Martini Metford MK III Artillery Carbine, Royal Garrison Artillery

I just posted a MLLM over in the Enfield Forum, thought I'd post this one up in here...Picked this up from the same Gentleman who had the MLLM...

My favorite thing about it is another great marking disc, Royal Garrison Artillery. Especially neat is the connection the unit has to Bermuda, which is my favorite place in the world, and somewhere I spent a lot of time on, and a lot of time exploring the forts.

The RGA manned the coastal artillery emplacements at the Royal Navy Dockyard, and other Coastal Batteries around Bermuda...don't know if I could ever connect this carbine with Bermuda, but they were there.

Its in nice shape. The original butt rondel is a bit faint, but visible. Several Sold out of Service marks, with CC, which, IIRC, means it was in the Cadet Corps when disposed of.

Other than that, I don't know much about these, except they were first converted when the .303 was new, thus the Metford rifling, and not the later Enfield. It makes a nice companion piece to the Martini Enfield rifle I got years ago from Ken Chaffer in Oz...

Hope you guys like looking at it as much as I do!

Any input, or any info on whether or not this gun with the unit mark and year info could be pinpointed to Bermuda would be especially appreciated.

More pics...

Another nice piece. You knew about these and waited them out? I had a chance to buy two Martini rifles years ago too. They were so tight that brass could interchange after firing. I didn't buy either...both in .303 of course.

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Originally Posted by browningautorifle

Another nice piece. You knew about these and waited them out? I had a chance to buy two Martini rifles years ago too. They were so tight that brass could interchange after firing. I didn't buy either...both in .303 of course.

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So when I was setting up at shows, met a nice Gentleman walking around with (another) rare carbine, a Kropatschek Cavalry Carbine...At this show old stuff isn't really a thing, so we talked, and I ended up with it. He mentioned he had more, and was looking to sell some off. The next show, he had a batch in the trunk, including the MLLM...wasn't quite sure exactly what it was, since I had never seen one in person, even though I had been collecting Enfields since the 90's, didn't even see one when I went to the huge Springfield Sporters Auction back in the mid or late 90's. But I told him hold it, and I'll give him a call that night after I got home and checked my Skennerton books.

So, bought it the next day, then a few weeks later he called me again, and said he had a few more to show me, this Martini in the bunch.

This all happened pre-COVID...Being a half fast Brit collector, I was extremely happy to get both. I also have that nice Martini Enfield I got long ago from Ken Chaffer, He sent it directly to me from Austrailia (with the proper export papers) before his troubles, great guy, and he had some really cool stuff back in the day.

Two more Martini Metford Mk III Carbines. Artillery and Cavalry. Issued to the Royal Artillery and the Natal Constabulary. Marking on the A/C probably cancelled upon being offloaded on the Cape Government.

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They've been seriously dumped and stored in heaps if I read the nicks, dents and gauges correctly.

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Originally Posted by Daan Kemp

They've been seriously dumped and stored in heaps if I read the nicks, dents and gauges correctly.

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Should you have ever been a South African Cadet, you will know why!