Ian:
My apologies for perhaps sounding a bit "snarky" .... but I was indeed getting the impression that you were unwilling to be dissuaded from what you had been told about this rifle. (I also realize that it might have seemed like I was talking through my hat when you had seen another Mark IV with the same markings, for which the same explanation was being given. However, if that rifle was indeed marked the same as yours, then it too would have been in service in Pakistan, and presumably its owner was simply believing a similar tale about it.)
As I mentioned, no Mark IV M-H rifles are known to have been acquired by Canada. I should add that you don't simply have to take my word for this assertion, but can rely on the extensive research of such people as David Edgecombe (C.F. Brig.Gen., Ret.) author of "Defending the Dominion: Canadian Military Rifles 1855-1955" (published 2003) who spent years scouring through all available Militia Department records, parliamentary and fiscal reports, etc. to produce his book. Mind you, I am not entirely without some knowledge in the area ..... here is how he autographed my copy .... ;) ....https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...6145d1b4-1.jpg
To answer your final question, Mark IV rifles were not really ever issued to British regular troops, but rather only to reserve forces and also to native and colonial troops.
It is relevant to review the circumstances and time-frame of the production and use of the Mark IV Martini-Henry. At the time it came on the scene (.... none were issued until 1888, if I recall correctly ....) Britain had already adopted its first bolt-action repeating rifle: the .303 Magazine Lee-Metford (shortly to become the Magazine Lee-Enfield upon a change of rifling design). While the new .303 rifle was in development, there was also yet another program under way to develop a reduced-caliber (.402") single-shot rifle with a re-designed Martini action - and this "Rifle, Enfield-Martini, Mark I" had actually gone into production (1887 I think) with some 65,000 rifles already finished.
With the formal adoption of the new .303 rifle in 1888, many of the existing .450 Martini-Henry Mk I, II and III rifles in the hands of troops would necessarily have to remain in service during the changeover - i.e. until all Regular troops could be re-armed with the new repeating rifle. Also, in keeping with long-standing practice, Martini-Henry rifles would remain the standard-issue rifle for British reserve troops and also for "colonial" and "native" forces for quite a few years to come. Rather than having rifles in Empire military service chambered for three different cartridges at the same time (i.e. .450 Martini-Henry, .402 Enfield-Martini and .303 Lee-Metford) the entire Enfield-Martini program was scrapped before any of those rifles got issued (except perhaps on a "trials" basis) and the many rifles already produced were altered to chamber the existing .577/.450 M-H cartridge .... with the altered rifles being re-designated as the Martini-Henry Mark IV. Manufacture of this model continued until about 100,000 Mark IV Martini-Henry rifles had been produced in total. (In these circumstances, of course, all M-H Mk IV rifles were destined for issue only to reserve and "colonial/native" troops ....)
As a matter of fact, in the receiver markings on the approximately 65,000 Enfield-Martini rifles converted to Martini-Henry Mark IV rifles, the "I" of the Roman numeral "IV" is centered directly below the arrow-point of the crown-and-arrow "lock viewers mark" underneath the date ..... because they had already been stamped as Enfield-Martini Mark I rifles. When they were converted to .577/.450 and their designation was changed to "Martini-Henry, Mark IV", a "V" was stamped alongside the existing "I" .... with the result that the "IV" is off-center in relation to the markings above it -
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...ddb0c182-1.jpg
Later-production rifles (such as yours), having been made after the .402" Enfield-Martini program was scrapped, were marked "IV" at the outset .... which is "centered" in relation to the markings above it ......
