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Rifle Ball Mark I
"Cartridge S.A. Ball Boxer Henry for 0.45 inch Martini Henry Rifle Short Chamber 85 Grain Mark I" was approved to design RL950 in April 1871 and shown in LoC Paragraph 2661 dated October 1874. The title was changed in March 1873 to "Cartridge S.A. Ball Breech-Loading for Martini Henry Arm Mark I" and again by LoC Paragraph 3230 dated December 1877 to "Cartridge S.A. Ball Rifle Breech-Loading Martini Henry Mark I".
The case was of coiled brass sheet .003 inches thick and constructed in a similar fashion to the familiar Mark III but with an additional strengthening strip of brass inside the coil at the head. The body of the case was riveted to the base disc of iron in the normal Boxer fashion and lined with thin white tissue paper. There was no sight hole in the side of the case and unlike the preceding Snider cartridges the case was not covered in paper. It is thought that the Mark I case was slightly longer to the following marks.
The bullet was an alloy of 12 parts lead to 1 part tin and weighed 480 grains with one cannelure. It had a white paper patch and was beeswax lubricated. There was a thick beeswax wad below the bullet with two cardboard discs above and a single one below.
The propellant was about 85 grains of RFG2 blackpowder.
No confirmed example of the Mark I cartridge is known and it was only issued in one year, 1872/73.
Rifle Ball Mark II
The Ball Mark I suffered from the faults of all coiled case cartridges but there are no reports that it was any worse than others, but once again economy came to the fore and just over a year later the Mark I was replaced by the simplified Mark II .
"Cartridge S.A. Ball Boxer Henry for 0.45 inch Martini Henry Rifle Mark II" was approved in June 1872 and shown in LoC Paragraph 2661 dated October 1864. The title was changed in March 1873 to "Cartridge S.A. Ball Breech-Loading for Martini Henry Arm Mark II" and again by LoC Paragraph 3230 dated December 1877 to "Cartridge S.A. Ball Rifle Breech-Loading Martini Henry Mark II".
The case of the Mark II was constructed of thicker brass foil .004 inches thick. There was no inner strengthening strip or sight hole in the side of the case and the base cup was slightly longer than the Mark I. The cap chamber/rivet was brass not copper like the Mark I.
The bullet was similar to the Mark I and was secured in the case by being crimped into the single neck cannelure.
The propellant charge was about 85 grains of RFG2 blackpowder.
Neither the Mark I or the Mark II were approved for use in machine guns.
Rifle Ball Mark II from bundle dated August 1873 made at Royal Laboratory.
Rifle Ball Mark III
By late 1872 reports were being received of the tendency of the Mark II case to split at the outer base cup and after this fault had been replicated at tests at Woolwich the Royal Laboratory was instructed to produce a stronger case. Stocks of remaining Mark II ammunition were to be sentenced as unfit for service and to be used up at Woolwich for proof purposes.
"Cartridge S.A. Ball Boxer Henry for 0.45 inch Martini Henry Rifle Mark II" was approved to design RL1128 in August 1873 and shown in LoC Paragraph 2661 dated October 1874. The title was later changed to "Cartridge S.A. Ball Martini Henry Rifle Rolled Case Mark III".
The case was made of two turns of .004 inch brass with a 0.5 inch overlap.Placed within the coil was a strengthening strip of .004 inch brass and to ensure that this was correctly in place a small "sight hole" was punched in the outer coil as a visual check. There was an inner and outer base cup turned over at the base and a thick cardboard was placed inside the base through which the cap chamber rivet passed. Both copper and brass were used for the cap chamber and the case was lined with thin tissue paper. The base disc was iron in British production but from 1898 Indian production used a brass base disc.
Cases made at the Royal Laboratory has two small Broad Arrows stamped in the rim of the cap chamber and some Indian Mark III had the arsenal code stamped into the side of the case with the Indian government ownership mark.
The bullet was an alloy of 12 parts lead to 1 part tin and weighed 480 grains with two cannelures. It had a white paper patch and was beeswax lubricated over that part of the bullet within the case. The base of the bullet was cupped and the lower part of the paper patch pressed into this. There was a thick beeswax wad below the bullet with two cardboard discs above and a single one below. The bullet was secured i the case by a double neck crimp into the two bullet cannelures.
The propellant was about 85 grains of RFG2 blackpowder and the muzzle velocity about 1315 fps.
The Mark III was not authorised for use in machine guns.
Left: Rifle Ball Mark III. Note the "sight hole" in outer coil. Centre: Bundle wrapper for Rifle ball Mark III Right: Indian Rifle Ball Mark III
Plate showing the construction of the Rifle Ball Mark III from "Treatise on Ammunition 1887".
Rifle Ball Mark IV
As the Martini Henry rifle became more widely issued, complaints were received by Woolwich of the excessive recoil compared to the Snider. Consequently Woolwich developed a slightly lighter load that replicated the recoil of the Snider, using a 410 grain bullet and 80 grains of powder. Production was not immediately commenced because of the ammout of Mark III ammunition in store.
The "Cartridge S.A. Ball Martini Henry Rifle Rolled Case Mark IV" was approved to design RL1264 in December 1874 but was not shown in Lists of Changes.
The case was that of the Mark III complete with sight hole and of the same brass thickness.
The bullet was an alloy of 12 parts lead to 1 part tin and weighed 410 grains with two cannelures. It had a white paper patch and was beeswax lubricated over that part of the bullet within the case. As in the Mark III the bullet was secured in the case with a double neck crimp.
Propellant was about 80 grains of RFG2 blackpowder.
The Mark IV is visually identical to the Mark III and once removed from its bundle can only be identified by weight.
The Rifle Ball Mark IV was issued in 1873/74, 1875/76, 1877/78 and a small issue of 5000 rounds in 1879/80. Prior to that the complaints had ceased, probably as troops became used to the recoil so a decision was made to revert to Mark III production and it was re-sealed in 1877.
Rifle Ball Contract "E"
One other round appeared in 1877 which as the name suggests was a round made on contract by Eley Brothers. It was of simplified construction and omitted the inner strengthening strip, instead having the base of the case coil folded over inwards to perform the same function as the strip. Consequently there was no requirement for a sight hole.
In all other respects regarding bullet and propellant weights it was identical to the Rifle Mark III round.
It is stated that the rounds should be packed in bundles marked "E" but they have been found in normal Mark III packaging.
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