IMA-usa.com has had a couple of weekend sales of their Martini Henry Francotte and Gahendra variations from the Royal Armory of Nepal . These are untouched,
i.e. not cleaned, and are covered with a century of grime.
I ordered a Francotte for $150. It was complete except for the buttcap. The story from IMA was that the originals were brass and stolen by Armory workers for beer money.
Unlike most of the stories I've heard about these everything worked right from the start and is in good condition, dirt and the stock bolt aside. The stock was a dingy dark brown, didn't have the gray crust of most. The bore was pretty clean, dark but decent rifling and only 1 minor pit in the bore, minor shallow pitting under the wood on the outside. The breech bolt is tight, fits well, nothing loose, and the action came out and cleaned up fine.
Only problems so far are the screw on the rear band, had to be drilled out, and the stock bolt for the butt apparently was very loose so was peened over on the inside to keep it in place. A typical 3rd world mess, as fooling with it apparently mangled the stock bolt which looked like a blacksmith had tried to weld it. Anyway, with the action out I could screw it in a little, cut the worst of the peened over metal off with a chisel and got the buttstock off. The stock bolt has to be replaced and a little of the buttstock shank rebuilt, along with a new buttplate cut out of brass, but that's minor.
No question its a shooter, and I'll be making up some 577/450 black powder rounds, with bullets to match the bore as its supposedly non-standard though I haven't slugged it yet. This rifle does look good and strong but I don't intend it for any serious shooting so I'm keeping the loads on the light side.
I was so happy with it I ordered a set of 2 rifles in another special, another Francotte and a Gahendra. Even as wall hangers they'd be worth it and if they are tomato stakes the most I'm out is shipping.
I ordered a Francotte for $150. It was complete except for the buttcap. The story from IMA was that the originals were brass and stolen by Armory workers for beer money.
Unlike most of the stories I've heard about these everything worked right from the start and is in good condition, dirt and the stock bolt aside. The stock was a dingy dark brown, didn't have the gray crust of most. The bore was pretty clean, dark but decent rifling and only 1 minor pit in the bore, minor shallow pitting under the wood on the outside. The breech bolt is tight, fits well, nothing loose, and the action came out and cleaned up fine.
Only problems so far are the screw on the rear band, had to be drilled out, and the stock bolt for the butt apparently was very loose so was peened over on the inside to keep it in place. A typical 3rd world mess, as fooling with it apparently mangled the stock bolt which looked like a blacksmith had tried to weld it. Anyway, with the action out I could screw it in a little, cut the worst of the peened over metal off with a chisel and got the buttstock off. The stock bolt has to be replaced and a little of the buttstock shank rebuilt, along with a new buttplate cut out of brass, but that's minor.
No question its a shooter, and I'll be making up some 577/450 black powder rounds, with bullets to match the bore as its supposedly non-standard though I haven't slugged it yet. This rifle does look good and strong but I don't intend it for any serious shooting so I'm keeping the loads on the light side.
I was so happy with it I ordered a set of 2 rifles in another special, another Francotte and a Gahendra. Even as wall hangers they'd be worth it and if they are tomato stakes the most I'm out is shipping.
