New Made Item: High quality solid brass key for installing and removing a Morris tube from the barrel of a Martini-Henry rifle.
The need for a short-range, small-caliber training rifle led to the adoption of the Tube, Aiming, Morris, Martini-Henry Rifle, Mark I, or Morris Tube for short. The need was driven by the desire of Army and Admiralty for more marksmanship training for soldiers and sailors. The relatively densely populated character of the British countryside provided limited venues for full-length small arms firing ranges, while a subcaliber cartridge could easily be fired on short ranges or even indoors. The Morris Tube for the M-H rifle used a very small caliber center-fire cartridge of limited range, which had the added advantage of low cost. Caliber .297 inch/.230 inch.
These particular tubes were commercially made and therefore only have rifling along 1/2 the barrel. They were still used for military training but they were commercially produced.
Of all accessories for all British military small arms, the Morris Tube is among the most rare and most desirable. IMA was able to obtain a very few of these, which were found when the barracks of an old territorial battalion in the UK were condemned and demolished recently.