Don,

I don't know about Peabody-Martini's in 577 - but for the African trade, quite a few were made in .58, like 577 snider.  but that would have been a British-made rifle, of course, not one made by Providence tool cy.

I have never seen a Martini in.577". The 577/45 British round was developed by extending and necking down the 577 Snider round. Being powerful enough for big game, many Martini sporting rifles were made for this calibre, the more commonly encountered ones are the Field's patent with the external cocking lever and the Swinburn. This merely carried on the practise established by the Snider round: I used to shoot a Rigby Snider hunting rifle. If you were an officer serving in Africa, taking a military calibre hunting rifle with you meant that you had free ammunition.
Fred.

MartiniBelgian and 38_cal;

This rifle may indeed have bben mislabeled. Pity that I was not free to have examined it much more closely. I did have a question in my mind as to the configuration of it (i.e., the barrel profile, sights, etc.).Now that it has been mentioned the appearance of the rifle was remininscent of rifles built for African hunting. Due to the number of other interesting pieces the gentleman had on display, all of which were what he claimed them to be, I did not think to doubt his word. 
This Martini actioned rifle had a what appeared to be small thumb lever at the upper right rear of the receiver. In further research I have not seen this depicted on neither Peabody Martini nor Martini-Henry rifles. A friend who was present and quite familiar with the British built Martini actions did not question the labeling of the rifle. My curiousity is now thoroughly arosed!

The real treat for me was the pleasure of looking over the "side hammer" Peabody rifle at what was otherwise a fairly worthless show. I will confess to having a weakness for rifles from the post-Civil War early breechloading cartridge era.

(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

the action depicted here has the same type safety as the rifle I saw yesterday. The one I saw, however, had a straight grip with the short lever as on a military Martini. The barrel was large in diameter. If it was indeed chambered for the Snider round I am in lust! It apparently was not a Peabody Martini but had a style that tripped my trigger!

There is another one in the "Sporting Guns" section of (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links).
Fred.

Have a look at the Hammer Rifles page in (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links).
Fred

DoubleD wrote on Jan 7^th, 2008 at 9:51am:


You done flung a CRAVIN' on me! Oops - my true nature came out.