Good day members
Are anyone shooting a Westley Richards Martini Henry rifle ? Which loads do you use, what bullet mold ?

Gert Odendaal

I have four.
One, a 500/450 No.1 will shoot any .458" bullet very well.
One other is a 450 No.2 musket and two are 500 No.2
What is yours chambered in?

Huvius, I am currently working out loads for this rifle. This rifle has bees standing for forty years in a store. The owner remembered his father shot it once. We slug the barrel, it measured at the chamber side .458 and at the muzzle .452 inch. This is one of the last Martini Henry rifles made on contract for Westley Richards in Liege , Belgium by Francotte..he designed a action that can be removed as a whole. But the whole rifle was assembled by Westley Richards in England.

According to many knowledgeable Martini Henry owners the average Martini Henry barrel is suppose to be .462 to .472 inch and every barrel taper down to the muzzle.

My take on this is that this rifle is manufactured in 1897 ..and just maybe Westley Richards decided that a .458 inch barrel was the way to go. Members pointed out that the Henry rifling is difficult to measure, and when slugging a bore it gives you the groove on the one end and the lands on the other end..therefore you need to rotate the slug between your fingers while measuring it with a micrometer.

Please tell me why your Martini Henry shoots a .458 inch bullet very well? Did you slug it? What weight bullet are you using ?

A photo of the Westley Richards Martini Henry ZAR

I thought you were referring to the 1869 and 1871 "improved Martini" variants.
The No.1 has Henry rifling and I chose a bullet that had as close a profile as an original WR cartridge I have.
I will look tonight to see what that mold is and what I loaded with.
My 450 No.2 shoots the Berrys 350gr bullets well with 80gr of 1.5F Olde Eynsford.

I bet your gun will love .458" bullets with that tapered bore.

Huvius that is my point exactly..this rifle shoot a .458 caliber bullet not a lager bullet...I did receive numerous bullets from friends to experiment with...this will happen the coming holidays ..

Huvius, here are the bullets I received from my one friend....
400gn, 488 gn and 550 gn

I have a friend in Belgium -- also named Gert -- with a ZAR. He is a dedicated and very proficient target shooter, and a careful experimenter a true rifle crank in the very best sense of the word. And hopping over to the British Militaria forums, I see you have crossed paths with a very fine bunch of Martini enthusiasts.

Yes, Bill/Oregon, it surely are a lot of knowledgeable members on the British Militaria forum Helpful as well

Here is the bullet and mold I use.
I size it in a Lee push through to .459"
I do, however, have to neck size a little to hold on the case mouth so if I were shooting a NfB load, I would probably go a little bigger with the bullet. Maybe big enough to not neck size at all.
I'm not sure what they are out of the mold but I think they are not even close to .468". Going to be casting some soon so I can do some better measuring then.
From what I have read, these rifles have bore dimensions all over the place. My rifles are all sporters- wonder if that makes any difference. Also, the generous chambers might allow for more shots before fouling becomes a problem. I guess I should cast my chambers before going too big with the bullet in a NfB load.
Normally, I just pay attention to the bore diameter for black powder shooting and don't really worry about groove depth but these have such big chambers that a .450" bullet would just be swimming in there so I hesitate to go too small and sizing these to .459" made them ready useable for me in a number of guns. They seem to work well anyway.

I'm such a knucklehead! Didn't dawn on me that your rifle is maybe a 577/450 or is it one of the other 450s?

I know at least two of my 450s are proved at 52bore which equals a measurement of .447" fwiw.

Huvius.
The mold is the correct one for the Martini Henry rifle like mine. It needs a larger bullet diameter according to the Martini Henry forum members I have discussed the bore diameter of MH rifles with...I want to see if I do not get a bullet mold in your bullet size..but with a meplat for better penetration when hunting...