Nepal martinis

[Barnettshale]

I have not been here for awhile so thought I would visit and post about a couple of Martinis I received recently. The first, an unmarked short lever I got from IMA. To say it was in rough shape is an understatement. mechanically ok but the wood was really bad.
As received from IMA, buttstock split at the wrist, recoil lug pin area of the forend rotted out both sides



faint markings, a class 2 marked receiver

The forend broke under the rear band. The start of repairs, a very long process

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.

[Barnettshale]

After getting the main portion of the forend repaired I had to restore the forend tip that crumbled. A real chore. I used a Francotte forend as a patern for shaping






This is where I ended up, my son holding the rifle

[Barnettshale]

I did a lot of work on the short lever and decided I would order a long lever Brit marked one so I would have an example of each. This is what I received. A beautiful rifle, no wood rot and mechanically great.


A rearsenaled rifle in 1908

A 98 stamed on the knoxform. Does that mean a 1898 dated barrel?

[DoesntPlayWell]

I picked this one up a while back. Bayonet is on the way.

[martini]

The long lever looks really nice. Have you tried shooting it? What is the bore like?

The 98 I think is an inspection mark?

[Barnettshale]

martini,
The rifle is nice and the bore is good. I have not slugged the bore yet but did shoot some paper patched .458's. I was shooting at 100 yards and had trouble getting on paper. I shot the short lever with the same bullets, paper patched and at 50 yards had about a 3 1/2" group for 4 shots. 2" left and 4" high. I shot 65 grains 2F in the short lever and 70 grains in the long lever. Dryer lint as a filler, card wad, grease cookie, card wad and bullet. I am going to load a few more and see what happens.

[martini]

The short lever group sounds about right at 4" high if you are using the 100 yard setting on the back sight.

It takes a fair bit of time and experimentation to get the cartridge performing well and consistently, all part of the fun guessing why it is not performing.

[TheDoubleD]

I can't see the top of the Nocks form or the front sight, so I can't tell if you have an A or B pattern. The way the rifle shots seems to indicate it is not C pattern. The bores of the A and B are .470 major diameter. Get some larger bullets and the rifle should shoot.

[Richardwv]

It looks to be a pattern "A". The "A" and "B" used rebored barrels from the never issued EM rifles and therefore ended up with a slightly larger major diameter. As such, do as Douglas suggests and get some larger bullets. It makes a major difference.

[jamie5070]

I was about to get one of those gehendra rifles from IMA but they went and had the special on the snider rifles so now I'll have to wait.
john