Martini Henry: Mad Minute Rate of Fire

New member here. Again, sorry if this has been discussed before.

Mad minute is rightfully associated with the Lee-Enfield bolt-action rifle. I realize that a Martini-Henry, as a single shot hand loading weapon, cannot be loaded as quickly as the fastest rate achieved by users of the Lee-Enfield.
But I still want to know: what was the fastest rate of fire officially achieved and recorded by the Martini-Henry users?

Hi RammedEarth
If you use the search box on the left hand side under ' Our Favourite Links ' , you will find much jnformation , Neil Aspinshaw is our resident expert on all things Martini - Henry , read his posts and you will be on a winner ! .
90th

There isn't one recorded as I know of, but if you want a living example I shoot the Diehard Company Annual shoot on the short Sibera at Bisley with my Martini's. In 2012, with my Martini Henry MKVI in .303 Metford I fired the ten deliberate, and only got 8 shots in the 45 seconds rapid timed away..... oh by the the way most others were shooting .303 SMLE and No4's with battle sights.... ask who won the trophy that year?

Last Year I fired a .450" MH got all ten away in both categories (yes thats 10 .450/577 in 45 seconds), and finished third.

This year I am shooting a Snider in the ten deliberate and MH for the rapid just to prove you dont need this post 1900 modern Sh*t.

Good Stuff Neil
Cheers 90th

Like Neil I have been known to pot that fellow once in a while with a Martini - the best I got in a minute was with a Martini Enfield carbine - 13 aimed shots - 9 of which counted at the Imperial meet a few years back - even with that I got listed 10th in my class when the scores were combined - you will see a few bits of footage of mad minutes on the internet - but the chaps doing it are firing blank, not aiming and in a lot of occasions don't even shouldering the rifle so don't think they really count!

Neil - better get you booked in for a meal then - see you in Feb - atb Tim

timothylrose wrote:

Like Neil I have been known to pot that fellow once in a while with a Martini - the best I got in a minute was with a Martini Enfield carbine - 13 aimed shots - 9 of which counted at the Imperial meet a few years back - even with that I got listed 10th in my class when the scores were combined - you will see a few bits of footage of mad minutes on the internet - but the chaps doing it are firing blank, not aiming and in a lot of occasions don't even shouldering the rifle so don't think they really count!

Neil - better get you booked in for a meal then - see you in Feb - atb Tim

That is true. However, the record for Lee-Enfield is still 38 accurate hits at 270 meters (300 yards) if I remember correctly.
I was just hoping for some comparison with the M-H. When did the British Imperial Army start recording the best rate-of-fire from individual shooters?

Now that is a good question!

Rammed Earth.

Myself and Tim do know who will know, so if Adrian is at the Smoker he will inform us. The problem is the MH was never designed to be a rapid fire weapon, neither was the Magazine Lee Metford and MkI variant Lee Enfields as they both had a magazine cut off for single controlled shot. I would go as far to say the MH firing steadily would expend the same amount of ammunition as a MLM or MLE by the time the firer had re-charged his magazine with singular cartridges, hence until the development of the Short magazine Lee Enfield with the charger loader, and the CMLM and CMLE conversions where continuous rapid fire could be maintained without reloading delays.

Did the RSAF try and look into rapid firing options on the Martini Henry?, very much so, a report from 2nd December 1881 from Hythe School of Musketry highlighted where they were with developments of magazine/quick loaders, verisons such as the Scandinavian Krnka, devices invented by some of the RSAF staff such as that by Perry, which was a cartridge belt which buttoned to two studs on the stock. There was the Mayhew which jammed to often, but in the end the opted for Enfields own design, a removable five round magazine, see on my website fitted to the trials Enfield Martini of 1884.http://www.martinihenry.org/index.php?route=product/product&path=61_59&product_id=78

The only magazine that did get further than experiment was the Hartson, but by the time it reached testing the decision was taken to adopt the Lee rifle so it was resigned to history. http://www.martinihenry.org/index.php?route=product/product&path=61_67&product_id=139

In the cold light of day, you cannot compare, or even allude to it, in the thirty three years between the Martini Henry and the SMLE, its like trying to do the same with a De Havilland 5 of 1916 and a Vampire of the same company only 29 years later.