Loading 44/40 with blackpowder.

[tacfoley]

Apparently the martini action rifles wouldn’t chamber the rounds after a few shots due to powder fouling in front of the chamber and that led to the zulu massacre.

There are a number of reasons why the British were overwhelmed at Isandhlwana, but fouling was not one of them. The MAIN cause was the way that the troops in the outer defence lines were deployed at ten-yard spaces - giving the 5000+ Zulu ample time to rush and overwhelm them.

There is an excellent movie on Youtube that examines this facet of the action, and uses reenactment to show how it took place. Remember that the soldiers were standing still, and the Zulu were running at them at around 15mph...

[DesG]

There are a number of reasons why the British were overwhelmed at Isandhlwana, but fouling was not one of them. The MAIN cause was the way that the troops in the outer defence lines were deployed at ten-yard spaces - giving the 5000+ Zulu ample time to rush and overwhelm them.

There is an excellent movie on Youtube that examines this facet of the action, and uses reenactment to show how it took place. Remember that the soldiers were standing still, and the Zulu were running at them at around 15mph...

Exactly that. There was a very good documentary about it some time ago and there are any number of documents relating to the problems of using bp in Martini Henrys. They were indeed spread out too thinly so when their rifles needed attention to get them functional again they didn't have sufficient covering fire from their colleagues to sustain a rapid rate of fire, so fouling was indeed a contributary factor. It is seldom one cause that leads to catastrophy.