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I bought this carbine as never fired by previous owner, lurked online for about two weeks and had my 80 yr old mentor look it over for me. (He's a big Martini enthusiast)

After looking it over silently for at least 5 minutes, he says " It's not a Khyber pass, but there are several unusual things."
Among other things, he pointed out the small thumb rest, hand tooled cocking indicator, and unusual crown. Sorry, no picture of crown or front sight.

In my pictures, I tried to show several things

The left side of the action. There is a faint logo of demon (with horns and tail) waving a pitchfork, standing on grass or flame
Left of logo word is DEMON, right of logo is STEEL
Next line is MGC
Next line is B
Next line is 313

Right side of action is blank, note hand tooled cocking indicator

Underside of action has 434 stamped ahead of trigger guard
Tried to show temper/case hardening colouration on lever topside (stamped with a T or E and what is possibly possibly an O)
Trigger is grooved

Breach and block have matching proof marks
Slugged crown end of barrel and it miked out to. 310 at the farthest point (lands?)

I test fired four factory surplus rounds from it, each with differing headstamps
First from a distance, three more from the shoulder
Trigger was stiffer than my Swede mauser
Second round from shoulder failed to fire
First round ejected easily, second and fourth with considerable effort
My mentor says headspace is out; get barrel or block tweaked by smith

I trolled around online, bought a breach cleaning kit and scrubbed out the breach, hand loaded three rounds and tried it again
All three rounds failed to ignite - I assume the firing pin isn't striking primer hard enough

I guess next step is disassemble and clean - how much time should I budget?

My mentor guessed carbine's age at 110-113
Trolling online, my best guess is that MGC stands for midlands gun co, and that B is relevant to being unfit for military service, or a model #

Any info or informed guesses about this Martini would be appreciated
Enjoy the pix
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