Effective Range of the Martini Henry |
Alan
Site Admin
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Neil Aspinshaw's website has a lot of other info on the MH but I can't see anything on effective range.
http://www.martinihenry.org |
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Cub
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Cheers Alan. Following a trail of links I found a Wiki page detailing British Army rifles through the ages and it reinforced what I had read about some of the MH ranges. It said 400yds was the maximum range at which the order to fire would normally be given (longer range fire for the purpose of harrassment was not unknown) and 200yds was when serious casualties would be inflicted.
Mike Snook's book really brought it home to me just how many of the Zulus were armed with firearms as well and how effective they were, not individually, but just because of sheer numbers and dwindling range. For some reason, despite the reports of so many British and Imperial casualties from musketry, it's something I often overlook or gloss over. |
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_________________ "You're a big man, but you're in bad shape. With me, it's a full time job." � Lt. Bromhead to Prince Dabulamanzi before the Battle of Rorke's Drift. |
Neil Aspinshaw
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The best evidence as to the effective range can be looked at in two context.
1) effective aimed fire 2) Effective lethal fire In respect to effective aimed fire, 700 yards, however moving targets have an effect on accuracy as the soldier needed good deflective judgement to asses the point of tangent between the aimed shot and where the target would hypothetically be at impact, no difference to a deflector sight found on a Spitfire in 1940!. later sighting trials with the adjustable sight in 1882 tried to remedy this, however, the adoption of the .402" Martini (and then cancelled) gave a much better velocity. Interestingly results from Maiwand in 1880 show how effective aimed company volleys could be at 700. In 1885, most main service rifles in the European and American theatre were assessed with a Boulenge Chronograph, using calculations from Professor Bashfords tables and the Martini was third from 18 comparable models at 1000 yards, only the Werndl, the Berdan and the Springfield outperformed it, the most effective by a country mile was was the .402" Enfield Martini...the rifle that never was, but thats the story yet to be told Effective lethal fire. There is no doubt, even in 1886, apart from the Rubin rifle, the Martini in both .450" and .402" still was one of the most effective rifles on the world stage, due mainly to the hard 12:1 alloy bullet. The field trial held the best evidence I have found for my book research is the report, with some extremely surprising evidence. A German report by Dr Ernst Kuerster, entitled �The Action Of Modern Bullets on the Animal Body�. A Horse was slain with a volley, and the Martini, the Chassepot and the Mauser were fired at the carcass at 5, 20,100 and 800 paces, unlike the French and German rifles used in the tests, the Henry bullet passed clean through the carcass of the horse, with minimal splintering when it hit bone. . Sort of changes perceptions? |
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_________________ Neil |
AMB
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Neil,
Do you have more on this '.402" Enfield Martini'? AMB |
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Neil Aspinshaw
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AMB
I have both variants on my Martini Henry website http://www.martinihenry.org/index.php?route=product/product&path=61_59&product_id=78 http://www.martinihenry.org/index.php?route=product/product&path=61_59&product_id=55 Regards |
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_________________ Neil |
AMB
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Neil,
Thank you for the pointer. Fascinating. AMB |
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paul mercer
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Hi everyone,
Have just rejoined after an absence of (too many) years although I have been following some of the posts. I was particularly interested in the posts about the effective range of the 450 MH. In Mike Snook's book 'How can a man die better' he says that opposing forces might be brought under fire as far away as 800 yards but the serious damage would begin at 600 and the real killing at 400 using volley fire. I have read that the average British soldier of the 1870's did not receive much training in the use of his rifle and there are reports that many did not adjust their sights to the range of target, this was commented on by John Dunne when he noticed that the men were firing high in one of the final battles of the AZ war. Also it must have been difficult to achieve accuracy in the heat of battle, particularly when firing and reloading quickly and under extreme pressure from several thousand Zulus, so the 'effective' range might be diminished - there is a lot of difference from a shot taken from a rest and one taken in a hurry or from one taken when an order to volley fire is given whether or not you actually have something to aim at or not. Finally I believe that at the battle of Ommduman (pardon the spelling) the troops armed with the new 303 opened up at an optimistic 2000 yards and the ones with Martini's at an even more optimistic 1000 yards, the 303 stopped the Dervishes at 1200 yards and the MH at 500 yards (300 yards shorter) which says a lot for the tremendous stopping power of the 480 grain MH bullet! |
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Effective Range of the Martini Henry |
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