What is it?

[ssgross]

A neighbor asked me to look at something given to him, so he brought this over.

Looks like a type of muzzle-to-breach loader conversion, but where/when from? I think the bore is 0.577ish, rifled with 5 lands. I don't know what the chambering is. Firing pin plunger looks like a converted musket cap nipple. Not much by way of markings. I was able to handle and take pictures briefly in my kitchen, but was not able to take it out of the stock - although I might be able to at some point in the future.

The rifle next to it in the case he brought over was clearly a Kyber Pass martini-henry. Nothing special there, except that he found it stashed away with his unit's gear when they got back from Afghanistan. He remembered the patrol where they found it in a cash.

[#1oilman]

It appears to be a .577 Snider rifle used by both British and Canadian militaries circa 1870. Are there any markings?

[browningautorifle]

.577 Snider rifle

Agreed, need a better set of pics to be sure when and what. Five lands isn't a muzzle stuffer converted though, they only had three(?) Markings on the tang are Cyrillic?

[ssgross]

The only markings I saw were above and below the tang screw. I didn't get a good pick of below the screw. Looks like there may have been something in the middle of the lock plate that isn't there anymore. Said he got it from a deceased friends collection from the family who didn't know what to do with it.

[tiriaq]

It appears to be a commercial Mk.III Snider Enfield. Tasteful engraving on the lock suggests commercial, not issue. Block locking thumb latch = Mk.III. 5 groove barrel = Mk.III. Short rear sight = not a long rifle.

[ssgross]

Snider Enfield. Tasteful engraving on the lock suggests commercial, not issue.

All the pictures of the Nepalese imports I'm seeing have no markings on the side plate except some rough but "tasteful" engraving around the border, and foreign characters stamped inside on the lockplate and parts. I wish now I would have gotten a picture of the rear sight's graduations. As someone already remarked, the few characters stamped around the tang are likely not English. I had one of my 1873 Springfield's (not a carbine nor cadet) sitting next to it, and this snider was about as long. Certainly wasn't significantly shorter. Now that I know what I'm looking for, I'll see if I can get more pictures next time I bump into him.

[Aragorn243]

The markings and decorations look Nepalese but the overall condition of the rifle looks great, a lot better than any Nepalese I've seen. I expect some of the better IMA imports could have looked like that but I haven't ever gotten one.

[ssgross]

I expect some of the better IMA imports could have looked like that but I haven't ever gotten one.

I saw a picture of a 2 band Nepalese rifle on IMA's website. It convinced me. The lock plate was an exact match to my picture above, albeit I didn't make a point of counting the bands on the rifle in my kitchen. I did get permission to fully disassemble, inspect, and conserve the rifle in question at a near date to be determined. What fun. My first thought would to chronicle the endeavor here, or perhaps even writing a more general article on the experience as well.

EDIT: Oh and the IMA listing said 5 groove barrel too.