Tube Aiming Morris
| Calibre | .215" |
| Date of Approval | 14th November 1883 |
| Length | 34" |
The Army and Navy accepted a Sub calibre conversion for the Martini Henry on 14 November 1883, accepted formally in LOC 4552, 14th February 1884. The ingenious design, was invented by Richard Morris of the Morris’s Aiming and Sighting tool Company, Morris’s device used an .230” caliber rifled tube, internally smooth from 16.5 inches of the breech, and then eight grooved rifled for the remainder of the bore. The 34” tube was designed to fit loosely inside the .450” diameter barrel of the Martini rifle. It gave the marksman an opportunity to shoot with his regulation arm, with its normal weight and balance issues, but without the heavy recoil, a frequent reason for inaccuracy as the soldier tended to anticipate its report.
The “Morris Aiming Tube” as it became known had a bronze “set nut” attached to the muzzle of the tube, to supplement the tube, two bushes, one sliding and one fixed behind the set nut centered the tube into the bore of the rifle. A “Breech piece”, which was dimensionally that of the .577/450 cartridge chamber, was inserted into the chamber over the extractor like a cartridge and held by a special key tool or “Key”, whilst the key held the tube, in the correct position. (a letter T was stamped on the front of the breech piece) the Morris tube was simply screwed into it from the front by the set nut and locked into position. The action of the rifles extractor acted upon a sliding extractor in the sub calibre base, which in turn ejected the spent cartridge. In late December 1885, a carbine version of the Morris tube was introduced in list of Change 4938, with 22.5” inner tube.
Morris Tubes are to be identified as follows:
- Tubes Property of the Government
On the Breech piece – 2nd Proof mark W^D & Crown E Numeral
On the tube- 2nd Proof mark W^D & Crown E Numeral
On the Washer W^D & Crown E Numeral
- Tubes private property but inspected at Enfield
On the breech piece 2nd proof mark & Crown M
On the tube 2nd proof mark
On 23rd September 1892 a .303 Calibre carbine version was introduced under LOC 6860, the tube was dimensioned to suit the .303" calibre barrel and was designed to fit the MMAC Mk1, Mk11 & Mk111. the details of which can be seen below. The .303 version was not supplied with a sliding bush
