Well, everyone including the Brits call it that although it pre dates Martini and has nothing to do with him. Calling it a "Hammerless Peabody" would be much better as the internal hammer arrangement is more like Peabody's hammerless patent. Anyway, Westley Richards made these for several years changing things all the time. This one was is/was barreled in 500-450 #2 Musket which was a popular target cartridge of the time. It does have Henry rifling. Although it is stocked like a military, the sights have platinum inserts which I have wondered if it was made as a "military target" rifle for private competitions of the time. I say is/was because, back in the dark ages (like 1960) when I acquired it, 500-450 #2 Musket was pretty much unobtainable. Since I liked handling it and it is has a safety and a nice trigger, I decided I wanted to hunt with it and 45 was a legal muzzleloading caliber for deer in New Mexico. I had a smith make me a steel chamber insert that had a 45 caliber powder chamber in one end and a primer pocket for a 209 shotshell primer in the other. Did I invent the inline? He soldered it in and it worked fine. I used a Lee REAL (that's rifling engraved at loading) bullet that is shaped like a trash can and cut a beautiful circular entrance hole in several deer and exited the other side of their heart/lung area. Now that I have an Alexander Henry in 500-450 #2 Musket and the brass for it I'm considering having the false chamber removed or else selling it as it is. What say you?

That's a neat old piece. A bit odd but neat none the less.





JMH

Shaken, at least that is what you would be after firing a 500 grain bullet in front of 85 or 90 grains of powder! Nah, it's a pussycat with that 34 1/2 inch barrel. It is said that Bond used to carry one of these in the boot of his steam powered Aston-Martin;-) Nowadays to make 500-450 #2 Musket brass you just run a new Starline 50-90 into the sizing die (I had a long wait to get a set from CH for my Alex Henry - almost 30 seconds, while she checked the inventory) and trim it to 2 1/4 inches (using the good old Harbor Freight mini chop saw). So here is a full pic of the rifle and another of the other side of the action showing the serial number (234) on the barrel and action and the rear sight with steps for 2, 3 and 400 and then up the ladder for a bunch more.