Since we have a Doper named Martini Enfield, I thought I’d post this. I recevied a catalogue from Atlanta Cutlery Corp. yesterday. (How they tracked me down, I don’t know.) They’re selling British P-1871 Short Lever and P-1885 Long Lever rifles, and Nepalese Gahendra Martini rifles. Since they are antiques made before 1898 they are legal to buy without an FFL. They also have bayonettes for them.
Other British Empire offerings are percussion rifles (British P-1853 .577 Calibre, East India Company P-1796/1839, P-1864 .577 Calibre Snider Breech Loading Rifle, British P-1837 Percussion Infantry and Sniper rifles, and from the Royal Armoury in Kathmandu, totally unmarked Sharps Slant Breach Type 1853 rifles) and a selection of original kukris.
All are excellent guns… if only Atlanta Cutlery would get the nomenclature right!
There’s no such thing as a “P1871” or “P1885” rifle, for a start… They’re Martini-Henry rifles
The Martini-Henry Mk I-III rifles all had the “short” levers, and the Martini-Henry Mk IV rifle had the long lever. Martini-Henry Mk IV rifles were only ever widely issued in India and the Subcontinent, FWIW.
Similarly, the “P1853” is in fact the Enfield 1853 Rifled Musket, the “P1864” is the Snider-Enfield Rifle, and the “P1837” is the Brunswick Rifle.
Having said that, anyone with an interest in old guns (Bobotheoptimist, I’m looking at you!) should get one… I.M.A. stock a lot of the Nepalese Cache arms as well, according to the catalogue I have in front of me. (Yes, that’s right, I.M.A. will ship to Australia!)
There’s a gun show on in Brisbane next weekend, too… Dammit, I was doing so well at saving some money for a change, but the path to paying for a wedding and buying a house is fraught with temptation and desireable armaments…
The British never used the “P-XXXX” system to refer to their firearms, as far as I am aware.
The Martini-Henry, for example, had an official designation of Martini-Henry Rifle, Mk I (or II, or III, or IV). The Lee-Enfield rifle was the Magazine Lee-Enfield Rifle, and the Webley Revolver was the Webley Revolver Mk VI.
Later on it got a bit more complicated, with the type of arm being listed first- so you’d get Rifle, Short, Magazine Lee-Enfield Mk III* or Pistol, Revolver, Webley Mk VI, and then they changed it again to * Rifle, No 1 Mk III * and Pistol, Revolver, No 1 Mk VI.
All thoroughly academic and of little interest to anyone, of course.
FWIW, most arms nowadays historians use the “Make, Model, Type” format, regardless of what the List of Changes actually says the guns were called- for example, I’d refer to an SMLE Mk III* or a Webley Mk VI rather than a Rifle, Short, Magazine Lee-Enfield Mk III* or a Pistol, Revolver, Webley Mk VI, if that makes sense…
