MilsurpDan
Ultimate Member
Picked this up at the MACA show last weekend.
The show has been slowly getting smaller which is a shame, and has been somewhat dry as far as C&R rifles go, but I always seem to find something.
I found this during the show set up on Friday (MACA members get into the show for free and before public entry). Dealer from Gettysburg said they had gotten it out of a museum collection but wouldn’t tell me which museum. They said they would after the rest of the guns had been sold.
If you were thinking that this looks exactly like a British Martini-Henry, that’s because essentially it is. The Turks wanted a rifle made to the same exact specifications as the British Mk. I Martini-Henry. The only difference being that it’s in a different caliber, 11.43x59r (aka .45 Turkish). This example is the earlier “Model A” that accepts a socket-type bayonet. The “Model B” is a bit simplified and has a lug for a blade bayonet.
The Turks contracted the production of the rifles to Providence Tool Company in Rhode Island. The contract was for 600,000 rifles but I’m not sure if they ended up making that many. Unfortunately Providence Tool Co. basically made a deal with the devil and lack of payments from the Ottomans led to them going out of business only a few years later. Since the Turks wouldn’t pay up quickly, a lot of rifles were sold to Japan, Peru, and even on the U.S. commercial market.
The Turks did get many of these rifles though and they saw heavy use all over the empire. Most notably at the siege of Plevna during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877. They would see almost continuous use up through and beyond WW1 leading to a low survival rate.
This example only has Turkish markings on it so it didn’t go to Japan. I assume it either stayed in the U.S. or was very well maintained for somewhere else since it’s in very good condition.
Original Ottoman firearms are super rare, so I’m glad I was able to find one of these.
The show has been slowly getting smaller which is a shame, and has been somewhat dry as far as C&R rifles go, but I always seem to find something.
I found this during the show set up on Friday (MACA members get into the show for free and before public entry). Dealer from Gettysburg said they had gotten it out of a museum collection but wouldn’t tell me which museum. They said they would after the rest of the guns had been sold.
If you were thinking that this looks exactly like a British Martini-Henry, that’s because essentially it is. The Turks wanted a rifle made to the same exact specifications as the British Mk. I Martini-Henry. The only difference being that it’s in a different caliber, 11.43x59r (aka .45 Turkish). This example is the earlier “Model A” that accepts a socket-type bayonet. The “Model B” is a bit simplified and has a lug for a blade bayonet.
The Turks contracted the production of the rifles to Providence Tool Company in Rhode Island. The contract was for 600,000 rifles but I’m not sure if they ended up making that many. Unfortunately Providence Tool Co. basically made a deal with the devil and lack of payments from the Ottomans led to them going out of business only a few years later. Since the Turks wouldn’t pay up quickly, a lot of rifles were sold to Japan, Peru, and even on the U.S. commercial market.
The Turks did get many of these rifles though and they saw heavy use all over the empire. Most notably at the siege of Plevna during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877. They would see almost continuous use up through and beyond WW1 leading to a low survival rate.
This example only has Turkish markings on it so it didn’t go to Japan. I assume it either stayed in the U.S. or was very well maintained for somewhere else since it’s in very good condition.
Original Ottoman firearms are super rare, so I’m glad I was able to find one of these.
