Keep your eyes open for a new mini series coming out in a couple of months time for called "Regimental Stories". We spent last Thursday on the the Range at Brecon with Bill Cainan from the RRW Musuem, 11 soldiers from the Royal Welsh Regiments, Keith Piggott and the BBC, demonstrating, lecturing and live firing the Martini rifle for the programme and instructing the soldiers into its history and use of rifle and getting them to live fire them, to give their opinion of the rifle of their fore-bares in the 24th at Rorkes Drift.
I took an 1873 Mk1/2 upgrade and an 1876 Mk2, with full military loads, each soldier (picked from the regimental shooting team) firing 3-5 live rounds at 100 yards. The reactions I will save for the programme!!., I deliberately did not size some cases, this to induce a jammed case, which we duly got, again, if they show it, It'll demo how a rifleman would use the ramrod to clear it.
As a introduction to it I fired three rounds into a P11 target, first into the belly button, next the chest, then the head of the target, this seemed to change the opinion of the rifle (and me) to the squaddies, finally demoed it by hitting a water melon at 100 yards,
Hopefully it will be the most informative study of the rifle yet shown on the telly, and its accuracy demonstrated.