Hello Milsurp Gents!

This is my first post here, so I thought I'd start if off with a bang (or lack of). I own a Martini-Enfield Artillery Carbine Mk.II converted in 1898 to .303 and issued in 1899 to a pioneer division of the 3rd Lanarkshire Volunteer Rifles (Later to become part of the Cameronians). I stripped and inspected it, the bore is dark, no pitting and strong rifling. The barrel has quite a bit of pitting under the wood, along the knoxform reciever and along the barrel area. I had a friend of mine, a gunsmith, take a quick look at it and he said it should be safe to shoot, but I would like a second opinion on that. I took her to the range, loaded a commercial Federal .303 cartridge and pulled the trigger. Snap. No bang. The rifle dented the primer at the back but did not fire. I removed the cartridge after 30 seconds incase of hangfire. I took it home and have not shot it since. I disassembled the action block, cleaned it thouroughly, and re-assembled it. Apparently the bevelled hole in the action body was pointing the wrong way? I checked with an online manual.

My questions are:

1. Should I take the rifle to a gunsmith and have him inspect it thouroghly, and check the headspacing for me?

2. In your honest opinions, with the pitting evidenced on the rifle in the following picture link, is it safe to shoot? Why would it not shoot before? Any ideas?

Here is a link to the pictures:

Martini Enfield A C II 1898 pictures by Drachenblutt - Photobucket

Thank you,
Drachenblut
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