I picked up an old Martin-Henry at the gun show the other day, as I posted in the Firearms Research Forum. Mechanically, it seems in good shape, but before it was sold, the Brits de-milled it into a drill rifle by making a thin saw cut through the chamber area of the barrel.
I've heard of people using chamber inserts from someplace like Old Western Scrounger to shoot .45 Colt ammo in these old guns. I'm wondering if anybody here has experience in using these, and whether the insert is long enough to go past the cut area of the chamber, allowing a cowboy type .45 load to be fired safely? The 1877 rifle is pretty much original, and the bore, other than the cut, is in excellent condition. It would be a shame to just have it as a decorator item, but I don't want to mess up a real collectible by a modern rebarreling.
These are kind of neat guns, as well as being historic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1csr0dxalpI
I've heard of people using chamber inserts from someplace like Old Western Scrounger to shoot .45 Colt ammo in these old guns. I'm wondering if anybody here has experience in using these, and whether the insert is long enough to go past the cut area of the chamber, allowing a cowboy type .45 load to be fired safely? The 1877 rifle is pretty much original, and the bore, other than the cut, is in excellent condition. It would be a shame to just have it as a decorator item, but I don't want to mess up a real collectible by a modern rebarreling.
These are kind of neat guns, as well as being historic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1csr0dxalpI
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