I have just acquired a Martini Enfield carbine (dated 1879 - a good year for Zulus but a bad one for British troops!) which has a fairly good bore. I would like to get this carbine shooting as, while I like to collect old guns, I don't have anything in the gunsafe that I can't shoot.

So, if anyone has some loading data or general advice about loading for the .577/.450 I would greatly appreciate your comments. I am intending to work up both blackpowder and pyrodex loads but some "nitro for black" loads would be nice, too.

BwBob,
You are hooked on shooting the thing just from handling it. Mine is an 1886 Mk2 with a mint bore.
Components - Bertram brass @ $7.00 ea. Slug your bore it ain't .458 I'll bet. Cast Bullet Engineering make a .462x500gn PB just for the MH. Dies - search the web for english made ones. Mine come from NIE (Nottingham Industrial Engineering) Middlesborough,England. The RCBS/CH dies are made for .458 bore and overwork the brass.
Loads - 43gn 2206 with standard WLR primer and NO filler. 90gn FFG with a quarter of a tissue or some dunny paper wad under the pill. Do not leave any air space.
Best group to date with FFG was a 10 shotter at 50m that measured just 1.2"
Email me if you need more help

BwanaBob

Sounds like a good buy. I purchased a .577/.450 Martini Henry sporter a couple of months ago and haven't gotten around to trying to reload for it yet. Just getting the brass now and needed to track down some dies.

Bad Ass Wallace

They are lovely to handle aren't they?

Used yours on pigs or other game yet?

Haven't shot game with it yet. I shoot service rifle competition out to 300m and it is very accurate. Recoil is a bit more than a 303 but not unbearable.
I have found that the darn thing shoots much better when the sights are viewed from under a pith helmet with a royal artillery badge on it.

Thanks for the info, guys.

Bad Ass Wallace -
I particularly appreciate the info about the dies, and I had forgotten about the UK die makers. I do recall seeing a price list for a Brit die maker, a couple of years ago, and not only could they provide a lot of interesting dies but the prices were excellent, too. I don't know if it was NIE but I will now chase it up. Do you have an address for NIE?

NitroX -
I take it you are using Bertram brass, or are there alternatives? There is a gunshow at Canterbury Racecourse this weekend and Peter Van Meures (ProCal Trading) usually has Bertram 'seconds' which are half the price of the 'firsts'. I have bought some .585 Nyati and .500 Jeffrey cases from him and they look perfectly serviceable to me. So I intend to pick up some of the .577/.450 this weekend.

Playing with this carbine has given me the urge to organise an annual Martini shoot, possibly postal to allow as many people to shoot as possible. What I envisaged was a 40 round match, with 10 rounds at 200 freestyle, 10 rounds at 150 from the kneeling position, 10 rounds from 100 yards - volleyfire, and 10 rounds at 50 rapidfire and all fired on Figure 11 targets.

BwanaBob, you need to check out the lists at http://pub182.ezboard.com/bbritishmilitariaforums for info on care and feeding of the 577/450. Lots of experience and expertise there. Also take a look at the list on http://www.britishguns.net/