restored a 577/450 gahendra rifle over the last few weeks.

[Claven2]

These were recently on sale at IMA for, if I remember, $150. In these first photos I've not done the least little bit of disassembly, cleanup or restoration, so these pics are "as found" and may be typical of what others can expect to get (?). To be honest, it's better than I expected but not without some items that will need fixing.

Gahendra on top (obviously):


Crack along the woodline in the forestock:


Crack in the buttstock, but only on one side - not sure why yet until I get it cleaned and disassembled.


Small bit of wood missing at the tang, again pretty typical of these from what I've seen.


Luckily mine came with an intact buttplate

I next started to take this apart between operations on the EIC musket I was restoring a while back. It's amazing how cruddy the inside of this thing is! The muzzle had 6" of solid mud and stones caked into it and obviously the cleaning rod had been driven back a bit. It makes me wonder if maybe the gun was dropped muzzle-first out of the palace window in Laghan Silekhana while the locals were loading these into crates - lol.

It still does look though like it will clean up well.



Here are my forend repairs I had to make. None have been oiled or stained, the wood has been tastefully cleaned and the repairs made and dressed flush - that's all in these pics.

Left side forestock retaining pin hole:

The right side of the hole had more damage, so I used a larger rectangular patch:

I had to replace the band retention pin as it was rusted to nothing and the wood around it was dry rotted away on one side.

Here is where I repaired to crack and the missing chunk in the forestock along the barrel channel:

And this patch is where there was some crumbling dry rot against the receiver:


After I took these pics I blended the patches a bit more with 400 grit paper to get rid of some of the courser file marks.

Some butt repairs:

Repair along the tang:


Markings cleaned up. the split is filld with shellac or something and is only 3 or 4mm deep so I'm going to leave it be.


I filled one area of dry rot with cyano-acrylate glue to solidify it. You'll notice the bearing surfaces were all beat in from the stock being used when loose. I decided to bed the area with epoxy mixed with sanding dust.


Drilled some shallow holes to hold the bedding:


Setting:


Ready for cleanup:


Done:



I did have to slightly shorten and re-tread the end of the cleaning rod to make if fit, which leads me to another point - I think my rifle was a "put together" from one or more salvaged Gahendras. Not by IMA, ming you, the rifle had been together for a very long time, but probably back in antiquity. I think this because:

1) The cleaning rod was a good inch too long and given the variability from rifle to rifle, it had to come from another rifle with the forestock a tad on the long side and the stop plate not deeply inletted. My rifle has a deeper inletted stop plate and a forestock on the short side of spec. Oh well, it fits fine now.
2) The buttstock was coated in heavy brown dark shellac, 50% or better worn off while hte forestock never was - it had a rubbed oil finish under the grime. I think the buttstock was probably salvaged off a damaged rifle and used to repair this rifle.
3) The rear sight leaf was soo poorly fitted as to be unserviceable on this sight base. I completely rebuilt it and refitted all the parts (after straightening it) and it now works as advertised, but I think it came off another rifle and I think the slide came off a third rifle (!).

Anyhow, she looks rather nice now. All wood repairs are finished, blended in, and a few coats of finish on the wood. There was some bad scratching on the receiver, both sides, looks like it was done with a screwdriver or something? It was under the grunge though, so it happened long ago. I don't plan to remove it, but I'm re-browning the bright metal areas to make it look less obvious (read:ugly).

As you can see, I opted not to alter the worn and used look of the rifle, I merely repaired the damage and made it serviceable. It now looks well used, but maintained.

Whole rifle:


Here's the receiver scratching I was referring to:



Repaired rear sight. I had to draw-file the sides of the ladder to fit the slide without having the slide all deformed and jammed. I also had to file the inside of the slide so it could fit over the thickness of the ladder. I had to hammer the hinge back into round with a small jeweller's ballpeen and straighten the slide which was bowed, warped, and also crooked. Full disassembly, cleaning and re-assembly as well. The hinge retaining screw was also not fully inserted because when the sight was soldered on, the hole in the base did not match the dimple in the barrel. I used a small diamond grinding tip to open up the barrel dimple to align with the base hole and re-tapped the threads. The whole thing is as right as I can make it now.



Some of the stock repairs after staining with oil-based leather dye and finished applied over them (Kramer's Antique Restorer in this case).







And finally my receiver markings:

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Michael.786]

I have just aquired a Gahendra rifle in the same condition as the one in you photos. I bought mine from a chap who bought two Gahendras and used one of them as a donor rifle. The damage to the stock is almost identical to yours,particularly the damage to the stock above the wrist grip. I think I will have to repair mine in the same way. I bought the barrel and receiver of the donor rifle as well and it's lucky I did because I can replace the broken rear sight ladder on the rifle with the donor one.

The photos show that you are a very skilled craftsman in both metalwork and woodwork. Hats off to you sir! I am new to renovating/restoring old rifles and it is fine work such as yours which is an inpiration.

[mmesser]

has anyone seen any reports of serious malfunctions when shooting the Gahendra Martini Rifles?

[Claven2]

I think that people who shoot these are using reduced loads and projectiles that match actual bore dimension. Gahendra bore dimensions vary wildly, so slug your barrel before loading. Assuming the rifle is sound and serviceable, load appropriately sized bullets into sturdy purpose-made .577-450 cases like Jameson and reduce typical martini loads by around 30%.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

The photos show that you are a very skilled craftsman in both metalwork and woodwork. Hats off to you sir! I am new to renovating/restoring old rifles and it is fine work such as yours which is an inpiration.

Nice camera work as well. May I ask what type of camera? I have a decent digital but cant seem to get good pictures.

[apachedawg]

Very nice rifle. I did mine the same way, used but maintained.

[Claven2]

Nice camera work as well. May I ask what type of camera? I have a decent digital but cant seem to get good pictures.

It was just a cheap Nikon point and shoot with a macro mode.

[DDan1967]

I was wondering do you have any suggestions for removing the but stock screw?

I've a IMA 1878 Martini-Henry Francotte and I've all but given up on getting that darn screw out and the but stock off.

[jamie5070]

DDan1967, Have you tried tapping whatever you are using for a srew driver with a handle? I did this with a martini. I put the rifle in the edge of my bench vice with the muzzle down and resting on a block of wood. With my long shafted screw driver engaged in the slot I started rapping the end of the handle. After a while I started trying to turn the bolt at the same time and eventually got it out.
john

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

It was just a cheap Nikon point and shoot with a macro mode.

Finally read my instructions and hopfull will produce better results. Thanks!