My newest Son-in-Law, Adam is in the Air Force.....brought my this Afgan Mazar-e-Sharif Calvary Carbine from over there. It was made in the Afgan Royal Armory and is chambered for the 577-450.
These are not Kyber Pass back room guns, but rather a gun made in the Afgan Armory.
Churchhill, when fighing in India, mentions that the Afgan Army was giving the India hill tribesmen these guns to fight the Brits....and said they were effective.
They appear to be a rather rare copy of the British gun and are only a few coming in lately with our troops. The Martini-Henry collectors made mention of them.
Has anyone out there got one? There seems to be an infantry, calvary, and artillery model?
regards, James

Where's the pic's?

Here's a couple!

Yeah - I'm here in Afghanistan too and have been drooling over the M-H's and some of the other stuff but, unfortunately, Canada has decided we can't import any of it back with us.

Some of the stock inlay work with mother of pearl has to be seen to be appreciated. I can only imagine the hours and hours of work that have gone into the making or customizing of these arms.

I understand there are some British M-H's floating around also. The buyer should look to see if there is a stampe that is two broad arrow marks with the points touching.......that means condemmed stock. It would be great if we could get some British actions!
The Afgan guns do have a few Brit parts in them.....namely sears (with the broad arrow mark).
The Martini-Henry Collectors webpage lists the Afgan gins above the British guns due to them being scare over here....but the over all quality is not as good as the British guns.
There are also some Sniders floating around.
Regards, James

Thanks for the pic's Mr. james. This one looks good, definitely a whole lot better than the ones from India, they had some India guns at a show a while back, absolutely sorry excuses for guns - could get higher quality pieces from a 6th grade shop class.

Y'all plan giving it some hog hunting time?

How do you say envy? http://www.martinihenry.com/

Very nice gift. I bet that .450 will do some damage to a hog. Jim

Hello Mark.......Oh Yes. we will begin checking out some places in a few weeks. The only acorns we will have this year are in the swamp bottoms. Too dry on the hills to have any bush acorns. Full moon will be extra good this year for hogs eating fiddler crabs!!!!
On the 577-450 caliber. If one had a real good British M-H carbine....I think it would be an excellent hog/brush gun. You would have to relaod the ammo at the price loaded rounds are today.
I have been looking around for one of the M-H actions that Navy Arms made awhile back. It would be a great action for a .45-70 or maybe even a .577 Snider.
Regards, James

Despite all the rain lately, it's still bone dry here too. We got about 8" over the past few weeks but everything is way behind on growth, I can still see the house from the gate, should have been hidden since mid-March! Finally got some piggies coming in here, not real close yet, gotta get them something to root in. A few deer starting to make their rounds again too even though I haven't had a chance to get the feed plot done yet, maybe sunday. I haven't seen an acorn here yet, only a handfull of extremely small ones already dried up on the trees and that's it. Was hoping to get the shade cron crop in last month but it was still too dry and hot, would only have had pop corn if I had planted. Getting enough rain now but it's just been too hot, no breeze at all and it's been holding 98°F every day in the shade, (105° - 110°F in my shop). Yote's have been nasty lately too, coming right in to the house, they got four of the neighbor's calves just in the last few days. They've been hanging around the canal 24/7 rather than their usual pattern of moving into the heavy timber, also see them wandering around more in the daytime too.

Not that long ago I saw new 577-450 brass for sale and I just can't recall where I saw it ... been racking my brain the last few days trying to remember and let you know but it ain't happening.

You plan on loading them with BP or nitro?

I've never been a big M-H fan but wouldn't turn the opportunity to own one down if it presented itself. I'm hooked on the '85 highwall.

The acron crop is next to nothing throughout this north part. We have plenty of water oaks on our place, but no acrons.
I don't plan to shoot this M-H, it's too worn inside and have no idea as to the quality of the steel?
I have no idea where you will find High Wall anymore? The Pedersoli guns look good though. I am doing some research for them now on bullet designs for their ML double 12 bore. I'm sending two molds over for them to look at.
Regards, James

Most definitely going to be a bad year for acorns but maybe that'll be to my benefit ... if they acorns are in short supply, hogs & deer may migrate closer to the house looking for food?

I know where to get highwalls, ultimate top quality too, it's where I got my .45-70 and it ain't no pedersoli crap. I had plans on getting my second '85 by now in .50x3.25 but neither my body nor wallet can handle it anymore. (don't wear your body out before its time, puts an end to everything in a hurry)

I looked at the M-H's from India, I should have stopped at the outside but curiosity got the better of me. The outsides are rough, and I mean real rough - covered in file, rasp & hammer marks; the steel in two of them had hard spots so pronounced they left the surface lumpy, very poor fitting just plain butt ugly. Taking a look inside didn't prove to be any better either, even the bores were wavy and they give new meaning to term "slop fit". If memory serves, they were priced around $700 too!

Wan't it Providence Tool Co. that produced the bulk of the M-H's? I never really followed them but I seem to recall the Finn's or Swede's also bought mfg rights for the M-H's but maybe I'm thinking of something else?