Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots A Martini Enfielld 303 Carbine -- again.

I have had a long unrequited love for the Martini actioned rifles after having a Cadet in 22 Hornet for much too short a time in about 1981 until it was enticed away by a little cash.

I had seen a ME on the local auction site that was not running high bids and followed it with interest until I put in a bid of jut NZ$175 that secured it for me.
This was the description and one of the accompanying pics


This is a martini action .303 rifle. Crown VR Enfield 1879.
Crown 111 1. All this on one side and on the other
Crown VR Enfield 1896 Crown ME .303. 1.
This is NZ marked no.64 also NZ with an arrow above the NZ and then 98
Sold out of service markings 093 on Stock
No butt plate. Lever is marked Arrow WD ? E30
A .303 bullet will not fit right up into the receiver.
It has a beautifully clean shiny bore.




When it arrived I did find there was more to (or less than indicated) this carbine than anticipated but I did have a worthwhile project to work on with no historical or originality to alter.

First of was the barrel and rather than being a 303 was a 30-30 so it was slated for changing right off the bat. I have a friend who has a large collection of LE and ME rifles (along with many others of course) and has accumulated parts as he has found them over the years so he traded me a new No 4 barrel for some future stocking work for him. Gunsmith cut and crowned the barrel for carbine length and reinstalled the sights. He skimmed the front of the action to re-square it to boreline centre and set the headspace at .02, and centered the firing pin strike.

I found the butt stock had been shortened by over a 1/2 inch and with the forestock being cut down, so a restock was in order.
I got a reasonably plain, darker grained blank from NZ Walnut to work with.

I was able to locate a butt plate locally but the screws and a latch cup were sourced in England.

So a reasonably plain blank as befitted the original Martini's came from NZ Walnut Supplies


I sanded off the bolt rifle pattern and remarked it for an advantageous grain layout for the Martini


and cut the blank into the appropriate pieces.

My inspiration was the Artillery Carbine as issued to some of the NZ troops (initially)in the second Boer War.



More can be found on the issue here

http://www.allaboutenfields.co.nz/history/martini/


Drilling the stock bolt hole is a time for many measurements to set things up but sooner or later the drilling must be done




This is what you really (really ) want to see



For drilling the hole I bought a length of 12mm mild steel and had a 10mm shank turned on one end with half of the dia milled off the other end, on which I ground the cutting tip. A starter hole is drilled just further than the length of the milled flat so the full dia of the rod is engaged and then if everything is set up right, the drill will emerge where it should do.



To do the counter bore for the stock bolt head I had a length of 20mm rod drilled to except the 10mm shank of the primary bit which self guides back down the hole to the marked depth



The end of the 20mm rod has a couple of cutter edges made and a simple hacksaw, angle grinder and files do this easily.

So after drilling the stock bolt hole the socket can be fitted and the barrel channel inletted



I was held up at this stage trying too source a nosecap so I finished the buttstock and looked at the sighting arrangement. I find open sights a little more than my eyes can effectively use now but have aperture sights on another couple of rifles and really like them so decided to make something along the lines of the Lyman mod 21 as I could not afford the likes of the Mues or Parkerhale etc.

A light piece of alloy for pattern work




A piece of box steel and a worn out round burr as a base for the sight





With a little bit of drilling and filing I ended up with this. I replaced the action pins with simple 2 in bolts and made the heads into small raised roundheads. The tab washer to indicate elevation was made from a hinge flap.(It was the right thickness and it was handy)







I have 3/4 inch elevation adjustment that according to my sighting radius and the intended velocity of my cast bullets should get a 1000yd point of aim/point of impact. Isn't theory great??

I borrowed a NOE 316299 mould and cast up about 2500 bullets while waiting for the nosecap to arrive




I would need something appropriate to carry my ammo but didn't have enough leather to do the full bandoleer so decided a 10 round belt punch would be enough





About this time a nosecap arrived in the mail, so a bit more could be done



Then some shaping and sanding and a bit of oil and it was starting to look finished



I made a stock disc and set it into the buttstock




I have developed a trio of loads for the 212gn cast bullet with a 13gn Red Dot plinking load at 1400fps, 17.3gn Blue Dot for 1680fps for general play and a hunting load of 34gn Varget/ADI 2208 for 1860fps, with accuracy being all I could ask for.

I have a set of swivels on the way and will pick up a length of leather to make replica sling. There is a hold up with acids so I can do rust blue on the aperture sight and the nosecap but that will happen sometime soon I expect.

So this is not - has not been a restoration but has made a representative working carbine from an action that had a wrong barrel and a much altered stock. It may not get the purists (and the genuine gunmakers) going but as an amateur hobbyist, I really like the way this has turned out.
It will definitely be taken on an excursion into the hills after a goat or two.

Very nice project and I really like the end result! Thanks for posting.

P.S. Do you have really long winters in New Zealand?

VonGruff,

A very interesting project! I had the opportunity to buy a commercial sporter in .303 a couple of years ago, and I passed on it because the bore was badly pitted.

I deeply regret selling the one Martini that I owned many years ago... It was chambered in .30-40 Krag. and had a Springfield 2-groove barrel installed. At the time I was hot after a Ruger #3 and sold the Martini when I purchased the #3. Funny thing was, I was severely turned off on the Martini when I found out it had a 2-groove bbl. A classic example of being "too soon old and too late smart!"

I finally ended up with a Ruger #1 in .303...

You have a rifle to be proud of!

GH

Great write up, beautiful gun. Thanks.

A few years back I purchased a very nice artillery carbine chambered in .303. It was a great shooter. A gent with more money than me offered me too much to resist for it and now it is his. I rather regret the selling of it but thoroughly enjoyed the owning and shooting it,


Stan in SC

Nice gun, and great write up, Von Gruff.

If you ever want to make another one of those belt pouches...

I'll second that! Great post!

Ed

I only had enough leather to do the small belt pouch but this was what I really wanted to do even if I may never have a need of that much ammo at one time except at play. All by hand with an awl and a needle but it would pass the time in the winter. And no we don't have winters like has been reported in the US the last few weeks. Rarely gets below 10 degrees of frost celcius here. (14 fahrenheit)

Hmmm... I have a pile of 6 ounce or so leather. I wonder about the efficacy of shipping back and forth to New Zealand. (I would really like one of those belt pouches that would hold five or six rounds of .30/40 Krag!)

I often get small parcels from Brownells / Sinclairs and depending on size, can be as little as US$11. Enough leather to make a carrier and return postage shouldn't run any more than that each way.

People like you....people who have skills and patience...

You drive me crazy.

I really like your rifle though, and I love the 303 cartridge.

Congratulations on your end result and many thanks for taking the time to post.

It is impossible to not like the project and the result. I very much like the sight. GD

Great work. What's your full time job?

Full time retired now but working life was in the building industry.

Just saw this.

That's my kind of rifle.

Great work.