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1871 Martini Henry:

This is the gun of the Zulu Wars, Rorke’s Drift, 2nd Campaign in Afghanistan. In Kabul I bought several Pashtun made copies of the 1853 Enfield, 1866 Snider Enfield, and both Mark I and Mark II variants of the Martini-Henry. Whenever anyone sees the guns together, they immediately go to the Martini Henry.



To begin the process on the next generation breech-loader, British War office held a prize competition in 1865 with a prize money of Ł5000 to select from weapon that used a smaller, higher velocity projectile than the .577” snider. The trials were to take place within the next two years, with an ultimate winner to be announced in 1869,

On June 11, 1867, the prize sub-committee of the OSC reported that 104 rifles had been submitted for examination. Of those, 37 were in compliance with the terms of the advertisement, 67 had not complied, and while ineligible for the competition were set aside for consideration on their own merits. Further consideration of the 37 complying rifles, resulted in the rejection of 28. The nine systems to be carried over for trial, and requiring six specimen arms were the Albini & Braendlin, the Burton No.1 and No. 2, the Fosbery, the Henry, the Joslyn, the Martini, the Peabody, and The Remington. (See the Reilly Comblain mentioned in the chronology below)

The Martini action coupled with a Henry barrel won out. (Frederic von Martini of Switzerland basically copied and improved on a design by American Henry Peabody.). On 13th April 1871 the orders were placed at the Royal Small Arms factory at Enfield for full scale production of the Martini Henry Rifle, between then and 1874 The Martini Henry was trialled throughout the Empire by various regiments, and finally on September 28th 1874 it was authorized for full issue to the British Army. (Mark I-IV variants).

Many companies made Martini-Henry clones including Greener.

17314 - E.M. Reilly & Co., Oxford Street, London. .577/.450. Rifle single barrel. First Reilly Martini SN (if it is his). You'll note the Martini patent on the left side of the receiver. Supposedly if a company wanted to build a Martini, they had to contact Enfield which would send over the parts. This Reilly if the SN is correct would be 1871 - just after the formal adoption of the Martini and its trial period. Perhaps this explains why it was serial numbered. I'll have to defer to the Martini experts and there are a number of excellent sites and experts out there. Edit: Subsequent post shows the first Reilly advertisement for a Martini-Henry to be December 1871. The Reilly SN Date List on P.17 below dates 17314 to very late 1871.





Xxxxx E.M. Reilly & Co, New Oxford Street, London & Rue Scribe, Paris; 52 on the bore means, that it is a .450 Cal. Bore. This fits with 11.6mm bore dia. Proof marks show Black Powder, possibly 3 1/4” cartridge length. This might be a 450, 3 1/4 BPE or a 500/450 BPE.



Xxxxx. E M Reilly 577/450 Martini. This gun came out of an estate of a gentleman who hunted in South Africa and Rhodesia in the 1960's and 70's. According to the estate manager the gun was purchased while gent was on a hunt to Rhodesia. This is a commercially built 577/450 Martini Henry by E M REILLY & CO, OXFORD ST, LONDON.



Xxxxx. Small framed .380 martini rook-rifle retailed by E.M. Reilly, 315 oxfordstreet , London.


Last edited by Argo44; 09/11/18 12:44 PM.
Baluch are not Brahui, Brahui are Baluch