Gahendra: the Nepalese Not-A-Martini (Updated)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- This video has been updated from its original form to fix translation issues and to clarify that Nepal was not, in fact, a British colony.
Originally published January 10, 2017.
Long a mysterious unknown member of the Martini family, the Nepalese Gahendra rifles finally became available in the US and Europe after IMA purchased Nepal’s cache of historic arms. The Gahendra is a uniquely Nepalese design built to sidestep British reluctance to supply military arms to the country. Developed by a General Gahendra (who is also responsible for the Bira copy of the Gardner Gun), the rifle is not actually a Martini at all. Instead, it shares its mechanical features mostly with the earlier Peabody falling block rifles, using a hammer and flat mainspring (the Martini improvement replaces there with a striker and coil spring).
Gahendras are chambered for the standard British .577/.450 Martini cartridge, although their bore diameters vary substantially, and one should absolutely slug a specific rifle before loading ammunition for it. In fact, unless you are capable of proficiently assessing the safety of the Gahendra, it is wiser not to shoot them at all. These rifles were individually handmade well over a hundred years ago using steels of questionable metallurgy and hardening.
That said, the guns were actually much better made than most people assume, considering their non-interchangeable parts. Craftsmen built each rifle part by part, giving the factory an output of just 4 rifles per day. Production began in the 1880s, and according to the Nepalese government ended prior to 1899. Dates on the rifles, however, are commonly found as late as 1911. These dates are generally assumed to be inventory or refurbishment dates.
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The idea of thousands of old guns being stored in an even older palace makes me unnaturally excited
I would have payed good money to have only walked through it (for a few days) before anything was taken. then I likely would have tried to buy the lot and been laughed at by my meager bid lol.
In a palace with windows, but no window glass, and a roof that leaked.
I felt the same way when I watched Dunkirk and saw all the Enfields (sigh). I wanted to volunteer to be in army and browse....
Honestly man they're really cool rifles I just saw one today at the gunshop I work at and started googling then
Well, these antique guns were there forever in Nepali's Military old warehouse until the early 2000s. Nepali Army needed more modern guns due to political civil war and they auctioned old warehouse. All of sudden these 100+ years old antique guns that don't need federal paperwork are available in Western market.
The fact that its a domestic Nepalese made rifle alone makes it super cool. Wouldn't have even known they made guns.
Ye
Gotta love people who never throw stuff away. Flinlock pistols? Just throw them in this big building and we are gonna do it untill it is full.
Takes the whole "reserve surplus" to a whole new level. "You there sir! Here's your Brown Bess rifle. And you over there! Here's your Snider-Enfield! And you over there! Well...here's a Kukri, and no whining!"
The local people of Kathmandu valley were great craftsman. They have built marvelous temples all around Kathmandu and no wonder this gun is still of good quality even though it is hand made.
Local people of kathmandu didn't know how to make gun they were good at building wodden and stone crafted architecture
@pratik4157 That's why Nepal King Prithvi Narayan shah invited mislim in Nepal who were skilled in gun Smith.
"...a five story palace packed to the rafters with old guns..." Seriously, I need to go to Nepal. They sound like my kind of folks.
R.A Williams hi mate .the Australian War memorial in Canberra has pallets of captured weapons stacked up three deep from all the way back to the colonial war against the native people of New Zealand from the 1800s and no one has looked at them in Decades .
It's now a communist government and only the uber-rich have access to guns. If you go to the hills in the west you may find old SMLEs but we are talking about areas basically untouched by government and infrastructure.
The castle crumbled during an earth quake.
@@maxie706well I wouldn’t really call it a “communist” country. Sure it’s lead by a “communist” party all ran by crooks who don’t stand by any of the despicable communist ideals (thankfully but pretty sad that is the condition here) but it isn’t exactly yugoslavia 🤷♂️
The Scripts on the gun includes :
श्री ३ चन्द्र शमशेर जंग
सं १९६८
नं १४४
श्री ३ चन्द्र शमशेर जंग - Shree tin Chandra Shamsher Jung ( Chandra Shamsher Jung Bahadur Rana was one of the Nepalese prime during Rana Regime ) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandra_Shumsher_Jang_Bahadur_Rana
सं १९६८ - Sambat 1968 ( Nepal follows own traditional calender that is 57 years ahead of the Gregorian Calendar. Current year in Nepal is 2075 BS
नं १४४ - Serial Number 144
I never got the opportunity to see these rifles in Nepal and being a Nepalese citizen, its heartbreaking to know that our government sold these valuable items to foreign countries. Thanks for the video anyway. (That date is Sambat(what we call the initial letter before that date) 1968 and rifle no. 144)
Pratik Rayamajhi your country gave my country a gift as far as I am concerned.
The guns were sold to buy new advanced weapons from USA because of the Civil war 16 years ago. Some were smuggled.
Some 2500, in the best condition and in every configuration, we’re kept there for posterity. At least some of your history still survives in your home. The four that I am proud to own from your country’s collection now tell their history to people half way around the world who would never had known about them otherwise.
Nepal sold these old rifles/guns to buy new modern weapons during Nepal maoist insurgency period.
I am watching this and thinking how I am so sure I have seen this before. Looking at the published date, knowing it was recently posted. Absolutely baffle gabbed. FINALLY noticed the (Updated) in the title. I don't know what you changed bro' but I gotta go lie down now.
I purchased a Nepali .577 Snider-Enfield patterned rifle a few years ago and it was pretty well preserved. But, I had a very hard time decoding the script. The serial number (that is on every part but the brass trigger guard) looks kind of like a "4" followed by two backwards "3" s (५६६). I believe that it translates to 566. The text on the trigger guard I was not able to decode. My Internet searches only came up with some number and letter translations, not any words or phrases. Maybe someone here can help?
The only other markings are the Snider logo "S" with an arrow through it on the top of the receiver and "SNIDER PATENT" along with the logo on the breech block.
I cleaned it up, and refinished the stock, which had a beautiful grain pattern hidden under whatever they preserved it with. I mic'd the bore and found that a .585" cast Minnie ball is a good fit, and with 60 grains of FF powder works great in a trimmed and reformed 24 gauge brass shotgun shells. It's a good shooter!
Earl Yates You might want to try the Google Translate App. It has a feature that allows you to scan text and translate it back to English in real time. Really neat, if you have a smart phone.
(Obviously the reliability of Google Translate is questionable, but better than nothing.)
Earl Yates Can you share those scripts ?
i am from Nepal and if you share inscription, I can help you translation and will search for history behind it!
It's 766
I can read thoose scripts
Cool history. Glad you made this information available.
Nepal was one of such colonies which British colony was never able to invade regardless of the primitive weapons and most of them being farmers. So they thought if you can't fight them join them. That's why British army still has a Gurkha regiment. They would get all the rejected old weapons and limited ammunition to fight the wars of the British.
So I'm a bit lacking when it come to firearm knowledge. When I saw that it was not a martini I was like "I have never heard of this drink before." I'm more knowledgeable with alcohol than guns.
Thanks for this video! I bought two Gahendra rifles from IMA after they sent me an email about their inventory, and I have no regrets about the purchase. Mine are in mediocre condition but can surely be made into wall-hangers. The bores on both rifles are actually quite good, like few rounds were fired through them; and they didn't have any major rust. I have cleaned and greased them up, and broken one rifle down completely. I just haven't gotten around to putting it back together.
I note that the curved firing pin on the rifle that I disassembled has the tip broken off. It looks like an inherently weak design to me.
Thanks for the advice on slugging barrels before determining how to load them. I have no plan to fire these pieces, but they are interesting.
wow ....thanks bro 👍👍🇳🇵🇳🇵
Jaya Nepal❤️🇳🇵
if only our politics were as fine as our guns at that time, we would have been a lot ahead than where we are now.
p.s thanks for reviewing this gun.
greetings from Nepal.
Nice dude from Nepal 🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵
IMA had a unique version that had different sights and barrel was not rifled
omg still in 1968 AD Nepalese rifles and Bira gun so why not 21 century they can make it
Made in Tibet in 1909, that amazes me that anywhere in Tibet at that date could make a pretty good rifles. That's only 3 years after Younghusband invaded & they showed very little ones aptitude for modern weapons then. Could have been what spurred them on perhaps.
Kinda a shame they sold off their history.
They sold these old rifles/guns to buy new modern weapons during Nepal maoist insurgency period.
Ian the language you were referring to is actually pronounced as Hindi, Hindu is a person who follows the religion Hinduism .
And the language on the gun is not Hindi. That is Nepali. For your information, Nepali and hindi use same Devnagari script. But these two languages are totally different :)
@@moonlightO66 I like how you say Hindi and Nepali have same script but completely deny the similarity by saying both languages are completely different 😂
4:16
He: Nipple
God: My god it should be Nepal
I think we have to make another creation
Focus on those digits..
Focus.
Fo--
God damnit
No
Nepal was never a colony of British ...
...
It was a Friend of British..
...
Nepal was never defeated by anyone
well it was defeated by british which is why we lost 40% of our land, we also lost to china and had to give back the tibetan lands we occupied and pay tribute every 5 years, nepal was not a complete colony but was a protectorate.
Number is 144
Ah back when the people of Nepal actually had the interest to do something different. Nowadays all Nepalese just want to go to foreign lands and do dishes and work as a labour and save their earnings and buy a house. That's literally everybody's plan. Seeing this weapon and the birgun makes me sad. How could our country fall back so much on innovation.
Thank you so much for the video. You went the extra mile to get the correct history of the gun as well. Love from Nepal.
sad but,,its a truth
We know you re one them
It's all beocoz of ill govt.
Thanks for taking the time to care about historical accuracy and translation. It's little moments like these that really improve the quality of the videos.
yes, this should be top comment. Thanks Ian
Wow its really nice of Ian to go so far back and correct the video
what was wrong this the video anyways?
Dylan Kwak a small error with the translation of the script on the gun and factual error on nepal being a british colony
The gurkhas scared him into doing the revision. ( Just joking, Ian is just a stand up guy like that)
Let me tell you a story about the gahendra rifle guys. General Gehendra Shumsher JBR who built this rifle was nephew of Bir Shumsher. When Bir Shumsher Rana was the Prime Minister (PM), when the rana Prime Minister were more powerful than the kings, Gehendra decided to show one of his development to the PM- a small gun he made. When he went to show it to the PM during a meeting, the gun fell off. Gehendra shumsher was then accused of high treason of trying to murder the PM and send off to death. And thats how nepal lost one of its visionaries.
Its a legend we all nepalese know.
That was the plot of the British who couldn't see us prosper. I highly doubt that it wasn't a plan of the British to kill him
This actually has reaaally fascinating history behind it. Its cool to see something in such good condition with a direct connection to the brilliant General Gehendra. Definitely not something you see every day.
Looks pretty nice for a hand made rifle.
This in the gun made by our first scientist of nepal gehendra shumsher
Encarved in the gun : Shri 3 Chandra shumsher Jung . (bikram sambat 1968) = 1911 A.D. No. 144.
BTW : Chandra Shumsher is Uncle of Gahendra (maker of the rifle)
Actually there is nothing called hindu script this is called "devnagri" it's same for sanskrit and hindi
Correct, it's just Devnagri.
A whole 5-storied Palace full of guns you say? Hold my wallet while I get some fresh underwear...
Igor Fajzulin it was not just a palace, it was an old wooded palace.
A true sign of craftsmanship having each weapon individually made. Must have been nerve wracking the first time you had to fire it, due to the barrels variations. By the way, is that real gold inlay? Surprised some Soldier didn't scrap it out.
I mean, this is how guns were made everywhere before well into the industrial revolution and devices like the micrometer. Naturally, a place as remote and isolated as Nepal did not have the ability to invest into the machinery and expertise required for mass production. You can't just decide to standardize parts, this is an expensive process that requires a lot of upfront investment. What they did however have were experienced gunsmiths who knew how to make guns the traditional way - and those who ended up using these guns were mostly unaware of the fact that that there were weapons with interchangeable parts and standardized barrel diameters.
id have to imagine that different bullet molds were made for different size bullets and soldiers probly litterally loaded their own ammo / um sure many had standard bullets but from what i here many of these rifles have different sized bores and the only way that could even remotely work is if they had a few different size bullet molds which guys would sit down and make their own cartridges
I imagine that they are good quality. Even today Nepal has good craftsmen. Their kukris are phenomenal from I heard. I plan on buying a kukri from Kukri House as a birthday present.
Just bought a Gahendra, really cool to have such an in-depth video to teach me more about this unique rifle.
Sondre Midtsund are you positive it was a gahendra? Thought I had one as well but turned out to be something different.
Thank you sir
I came here from TheHunter call of the wild after the new Sundarpatan reserve
This is very cool.
Question if each barrel is slightly different how did the original users make ammo for them?
I forget where it was but I found a list a long time ago that was the measured bore diameters of a bunch of Russian rifles and then the component weights and measurements of pulled Russian ammo. The bores had like .003" variation and the bullet diameters were also in that range. Powder charges and case weights of the ammo had a variation of several grains. The Nepalese were doing pretty good, honestly.
10:24 Never say Nepal a British colony when you re phisically in Nepal. Nepalese hate British because they had to sign a treaty in which they lost 2/3 of their occupied lands and when the British left India, they gave those Nepalese lands to India.
Actually the British came to Nepal to say you can take your land back but the Rana rule denied it because the occupied land now had educated people being a threat to there rule.
Love from Nepal
@@shauryashah6785Thats British side of story. And That s white people's old way of making conflicting stories between other people.
it was registred on 1968 and its serial no is 144
The barrels are not damascus. They are wrought iron hand hammer forge welded in spirals over a mandrel under arsenal supervision unlike the 'Francotte Martinis' which were outsourced to smaller workshops. The Gahendras are fine to fire once properly inspected and the bore size checked as you say unlike the 'Francottes' which are unsafe but bear in mind that both were made to use Nepalese powder which was poor so you are right to suggest underloading any Gahendra you fire.
Absolutely fascinating firearms history here Ian, thanks for uploading! o7
Chandra Sumsher Jung Bahadur Rana was the prime minister of Nepal who did various work for the betterment of the country. He abolished slavery and Sati (messed up tradition where the widow mostly forcefully had to jump on the burning cremated body of her dead husband), Opened colleges and many more deeds. Even though the Rana rule in Nepal was not pleasant at times his was to my knowledge very goo for Nepal..
This is a cool one. It’s funny. If you go to a western gun manufacturer and they hand make a rifle for you, you have to pay in excess of 20,000 dollars. It’s beautifully handmade in Nepal it’s ehhhhh. Lol
Did you miss the part of it potentially blowing up due to the inconsistent bore diameter of these rifles? That doesn't mean it's not valuable or a cool rifle
+Chris Jones I think that may be overexeggerated. I highly doupt they made bores smaller than their issued ammo.
I need no channel youtube! Just following the word of Gun Jesus since I'll likely never see one of these. You may be right but I still don't think I'd risk shooting it.
Man Khyber-Pass-Babour is gonna be annoyed that these are getting interest.
He's been working on his AK-Bolt Action Bundle for years and he coulda made several dozens of these in that time
i just bought one!
That marking and serial number says:
Great 3 Chandra Shamsher Jung
Year 1968 (in B.S) = (1911 AD)
Number
144
This is an 'improved' version as well.
The reason why is ...during that time, the British were capturing the many kingdoms in India from south to North, while Nepal was capturing the Indian kingdoms from the North to the south. The British and Nepal met in the 1/3 north position of current India. Nepal lost the fight for 1 kingdom in India but then the British realized how tough the Nepali Army was(it was a big battle). So there was a treaty agreed by the 2 countries where Nepal would give the Indian territory to the British while the British recognized current Nepal and become friends; and recruit Nepal soldiers and give payment to Nepal kingdom(which the Nepali king wanted as a source of money). It been 200 years now and British still recruit the well known Gurkhas.
Regarding the bullets, the British didn't want Nepal to have many weapons because Nepal was tough with just knives and British had doubt that Nepal would side with India to fight for Independence(1857 changed all that when they slowly started trusting Nepalese). So instead they just gave Nepal the extra bullets just to make them a little happy when Nepal asked for those latest weapons. Hence Nepal created their own guns and machine guns with those bullets.
I wonder how much of their gun making equipment - especially barrel boring and rifling machines - were supplied by the British...
Fwiw. These rifles are great shooters if you can make the ammo from 24 ga shotgun brass lead bullets and cowboy action powder. Trailboss for example Remember they weren't loaded hot. Think 44/40 lever action pressure
I have rifle #154, I bought one of the parts rifles as a restoration project.
British didn't never colonized Nepal ever, so some statement that anchor used is totally embrassing
This video leaves me feeling shaken, but not stirred
damn didnt knew we actually even had a "gun" here and even more a domestic build one,our general public hate em but its just pointless
Very nice too see this gun..iam frm nepal and general gehendra shumsher is consider as the first scientust of nepal he made many rifle like bir rifle ,this gehendra rifle , one of grand fathers name which i forget..not only rifle he also some machine guns and he designed some vechicle which are imported fron japan and some things also..but sadly he was killed by his own family..and where are those gun and machine which i dont know know...yaa but to see this one♡
Love the way this gun looks with the dark wood and the finish on the receiver. Certainly looks well crafted on the exterior at least.
Wait these are not drinks they're not martini
Iam from nepal 🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵
I loved this one way more then some of the others. Great info
At this time the British were not too keen on giving the Nepalese our rifles, the barrels are typically very poor in comparison to the martini but the design is heavily based and copied in the westly Richards action, to say it's not a direct copy is some what debatable due to the fact they are the exact same design but a poorer version as they didn't have our machine tools, also the ammo they were given was British surplus at the time etc, awesome history love the strange shit
Any Nepali ♥️
bought one yesterday all original ..thanks for a very informative video ,great information things i didnt realise...
i like the idea of good handmade guns, but when you can't use standard ammo, you've gone too far
The rifle in the video is the improved second model, which has a number of improvements over the far more common first model (the position on the screw in the bottom of the receiver tells me this). It uses an improved mainspring, curing the tendency of the earlier ones to break. It also should have a mono-tube barrel, unlike the earlier twist ribbon lap welded (not Damascus) barrels. It is
This video was awesome, I have number 330 and didn’t know much about it or the history until know. Thanks.
Thanks for the fixes. I always appreciate up to date information.
i have a enfield style percusion rifle from nepalese manufacturing probably from a same kind of scource it fire like an absolute dream
Fust sineper kr98 Nepal 🇳🇵 lunch
That receiver looks like it was machined and what materials were they using for the receiver?
The new model of 1962 ; )
Thanku sir make for Nepali Gun video
I didnot know my own country's history..now i do!!
For in instance I thought he dropped an S-bomb there.
Can you make an own video on the martini henry rifle ?
Wawo how do you get this you are right
How many were manufactured?
It's Bikram sambat1968
Very cool! Thanks Ian
The Peabody Gah-henry
Pride of Nepal.
Fascinating!
"Because of this non-assembly-line, individually handcrafted structure...to a lot of people it means they're low quality." I bet if this were a car or a musical instrument, that logic would never fly.
Most of the time, you don´t handcraft a car and their is a lot of Bubba builds when It comes to non factory guns. Not forgeting all strange Chines mystery guns. Not only from China.
IF their "1" looks like our "9" and their "4" looks like our "8" then I wonder what their actual "9" and "8" look like? Is it still written this way or have they adopted the western standard like many Asian countries have done?
9 '९' and 8 '८' . 1 '१' 4 '४' . English however is known by all. Our Calendar is 57 years ahead. So it is year 2075 B.S. here.
What's it like with all the cybernetics in the future? :P
lol
Not good , Facebook is all the rage , All Kids are playing a game called Fortnite. There are no flying cars . Iphone is now version X.
God that sounds horrible. I hope that never happens to us.
Finally I am first! Yevgen from Ukraine.
Hey Yevgenz. I'd love to know what Ukrainians think of Nestor Makhno, if they know of him at all. He's a bit of a hero of mine but I've never heard an Ukrainian perspective on him.
All Ukrainians know about him as an anarchist, and the fact that he has been wounded by 7 bullets while retreating to Moldavia deserves respect. As of now, nobody would count on his phylosophy, as he could not maintain a Ukrainian state. Look up the channel Great War on Machno, he ravaged Whites attack, which could have taken Moscow, who knows how it could have ended.
Thank you very much for responding. It is good to know that he is remembered. I'd love to know what History would have been like if the Bolsheviks had not betrayed the Ukrainian people and the Free Army. Дякую :)
Oof
Pretty sure your text overlay missed an a in Devan(a)gari script.