MkIII Boxer Carbine Ammunition
| Date of Approval | 1st December. 1877 |
| Length | Length: 2.98” (76cm) Packing: Brown paper parcel; 10 per pack, separated by fine white paper Labelling: Red hollow rectangle Qty per box: 600 |
| Weight | Weight per ten: 1lb Bullet: 410g Paper patched white & Red |
The Martini Henry carbine, Interchangeable Mk1 was approved in Sept 1877. Parallel with the adoption of the carbine arm, it was decided that to reduce recoil in the shorter arm, Carbine Loads, were to have a reduced charge of powder 70 Grains of RFG2, and a bullet weight @ 410 grains. Introduced as the Cartridge Ball, Small Arm, Carbine, breech Loading Martin Henry Mark1, on 1st December. 1877, in LOC 3220, A wool filler in Mk1 cartridge leveled the reduced powder volume to the same portion of the cartridge neck as that of the rife, It proved in-accurate and was prone to miss-fire. An alteration bought about an immediate resolution to the miss-fire issue, by lining the case with thick card to reduce powder vulome in the case. Introduced as the MkII cartridge on 1st may 1878. Even still, reports permeated from the troops that the inaccuracy problem was not solved. It was discovered that the paper wrapping of the bullet was not being completely cut by the rifling in the shorter barrel of the carbine, it was adhering to the bullet and this caused the projectile to fly in an irregular trajectory. The simple solution was to pre-slice the paper wrap .05” (12mm), nomenclature changed to: Cartridge Ball, Small Arm, Carbine, breech Loading Martin Henry Mark III. And was to become the standard carbine cartridge. Only minor cosmetic changes were made to this Cartridge. With the adoption of the colour coding method of labeling of small Arms ammunition in September 1880, to readily identify the carbine round, the paper bullet wrapping was subsequently red paper. With the introduction on the drawn cartridge and corresponding with the Rifle round, the word “Rolled Case” was added to the description in 1886.
