Firing the Martini-Henry at teh range

[simesgee]

Thought I'd post a quick video of my partner firing the Martini-Henry Saturday!
These are the first home loads I've done and was a bit nervous!
All went well though!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uclp...ature=youtu.be

[TA6319]

very nice well done. Were you using BP or pyrodex?

[loiner1965]

First home loads and you let someone else fire them first lol nice one
It's a mk 4 so might be ok loading the .470 bullets with lee dies unless you are paper patching
Lee dies can be fussy with smaller bullets
Let us know how you get on when you resize your cases
Or are you just fire forming and paper patch to suit etc

[simesgee]

I put eight rounds through it to make sure everything was ok before letting my partner fire it – so I’m not too much of a cad! In any case Jo’s too astute to let me get away with that one!
I’m using 84grn of medium black powder.
Bullets are put together using a Lee die set. I cast the bullets as well (think .468). They’re coming out at about 520grn – pretty substantial

I did quite a bit of research on what load to use. As I wanted to keep to black powder I made the decision that the safest way to load was to get the cartridge as near original as possible. 84grn by volume left a smallish gap from just below the shoulder to the start of the bullet. I filled this with a loose filling of Kapok. Then a card, then a well-greased wad, two more cards then the bullet on top.
General consensus was air gaps are the thing to avoid when you use black powder, so a small load would leave a large air gap to be filled. Filling with semolina is apparently a (very) bad thing as it sets like concrete when under rapid compression and it won’t funnel from the shoulder to go through the neck – resulting in a large pressure increase. Kapok I think is ok for a small gap but is a loose air filled material so not good for large air gaps. Hence fill up with 84grn of BP. Makes a satisfying whoomph and not bad on the recoil either 

[gtpkeeper]

great, would love to shoot one of these,and range to shoot it

[tacfoley]

'This video is not available'.

tac

[simesgee]

Sorry Tac. I took the vid down because I can't seem to use a pseudonym and it published my real details (you register on Google). And now it won't let me re-post it anyway.
We'll do more videos soon and I'll work thie YouTube malarkey out!
S

[tacfoley]

Sorry Tac. I took the vid down because I can't seem to use a pseudonym and it published my real details (you register on Google). And now it won't let me re-post it anyway.
We'll do more videos soon and I'll work thie YouTube malarkey out!
S

Hey, no trouble. Youtube is good - I have over 200 videos there, but I'm told that Vimeo is better by a friend in BC who, like me, does trains.

I lool in front to seeing your efforts soon!

Best

tac

[davederrick]

I’m using 84grn of medium black powder.

Seems a bit high to me, I know thats the original load, but I only put 65gr in my loads. I use Puflon to fill the air gap.

[master_shriller]

I had some reduced volume cases made up on a CNC machine, 64 grns BP, no filler.

They don't need resizing or the use of any dies, the bullet is pushed in with a paper patch.

These cases have been used by some of the very experienced older guys (70+) at our club for many years with no problems.