Recently, I purchased at a sealed bid sale in the UK a Westley Richards ZAR carbine - my 2nd one.
Basically, the Westley Richards ZAR, as many of you undoubtedly will know, was sold by the famous gunmaker to the "Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek" (Transvaal) just before the 2nd Anglo-Boer war. In all, Transvaal bought 10450 of the "No. 2473 Westley-Richards improved Martini-Henry rifle with indicator in block and side screw", of which 2000 were carbines. it is not sure how many actually arrived in Transvaal, but most of them probably were delivered to the buyer.
Matter of fact, the actions are of the Francotte patent - and even of Francotte manufacture. Unsubstantiated rumour also has it that Francotte made the complete rifles for WR... These rifles actually sport 2 serial nos - A Francotte one on the subframe, and the Westley Richards Serial no., which usually can be found in several places.
As these firearms were given long and hard service during and after the war, and a goodly number would have been destroyed at the end of the war by the British troops, finding one in decent condition is pretty hard. Actually, just finding one already isn't easy - especially at a decent price, and most of them usually are in pretty poor condition and/or have been sporterized.
While rifles are difficult, finding a carbine is even harder - one must be plain lucky, and just pay the price, because one never knows when another one will show up.
These Francotte-actioned rifles are a bit the centerpiece of my collection, so when I found this one for sale, I jumped at it. It is by no means in mint condition, as it has some surface corrosion, and the wood probably has been refinished. Still, for a ZAR it is in pretty good condition, and with a bit of TLC I believe it will look even better. Below a few pics:
As you can see, there is only a single barrel band - the rear of the forend is pinned to the barrel Mk II-style. In the pic, the rifle is cocked - the cocking indicator is sticking up through the block.
Another difference with the 'standard' Martini is the 9-groove Henry rifling, instead of 7-groove as standard on the Britsh military Martini.
In essence, this is a large cadet action for the 577-450 cartridge, and probably the last word in Martini development.
This is my 2nd ZAR carbine, and I also have another Francotte carbine (not Westley Richards), as well as 2 WR ZAR rifles. Another one I bought for the action alone - it was too far gone to restore the rifle, so I used the action as a base to build a ZAR BP match rifle in #2 Musket. It currently is at the stockmaker's to get the wood done, then maybe som engraving, and blueing...
Then there is that other Francotte sporter action (non-ZAR, but basically the same action with a -non-present- safety)that I rescued form a re-enactor rifle, waiting for a project...
If you're under the impression that I really like my ZAR's, then you just might be right. The rifle is not yet in my hands, and this will take some time, as I will probably pick it up next time. But patience is a virtue...