GENERALLY:   The Turks, who were without appropriate manufacturing capabilities during the period of the adoption and development of the cartridge breechloader, bought large quantities of arms from England and abroad, most notably the Post Civil War United States.  Most of these were percussion cap muzzleloaders, and many were converted to breechloaders, including British P1860 short rifles and US Springfield, M1861 and M1863 rifles.   When Britain adopted the M1866 Snider to convert their huge stocks of muzzleloaders, Turkey attempted to purchase Snider rifles as well, but Britain refused to supply Turkey's request as she was unable to supply her own front line troops adequetely, and so Turkey began converting its rifles using the Snider system itself.

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(The following materials were kindly provided to me by Mr. Ali Kozanogly a knowledgable Turkish correspondent, who can be reached at:  ali.kozanoglu@veezy.com)

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After the Crimean War, 40,000 Enfields were purchased from England in the beginning of 1860's. Among my sources (or the bibliography of  "the book") is an old publication in Turkish, written by two Turkish gentlemen (and scholars) titled "The First Hundred Tears of Turkey-United States Arms Trade, 1829-1929.

        SANDER, Oral – FÝÞEK, Kurthan:   “Türk-ABD Silah Ticaretinin Ýlk Yüzyýlý, 1829-1929”  published by a Turkish company (Çaðdaþ Yayýnlarý,  Ýstanbul, 1977 ). I found a copy in the National Library and made a few discoveries. Among which are;   "...  Following the American Civil War many muskets used by the armies of both the North and the South were on hand as war surplus. 114,000 English Enfields and 125,000 US Springfields were purchased at $4 and $7 each, respectively, in 1869."  Also, I think I read this in the internet someplace; "... some of the war surplus Springfields were purchased by France, then captured by Germany and later, given (or sold) to Turkey."

Since yesterday, I am also in touch with someone from England, who has interesting things to say about the Turkish Enfields and Sniders. I'll pass them on to you after my return from Kusadasi around the first of September. (I have to send him some detail pics of the markings on my Enfield).

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This is an excerpt:

This is a very interesting rifle. As you may know, the main Turkish contract in 1863 for 20,000 Enfield short rifles was the first major contract for a new consortium, Birmingham Small Arms Limited, which had been set up by eleven of the major gunmakers in Birmingham to take advantage of the American market during their Civil War-just too late.

The Turkish contract was for fully interchangeable parts 'state of the art' 1861 Short Rifles, that is fitted with Baddeley pattern lower band and a rear sight graduated to 1,250 yards rather than the 1,100 of the heavy barrelled fast twist five-groove rifling 1860 Short Rifle.  According to Dr De Witt Bailey, the authority on muzzle loading British Military long arms, BSA  ran into manufacturing problems and had to 'borrow' short rifles from British Government store to make up the numbers on the Turkish contract and avoid a financial penalty. Yours appears to be one of the latter, which are significantly more scarce. They were presumably re-worked with apropriate markings.

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PHOTO:  The Photo above, belonging to Jos van Helden, is a British made P1860 Short Rifle which has been converted by Turkey to a Snider system breechloader, but with an apparently Belgian-designed breech block locking mechanism (see pics below)

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Jos van Helden <vhelden@vhelden@home.nl> writes:   I have a Turkish short rifle in my collection.  At the end of the 1860's the British sold a lot of P-1853 muzzle loaders to the Turks. They converted them to Sniders MK-III (so called Polivache). To open their action you have to lift the button not to push like the British.   The British also sold converted Sniders to Turkey.  My rifle is Tower marked 1864 and have several Turkish crests. I never shoot it but as far as I know it's the same .577  cartrigde as the British ones.

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DISTINGUISHING CHARECTERISTICS:   The Ottoman Sultan's Thughra or Royal Cypher is generally prominent on the lockplate just ahead of the hammer on all varieties of Turkish Sniders, whether converted from British Enfields or from US Springfields.  Depending on where and when the conversion to Snider was carried out, the breech block may also carry a locking mechanism which rotates, upward from it's front edge to release the block allowing it to then pivot out of the receiver to the right as all Sniders do (see photos below).  Otherwise the rifles converted from British arms are identical to their M1866 British Snider counterparts.