I see these shotguns in fairly good condition from time to time. Some are marked WW Greener on the action and others with a big GP. Can these be rechambered in a rifle caliber. If so, like what? Are the below actions the same?

333--Yes those are same rifles. Only
fancier. Absolute most beautiful
guns ever. If I won lottery, those 2 would
be first ones I'd buy. That action
would handle, 303, 375Win, 38-55, 444.. At
moderate pressure cases like 45-70, 45-120.
450NE probably work.Also 577/450,577/500.Ed.

The above two are 12 bore express rifles.

Here are a few more:

333_OKH,

The Greener MArtinis were never shot much as theyw ere reputed to be hard kickers. They were made as 12 and 16 bore shotguns and as harpoon guns. The 12 bore rifle that you have psoted pictures of must be really rare guns - do they have ivory forends? I would request that you leave them unmodified and restore and use them as they were made to be used by Greener themselves. There is a lot of game that the 12 bores would easily take. In India they even shot tigers with them without worrying.

From your question, I was not sure which guns you were referencing. In my experience, the most common Greener Martini shotgun was the police shotgun in 12/14 ga. They were designed to shoot a 12 guage shell necked down to 14 guage with a 14 guage barrel. This was done to insure that if, lost to the enemy, they couldn't chamber and fire 12 ga ammo. The original ammo is non-existent, for all practical purposes.

I presume these are the same actions as the Greener 12 bore rifles. They had a strange firing pin which penetrated the breech block on either side of the firing pin. I wouldn't consider them very strong, although some have been rechambered to various cartridges. I believe the only good use would be to rebarrel to 12 bore rifle.

The statement they were seldom fired is true. However, that isn't to say the bulk of them are in good shape. They always sold for a pittance on the surplus market when available, and I bought several. The last ones I bought in a group, trying to get enough parts to put one decent one together. Never made it and gave up in disgust and gave them all to my local gunsmith.

quote:

I would request that you leave them unmodified and restore and use them as they were made to be used by Greener themselves.

The above guns sold in the last few years in Australia for a small fortune. Those are ivory, and they had rifles express barrels for 12 bore conicals.

Please see the other pictures I listed. These are not military surplus, but rather production run from Greener for the commerical market. I am not sure if theyu are the same actions as the military gund, but calibers I am looking for are things like the 400 Purdy, or maybe just a 38-55 Winchester...or 38-56...

WW Greener says they are not suitable and are much different actions. The one with the odd firing pin system is only one version of the many versions made, and was only made for a short period of time.

Those first two rifles pictured are not originals. They were made by century arms in Australian and are pretty recent.

I have an origional greener rifle with a similar action (the old ones that were not shotgun actions do not have automatic safeties) made in 1897 in 577-500 #2 express.

With most of these martini actions the safeties are not 100% reliable so dont trust them if you have one.

Brett

333_OKH,

You're absolutely right. Greener did make dedicated sporting Martini actions and there are old guns still in use in India. Some members on the Indians4Guns forums love them.

I bid on a 303 sporter made by Wilkinson Sword last year but lost it as the final bid was much higher than what I was ready to pay. I'm no expert on these things but I guess Greener did not make them in the really powerful rifle chamberings because even in 12 and 16 bore they kicked hard. There are persistent rumours in Britain about someone planning to make Martini single shot centrefire rifles again though the rumours have never been substantiated. That said, Greener themselves may make something as they have revived several of their fine dsigns that were killed off after the war like the Facile Princeps, their Unique ejectors and their own sidelock design.

The Martini actions should be strong enough for the 38-55 if they were fine for the 303, I guess. But as I specifically said, I'm no expert.

Best wishes,