The Martini-Henry - In The Movies

You can tell the REAL actors they close their eyes when they shoot.

Zulu Wars conclusion: OOOOGAA BOOGA OOOOOHH OOOOG OLLOLLOLOL FIRE! BOOM FIRE! BOOM

The invention of the rubber bayonet was the most important development in British firearm history. The use of rubber bayonets in combat is a form of psychological warfare, creating confusion in the enemy. Many enemy soldiers believed that they had been run through by a steel bayonet, and wandered around the battlefield believing they were ghosts, as noted during the Napoleonic wars..

In bf1 this is one of my fav weapons👍

My rifle during BF1

There is alsoI believe a Hollywood movie about a Werewolf in london in the 1800s where the protagonist is trying to stop the main charcter werewolf. Together with the police they armed themselves with Martini Henrys and baricaded a road. They formed a 2 rank deep or a single line infantry line and volley fired the werewolf. I forgot what movie that was. Or even my memory on that is accurate.

the powder charge was 85 grains of black powder for the rifle and 75 grains and a lighter bullet for the carbine before it went to the .303 cartridge

I am privilaged to own 2 of these remarkable rifles.

Love it thx!

noice, gotba wadg zulu now

As a Welshman I loved Zulu as a boy (still do). I had a friend in school obsessed with the film as a symbol of proud Welsh identity and courage in the face of overwhelming odds. It was somewhat disappointing to find out in later life that most of the soldiers at Rourke's Drift, despite serving in Welsh named regiments had actually been recruited across the border in English counties and so were not actually Welsh... Still a great movie. Cymru am byth!

The original M-H rifles are pleasant to shoot and surprisingly quick on the reload with a little practice, though nothing compared to a good bolt action of course. The foil cartridges weren't great though; really would've benefited from thick-walled brass like the roughly contemporary and comparable .45-70 (and the foil rounds I've shot as old surplus certainly had many issues). However the rifles are accurate out to 600+ yards easily, and those huge, heavy, slow-moving bullets did immense amounts of damage in keeping with British small arms design doctrine of the era -- and if the period numbers on fatalities vs. hit location are to be believed...

They're also really not that bad on recoil if properly kept tight to the shoulder. Certainly no worse than many modern, smaller nitro/smokeless loads in the various bolt rifles; and a good deal more pleasant than a 12ga shotgun with 3" slugs. That being said, anything more powerful than a semiauto 5.56 is going to bruise eventually if you're firing it for hours on end in combat or drill...

Such a satisfying breach loading weapon. The sound in BF1 was orgasmic.

My fav rifle in BF1

Imagine what would have happened here and Isandlwana if the soldiers had been armed with lever action Winchesters.

"You big, black bounding beggar, for you broke a BRITISH square!"
Rudyard Kipling wasn't unbigoted by any means, but he could show respect for people who overcame his beloved imperialists.
This poem would have been from that time.
Fuzzy-Wuzzy, by Rudyard Kipling.
Yes, that is its actual title.

😊

There ain’t much to be proud about for a 62 yr old Brit, brought up watching those movies of British colonialism. But I can’t escape the fact, that Zulu and the Man who would be King, are bloody good movies, and inspired me to go out and see the world for myself.

And lets just gloss over the genocides the british empire has committed in the name of profit and power😊

Dude, Enfield is basically the real life version of Kuat Drive Yards

Since you used all of these Martini Henrys to get these video shots, i was wondering if i could borrow one for a couple weeks

THE greatest single shot rifle ever IMHO. I have nearly a dozen, in several chamberings.
My Cadet in .357 Mag ( .310 originally) is probably the most fun.
I also have a MkIV re barreled to .50-70 smokeless! It featured a cut down, turned down M2 barrel . I am able to create some pretty spicy loads! Im pretty sure the gun was a smith school project

bf1

Ahhhaaa you cliped the Lost World from 2001!
If anyone's seen that film, note how much Peter Jacksons 2005 King Kong film imitated it.

The British refuse to purchase the Gatling gun from the U.S.😂

The neat thing is




Some of the soldiers at Rorkes ended up living till the 1970s which means they got to witness assault rifles and tanks along with other technologies come into play

I though they MH had a 9 cartridge reserve or AM i mistaking it for another rifle?

Battlefield 1!

KRIEG UND SIEG

Great video. All the films you mentioned are must see. 'Zulu's biggest production problem was that they were planning for thousands of Zulu extra but only got 500, they used very basic methods to hide this like closer shots and in longer shots having pairs of extras holding a row of shields, thus making them look like more in number.

Red Coat riflemen showed great gallantry fighting against men armed only with spears and leather shields.

By the way, Martiny breech rifles are still very popular with german, austrian and swiss "Standschützen" at competitions, as they are sturdy and reliable just like the remington rolling block rifles, nearly indestructable by overloaded cartridges...

I have held this rifle it's heavy and it's round is massive and if recall it's a .50 item.

G’day Johnny, I’m nearly 70 and when I was a young lad, I learned to use a Martini-Henry from my Grandfather, an Australian who served in the Boer War. Lee Enfield .303s were mainly in use then but many non-front line personnel were issued with Martinis.
My Grandfather was a military train driver. He and his train crews had their Martini-Henrys in the engine’s cab, just in case. Grandpa liked his so much he ‘liberated’ it and brought it home to Tasmania. He was a farmer and used it for a long time, even shooting rabbits during the depression to put extra food on the table. He said it would, “blow the poor little beggars’ heads off.”
I found this to be true when it was passed down to me. I used to often go for walks in the bush with a mate who had his own .22. We shot rabbits and bush rats.
Pretty soon though it became hard to source ammo, so I kept the Martini in good condition as a display piece. Some years after that I joined the Air Force and although we were issued with L1A1 SLRs, I never again went ‘rabbiting’.
I found that shooting small animals wasn’t ‘a fair fight’.
Still, I can say from experience that the Martini-Henry was an excellent piece of British engineering.
Thanks for this, and your other videos. Cheers, Bill H.

The Martini-henry auto-loader is one of the most complex, and greatest feats of engineering I've ever seen for it's time.

In movie Zulu, the Zulu king was played by the real life chief of the Zulu, Cyprian Bhekuzulu kaSoloman; he was the great grandson of the Zulu chief, Cetawayo, during the actual Zulu War,

Britain only gives to world brutely massacre 👿

Martini-drink 🥂

I was visiting Cyprus on holiday one time and I took a cab from the airport in Larnaca to Nicosia. The cab driver and I were just chatting and I asked him about his service during the Turkish invasion. He told me he was in the reserves but everybody was called up to fight the Turks. He went to pick up his firearm and all they had for him was an ancient Martini-Henry rifle and 3 rounds of ammunition! He told me when the Turkish tanks started advancing, he loaded and fired his three rounds one after another, then threw the rifle to one side and retreated. LOL

The game BF1 features a modified Martini Henry which works as a grenade launcher. I'm curious if it's fictional or did such modifications happen in real life?

How many spears pero minute could throw the average zulu?

Richard Sharpe would have LOVED this gun.

I caught a glimpse of a Martini Henry in the Man From Snowy River a movie made in Australia and would fit the time. Thanks to this video!

Dobra strzelba na murzynów 😂😂😂😂

Incorrect. Obviously, the Martini-Henry wasn’t the first breechloading rifle. The first modern was invented by Martin von Wahrendorff. The misinformation here is scary.

Edit: forgot to put "modern" in.

I'll have a martini, but not too much ice!

You forgot "the Four Feathers" both versions feature the Martini Henry. The Heath Ledger version even showed the ammunition issue not mentioned in your video. The fact that earlier ammunition including ammo supplied to the armies at Islandwana and Gordon's expedition in the 1st Madhi war to Khartoum,was the case was made of rolled brass foil. The case head would separate leaving the rest of the case stuck in the chamber. The results of which is shown in the four Feathers, in one scene the rifle is showing with a breech rupture. Blowing up in the face of the soldier firing it. Also blinding him. This was based on fact. After 1879 the brass was made in the typical drawn fashion which ended that issue. A Snider Enfield as well as the Martini Henrys as well as a Hotchkiss rotary cannon and Gardener guns are shown as well as Congreve Artillery rockets. The other movie you missed Was the movie Khartoum itself. Another great movie.