 20:1 and they shoot okay. Lately I have shooting harder straight wheel weight bullets, the seem to shoot better. For lots more Martini info, go to www.martinihenry.com.

For help loading and shooting I suggest you visit the British Militaria forum. Lots of Martini Shooting going there.

Here's my sporter and me shooting it at Last months Victorian Rifleman shoot in Alberta.

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DD, Ret.

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