Thread: Old Single shot rifle

Originally Posted by gundoc

It is a standard .303 Martini-Enfield rifle and the 98 on the top of the body is the year of the Government purchase order (not necessarily the year of delivery). Not all M-E's were conversions as by the late 1890's the supply of donor Martini-Henrys was drying up and new manufacture of M-E's was undertaken. There are two types of breech blocks, the first being converted from the M-H with a dovetailed plate inserted to fit the smaller diameter firing pin (needed because of the much higher pressure of the .303 cartridge), and the second being the newly manufactured .303 type. I had a carbine in my collection (part of the 1898 order) that was newly manufactured in 1902. The photo of the right side of the action will show the date of the donor rifle. The M-E rifles and carbines were relegated to cadet training well before WW1 and were not completely phased out until the 1960's. I clearly remember a delivery of extra rifles from King Edward barracks in Ch-Ch to Cashmere High School in 1963 that consisted entirely of M-E carbines and NZ Pattern L-E carbines. They were only needed for the one day so we had enough rifles for a full battalion parade, as the school armoury only had about 200 SMLE's.

Now theres a thought..........Imagine a school today being allowed to even think about having a parade with anything that resembles a rifle......Let alone have to borrow more for it because they only had 200 on hand.....Love it...