Martini-Henry from IMA?

[csa77]

Im looking for a Martini-Henry and I see that IMA seems to have allot. I was wondering if anyone here has bought from them before, if so how was the mechanical condition of the rifle and are their pictures on their web site fairly accurate of what will actually be shipped? (I plan on doing the hand selected cleaned and complete option)


I dont really know much about these rifles, but I know I want one

 

[Robert]

Be very careful and make sure that the rifle you buy is not a Kyber Pass Special and that it is an original British bulit Martini Henry. The Kyber Pass guns can be down right dangerous.

Also bear in mind that these were shot using black powder over 100 years ago in some cases. The bore may not be there anymore. Paying extra for hand picking may help but then again maybe not. A friend of mine picked one up for reenacting from them. I have seen it and fiddled with it. While I would not fire live ammo through it, it works well for his blanks. I would have a smith that knew what they were looking at go through it before i shot it, even with a hand picked one.

And you had best be into reloading as 577-450 is not cheap, even if you load you own. Custom dies, limited supply of brass. Black powder only, I think.

Same friend has a very nice example of a MkII or III, I forget exactly which, that has a good clean bore and is in great shape. He paid for it though.

Edit:
Just went over to IMA, have not been on there in a while, to take a look and I think you will be safe in buying one. Get a MkII if you want to have a good 24th Regiment of Foot rifle. Good looking rifles.

 

[Vaarok]

The IMA rifles are genuine and quite good, if you're okay with degreasing and possibly rebuilding rifles that have been in storage for a hundred plus years and fire an obsolete blackpowder cartridge.

The Gunboards.com Martini Henry forum is an invaluable resource if you're debating the plunge.

 

[GCBurner]

I've gotten a couple of them, in the "cleaned and complete" offering, a Mk II and a Mk IV. They are both actually in pretty good shape, and all the parts are there. They still need to be disassembled and detail cleaned and inspected before you ever try actually shooting them, but the ones I've got are in shooting condition now.
I'm in the process of cleaning up and restoring one of the "untouched" Gehendra rifles from IMA now. It's a bit more of a challenge, and will require scrounging a couple of small parts, and a lot of elbow grease and paper towels, but overall it's probably going to be shootable, too. The Gehendra and the Francotte rifles IMA has for sale were made in Nepal at their state arsenal, the Martini Henrys were supplied by the British, and bear Brit arsenal marks and proofs from the 1870s to the 1890s.