The World of The Gunny

As everyone here probably knows, i know more about concrete than i do about guns. However, my grandad has just given me his five rifles, and they've been a bit neglected. I dont think they've been fired in the last five or six years, possibly even the last decade.

there's a 44.40 winchester lever action, brought in by cobb and co traders around 1800-1850; a .22 hex barrel single shot rifle, which looks kinda like the pipe rifle from FO2; my late uncles ex-army (i think it's a ww2 vintage) .303 which has had the barrel furniture cut down to a "sporter"; a .303 martini-henry with no innards; and a .310 martini-henry which is in working condition (i think this one was my great-grandfathers rifle)

all of them, except the ex-army .303, have a fair amount of rust on the barrel and probably on the working parts, and while i'll be going to the local "gonne shoppe" for advice and cleaning equipment, i'd like to know if there are any little peices of general advice you can give me now. I'll come back when i have the guns (probably in 3 or 4 weeks when i get my licence) and have a little more knowledge on my part. i know what i've told you pobably means jack shit, but it's all i know at the moment.

DUDE! You have a Martini-Henry .310? Hot damn, wanna get rid of that? I would snap it up in a flash!

As for advice, if there is rust on your metal parts you want to make sure you get ALL of the rust and for the outside of the barrel you will want it re-blued. If there is rust inside the barrel pray there is no pitting. If there is I would not fire that weapon because the chance of a misfire increases drasticlly.

Then when you do get the rust off and the bare metal resurfaced, except INSIDE the barrel of course, you will want to keep the metal features well oiled. But if you do not wish to fire the weapon pack the barrel and innards with grease. So that if in say 20 years you want to break out those badboys and and give a fire, you can without worry.

Then again you could always get the barrels chromed on the inside.




Cheers, Thorgrimm

Well I know a fair about firearms, but I am learning and interesting to see Martini's are still around. I haven't heard about those since my Grand Uncles sat at the straw table and palavered about the last Great War.

Cool gifts.

Thanks for the help. Just wondering what a martini is, though - although http://www.fuckinggoogleit.com will help me in this regard.

and thor, no way man. These guns are going to stay in my family for at least another generation.

also, except for the ex-army .303, they all have a hexagon barrel. Apart from the quite literal discription, i dont know what that does.

@Benno, I would have been disappointed in you if you had wanted to seel it.

A Martini Henry was the main British firearm during the colonial era, and was replaced by the Lee-Enfield when it became available.

When these weapons were top of the line, they the weapons of the era had problems with gas leakage, and that decreased the range of the weapons. Well a hex barrel was machined so tightly that it got rid of the problem. Case in point, the US Whitworth Sniper rifle of the ACW, it had a range of one mile.

The problem though was with the ammunition. It had to be manufactured to such high tolerances that production was miniscule. So the hex barrel was not suitable to general usage.




Cheers, Thorgrimm

hey, thanks.

and thor, if i do end up having to sell any of them i'll give you a yell. At least that way i'll know they're going to a good home.

Benno, lord knows I don't want you to have to give up a family heirloom, but if you did have to, for whatever reason, you are correct, those treasures would be well taken care of, right alongside my US ACW Springfield rifle.




Cheers, Thorgrimm

i took a firearms safety course on sunday. it was pretty shit. the instructor spent most of the time telling us how it was better in the old days when parents taught kids how to use guns... never mind the fact that during Vietnam more Australians were killed in firearms accidents than in the war. i passed the tests (i did the rifle, shotgun, and handgun courses), but not through any help he gave me.

on the plus side i shot a gun for the first time - .22 bolt, .22 magnum pump, .357 lever, 44.40 double barrel, 12-gauge lever (that one scared the fuck outta me. didnt set my jaw for the first shot and damn near bit my tongue in half), and a .38 revolver.

and i'm not as bad a shot as i feared. Everything was fired standing at targets 25m away (we were at a pistol range), and i mananged to get 75% of my shots in the black circle (400mm diameter), and even hit the outer bull a few times.

Outstanding bud! Congrats on passage, you are now well on your way to becoming a lover of firearms, Yank style.




Cheers, Thorgrimm

heh.... yeah. i want a pistol. that thing was so damn fun to shoot.

whats a good pistol? what am i looking for in a good pistol?

oh, and in australia we cant get anything with a calibre larger than .38 for recreational (read non-police/military) use.

Then you are quite limited in choices then, but the S&W .38 long barrel revolver is a good choice. Although I would recommend getting at least two speed loaders for it.

Well, I would recommend reliability and ease of maintanence. The two things the pistol I recommended have.




Cheers, Thorgrimm

ok, got the guns in my possesion now. yay. just cleaned them and oiled them up so when i get leave next i can start scrubbing rust off. i found all the serial numbers and such... pretty interesting shit.

theres a winchester repeating arms model 1873 44 W.C.F., with kings patent 1866 and 1860. thats in pretty good nick i think.

a H. Piepers FL.22.L., which is made in belgium and i dont have too much info on that. I like this one, its so simple and reminds me of the pipe rifle from FO2. breech action, octagonal barrel. it also has what looks like a bayard logo on the buttstock, but i cant make it out clear enough to be sure.

a Lee-Enfield which has been cut down and modded to be a .22 and has no bolt.

a martini henry .310 cadet, which was owned by the australian commonwealth and has a kangaroo etched into the top of the breech, it also has 9/11 C.M.F. S.A. etched into the buttstock. the trigger doesn't work though.

and an Enfield martini action carbine. not too much info on this one as yet. its had the working parts removed, and im fairly sure that theres been part of a cleaning rod stuck in the barrel for around 20 years.

Thats a good start on an excellent firearms collection. And if you can get them into working condition you can trun a large profit if you ever decide to sell them. Now remember you said if you did decide to sell them I get first dibs on the Martini-Henry.




Cheers, Þórgrímr

I remember seeing those on the history channel. They were imported to America for the Revolution or Civil War, can't remember right now. The thick octagonal barrel prevented heating.

yeah... its got a barrel thicker than the one on my steyr.

thor - like fuck im selling them. although i did a bit of research and the winchester 44 is worth between 5 and 20 grand, US.

Where did you get these?

Benno, thats the sentiment I expected from a firearms lover like you, any other respose and I would have thought you not quite right in the head. As for the prices, I did tell you that you could turn a nice profit on them.

Do me a favor and post a pic of the Martini-Henry, and then the whole collection.




Cheers, Þórgrímr

i got the winchester 44-40 and lee-enfield into firing condition. i was wrong about the lee - it's still chambered for .303 british (and i think it was a smle 5 - jungle carbine). the 44-40 needs a soft handload though, and i dont know how to do that yet.

i fired one round out of the .303. kicks like a mule. then i realised i forgot to put the extractor on the bolt... so i spent 2.5hrs cleaning, an hour traveling to the range and an hour back to fire one bullet. that kinda sucked, but it was worth it. didnt get another chance to shoot it though.

theres a martini-enfield cavalry carbine, which i though was a martini henry a while ago. it needs a new barrel then will be ready to shoot... oh,and the action. it needs that too.

the .310 cadet needs to be fully rebuilt, and im not sure if its worth doing. might just clean it up and keep it.


the piepers .22 needs to be rebored and a new thing of rifling put in it. that'll be expensive, but the guy at the gun shop reckons it wont damage the value of it as an original.

but the .303 and .44-40 are ready to shoot. now i need to learn how to handload ammo.