Ibrahim,
Many old breechloaders in the UK were "de-activated" in the 1950's ans 60's so that they could be owned without a license and openly displayed (rather than being locked up in a gun cabinet). This meant making them irretrievably unfirable and whilst some "de-activators" were skilled enough to remove the firing pin and it's seating so that the gun would still cock etc. others were a lot cruder and took out most of the "innards" and put a hacksaw through the breech. It is possible that is what happened here.
Since 1968 it is possible to own and trade gun's with "obsolete" calibres and chambering. These are listed, thus a .577\.45 Martini is "obsolete" but a .303 still needs a license.
Regards
Richard
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