Peabody-Martini M1879

About the Peabody-Martini M1879

The Peabody-Martini M1879 was a single-shot, falling-block military rifle adopted by Romania to replace its older Model 1867/1868 Peabody rifles. It combined Henry O. Peabody's tilting breechblock with Friedrich von Martini's self-cocking internal striker and Alexander Henry's rifling, and was chambered for the 11.43x59mmR Romanian black-powder cartridge. Built under contract by Österreichische Waffenfabriks-Gesellschaft (OEWG) in Steyr, and partly by Berger & Co. of Witten, it differed from the British Martini-Henry in its flat-sided knox-form stock furniture and a Werndl-pattern rear sight with a peep aperture. Roughly twelve aimed shots per minute could be fired by working the underlever.

Some surplus M1879 rifles were exported and reappeared in the hands of Boer commandos during the Second Boer War, a generation after their Romanian adoption.

Peabody-Martini M1879 specifications

Adopted by Romania from 1879 as a stop-gap modern breechloader before the Mannlicher repeaters of the 1890s. OEWG Steyr delivered around 130,000 rifles into the early 1880s, with a further Romanian contract for some 60,000 placed with Gussstahlfabrik Berger & Co. of Witten. Surplus examples later turned up in the Second Boer War.