How long would it have taken to clean up a fouled up rifle

Posts : 1858 Join date : 2009-03-25

The weapon is partly blamed for the defeat of British troops at Isandlwana prior to Rorke's Drift (in addition to poor tactics and numerical inferiority)—while the Martini-Henry was state of the art, in the African climate the action tended to overheat and foul after heavy use. How long would it have taken to clean up a fouled up rifle, or was it discarded. I would imagine it would be quite a long process before the rifle was fit for purpose.

I watched an experiment some thing to do with an Ian Knight documentary. Where they fired at a large block of wax with a Martini-Henry used in the Zulu War. If my mind serves me correctly, they only managed to fire off 14 rounds before the rifle fouled up.
It’s with this it minds I post this topic.

Can anyone explain the cleaning process of a Martini-Henry and the necessary tools required.

Posts : 2581 Join date : 2009-04-24

It was mostly cartridges jamming rather than fouling. A well-trained Soldier would have no problems ejecting a jammed cartridge

Subject: rifle fouling Thu Jul 23, 2009 7:48 am

hi 24th.

I dont think it was that difficult ( i have never had to do it, thank god ) , i have read eye-witness reports of DURNFORD clearing jammed rifles with his good arm, holding the gun between his legs, i think a bayonet was used, so i dont think it was to difficult.

cheers 90th.

Initially, .577/450 cartridges were manufactured of rolled brass foil, but shortly after the Anglo-Zulu War- it was found that the rolled foil cartridges were known to jamm as the barrel became hot, and production was switched to the drawn brass style now commonly used for the manufacture of small arms ammunition.