I have only seen these in books but real 577-450 yesterday.It had a very good bore .Are they worth anything and are they safe to shoot ? Can you.turn them into anything else ? It looked cool and was smooth as silk .It was $300 didn't know if it's worth that or not .

Someone wanted it.more than me got gone quick!

The Martini-Henry rifles are old and should be checked out by a gunsmith for condition and safety, as a rule. Some barrels are heavily pitted below the stock line.

The .577/450 Martini-Henry cartridge is comparable to the original black powder .45-70 Gov't cartridge, and is suitable for anything that cartridge can do.

$300 for one in decent condition would have been a good/great price however you may have dodged the bullet regarding ammo. That cartridge is a bear to load for. The military bores are usually .464-.468 requiring other than standard .458 bullets/moulds. The original case was cardboard lined with a capacity of 80-90 gr of black, new drawn cases hold up to 120 gr leaving you with a good bit of empty space to deal with. You can just fill the case up to the base of the neck with 1F like my buddy did but he said it was like pulling the trigger on a spring loaded sledgehammer. Nitro for black loads are possible but again you've got a little bit of powder and a whole lot of air in there. You can buy custom loaded ammo but three boxes would have cost you almost the price of the rifle.. Sizing dies are available but vary widely in dimensions, so getting the right size without oversizing your brass can be a crap shoot. These rifles are fun to shoot but getting the rifle is the easy part.

You might want to look at old Double Gun Journals. Sherman Bell has several articles on the round and reported some success, maybe with Trail Boss. As I recall he used regular 458 cast bullets. As I remember, he lucked in to this, didn't know any better, then discovered that the round was generally thought to be much more complicated to load for than he found. Bob

It had a good bore was worried about the condition and ammo .

Someone that worked at the store bought it .I found lots of old kynoc ammo but heard brass sucks and splits .I am glad someone got it .

I have that Issue of Double Gun Journal, kept it specifically for that article. Mr. Bell got lucky, the rifles that he used were civilian sporters with .458 bores. That takes weird bullets and dies out of the equation and makes life a whole lot easier. I should be so lucky.

Hi Calshtr, I have a 577-450 Sporter with .458 bore so lucky there, but loads have been scary with Nitro or punishing with BP, could you put up or PM Shermans Load data please ?

Sarg, I'll look it up and get back with you via a PM.

We have a number of them here, and have shot a few without any problems at all.

Give the particular rifle a good inspection and if everything looks good, shoot it.

Sarg, You have a PM.

If that was a British-made Martini and not a Nepalese or Afghan knock-off, $300 was a steal. Smart money for loading the "Fat Boy" is to buy the right mold to fit your bore from X-Ring Services -- and also order a box or two of his cases formed, trimmed and annealed from Magtech/CBC 24-gauge shotshell brass. Load 80 grains FFG and top with cornmeal or other inert, safe filler to bullet base. Large pistol primer for the CBC brass.
I use a similar system -- and Martyn's CBC brass and X-ring .600 mold to make up loads for my .577 Snider.
The Britishmilitaria forums are your friend, beleive me.