Peabody-Martini

Rubone

Rubone

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Anyone have any idea on value of a Peabody-Martini rifle? It appears to be a domestic model. Lots of Turkish inspector stamps but doesn't appear to have ever left the country. Been in a friends family for the last century plus. I'll try to get some pics if I can.
TIA
 
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Pics would be great as well as to the caliber. Google the company that bought all the Nepal martinis and see what they are going for. Or try gun broker and see what they are selling for as well. Frank
 
Don't think this ever left the country. Been in the possession of a friends family for well over 100 years. Note no Turkish markings on the receiver, however there are Turkish inspectors stamps. I don't have it in my hands so cannot check caliber.





 
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You're going to need to take a chamber cast on that one. Years ago I had a Turkish Peabody-Martini and it took a real freak of a cartridge. It was nearly impossible to make a conversion cartridge for it. As I remember it started with a .348 Winchester as a base and then involved a bunch of lathe work making an external sleeve and larger rim followed by fireforming. I made about 5 rounds for it. 3 failed when during fireforming and the other two cracked when firing with a regular load. (Nor catastrophically, just enough that they couldn't be reloaded.) I think I still have one of them around here somewhere....


Fortunately, Providence Tool made these in other chamberings. Maybe you will be lucky...
 
Read up on the Peabody/Providence tool company. Real convoluted history regarding making the Martini's for the Turkish gov't. I believe that they made a 45 caliber rifle cartridge just for them. Yours looks to be in exceptionally fine condition. I have one of the 56-50 rimfire carbines made about the 1870's and have been meaning to get it converted from rimfire to center fire but always cannot justify spending the $500 or so. Maybe I'll eventually find a complete center fire breech block. Dixie Gun Works used to sell both rimfire and center fire blocks but those days are long gone. Frank
 
I wonder how close to a British .450/.577 cartridge is the chamber
Click to expand...


The .450/577 is much, much fatter. I'll try to find the one I made that is unusable and will post a picture.
The Turkish case is a 11.35mm x 55R Turkish and has a .582 base, a .668 rim and is 2.30" long. As I remember the closest donor case I could find was the .348 Winchester and even it was too short.
 
If it is in the Turkish chambering and I wanted to shoot it, I think this time around I would consider a chamber insert. .447 bullets might prove problematic to find, but I'm sure something could be swaged or turned down. The extractor would also have to be modified a little to accommodate a smaller rim.



All in all, would it be worth it to shoot a few times and then hang it on the wall? For me, the answer would be "yes" as I like a challenge and I reaally don't shoot everything I own.
 
I should have it in my hands later this week, so I will post some more pics and see what I find in the caliber dept. Apparently some sold domestically were in 45-70?? Wouldn't that be cool?
 
The .577-450 Martini-Henry round is not difficult to load for. Here's mine with a few rounds I loaded:

20171028_125337.jpg



But I'll plead ignorance about the Turkish round.

If it uses the same base case as the .577-450 you can start with Magtech 24 ga. empty brass. That's what you see here.

Good luck!

Curl
 
P.S. I just measured one of my cartridges for the Martini-Henry. My cartridge measures about 0.660" at the base and 0.720" across the rim. So if the measurements quoted above for the Peabody-Martini are correct it is quite a different case.

There's a Martini enthusiast who advertises formed cases, custom moulds, and custom dies. I suggest you contact him to see if he can help or make a suggestion:

Martyn Robinson
X-Ring Services
1405 S. Woodward Rd.
Spokane Valley, WA 99206-5541
[email protected]

He may be able to lead you out of darkness. He's a good man to deal with.

Curl
 
As promised, here are a couple of pictures of my aborted attempt to make a cartridge for a Providence Tool Peabody Martini........
Turk1.jpg

Turk2.jpg



Here are the steps as I remember....
Take a .348 Winchester case, make an arbor to hold it in a lathe and thin the rim from the front. Make a brass washer that is large enough for the rim diameter of the Turkish case. Ream the inside of the washer so it is a tight press fit on the base of the 348 case. Thin the washer until it is the proper thickness.Take a piece of brass tubing that will press fit down the case with enough friction to hold the washer in place (see picture). Taper the upper part of the tube, from the inside, to a knife edge. Anneal the daylights out of everything. Assemble and load a fireforming charge. I seem to remember I used Bullseye and cornmeal held in with a wad of paper.
(You will need to experiment with just how much powder to use. Too little and the case will not expand, too much and it will fracture. I found that doing this in two steps with another annealing between helped.) Then cross you fingers and fire away. As I mentioned 3 out of 5 attempts failed at this point. They split at the top edge of the tube. Of the two that held, one failed with a regular load of BP the other is the one pictured but it is cracked on one side right at the seam.
 
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