zulu`s 1000`s of em wrote:... it is not unimaginable that more modern rifles made it in small numbers in to irregulars hands.
Germany provided a lot of Mauser rifles (and Krupp field guns) to anyone who was fighting against the British. (It is the source for the line, "When I can tell at sight a Mauser rifle from a Javelin," from The Major General's Song.) The 1871 Model would fit your requirements, Zirrian. If Germany did not supply them direct, they would have supplied them via an intermediary such as The Ottoman Empire.