I test and compare the muzzle velocities two different variations of Mk II Martini Henry firearms using an RCBS brand Ammomaster chronograph. . The receivers of both firearms were made by Britan's Enfield arsenal in 1875.. One was made as a rifle with a 32.5 inch barrel and did several decades of service on England's behalf before being given as a gift to the army of Nepal where it also provided years of service before being retired and finally a century later sold to IMA as surplus in 2003. These rifles saw service all around the British Empire and took part in many colonial wars in such places as the Zulu kingdom, India, the Sudan, Afghanistan, etc. Although England (and also Nepal) had declared them obsolescent and largely replaced them with bolt action rifles by the beginning of WW I, they continued to function as a reserve weapon around the British Empire with some seeing active service with reserve units in India as late as the early years of WW II against the Japanese army.
The other firearm had a similar beginning, made as a rifle for the British, but in 1891 was called back from the field and at BSA the gun was converted to a carbine variant for the British army artillery crews in time to do service in the Boer War, fought in the Transvaal and Orange Free State areas of what is today South Africa. Sometime around 1903 to 1906 it was declared surplus and sold off. How and when it arrived in the United States is unknown to me.
Both guns are in the original British military service caliber of.577-450. Although originally a black powder loading in the early 1900s the British approved a smokeless cordite loading for the cartridge. The ammunition used for this test was made commercially by Kynoch sometime between 1933 and the 1950s. The cartridge being used is Kynoch's paper wrapped cordite load.

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