doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Martinis

I've recently begun building some Cadets in various forms, mostly LW versions in small calibers. Here are some pics of a Francotte in 219 Improved; this was my first Cadet project in over 30 years and also my first effort at a skeleton grip cap. The ivory insert is my second effort at scrimshanding, the first one was a pendant for My Daughter.









The last pic shows the trap-door buttplate and its rather unique treatment. I wanted a way to incorporate some sort of trap and the Cadet's drawbolt complicates things for both a belly trap and a butt trap; I needed to have easy access to the drawbolt without being too complicated or inaccessible or awkward. I eventually hit upon this solution.

The leather liner is easily removable for drawbolt access and has been wet-formed to the shape of the butt recess, with its slightly-curled-over edges trapped under the edge of the buttplate's opening when installed. The small pouch is sized to contain the two steel threaded lens caps for the Unertl scope and provides handy storage and an easy way to keep from misplacing them when shooting. The leather will eventually absorb moisture under certain conditions and so precautions should be taken to avoid problems with the wood inside the butt cavity.
Food for thought, regards, Joe

PS: the old saying that the cobbler's children are never shod also applies to certain gunsmiths, notice the as-yet unpolished and unblued parts....

J.D.

Very nice. I've owned several over the years, including a .256 Winchester, a .218 Bee and a .20-20 KCF (think a .20 Mashburn Bee - the K was for Robert Kiel, who was an hobbiest gunsmith married into the Hart family of benchrest rifle fame). All have were excellent shooters - 3/4 inch at 100 yards for 5 shots with the right loads. All have also gone down the road, much to my regret, but I still have a Greener .22 built by Brian Burgin and engraved by Ken Hurst that I intend to keep until I'm dead.

That's a lovely grip cap treatment and a wonderful varmint caliber. I hope your customer enjoys the gun when it's done.

J.D./Remington, I also love Martinis and regret several that I've had and then sold when the money got tight or I got crazy about some other (usually not as good) gun. I remember when you could get a perfectly sound .310 Cadet for $16.95 thru the mail(You had to pay more for one that had been screwed up by rechambering to an inappropriate caliber). I've had them in .22 Hornet, .25-20 WCF, .218 Mashburn, and .22WRM. The only one I've kept is a Greener re-barreled to .25-35. It is plain-Jane with a stock by Fajen and me, but really shoots. With the new .25 cal bullets a .25-35 is a deer rifle for sure, even without raising the pressure above factory levels, especially in a single shot with a 24" barrel. Accurate and low recoil; quick to reload. My Martini seems OK with the .25-35 ctg's length, too--ejects all the way and easy to load. It may be the max that the action can handle for perfect functioning, tho.

Does anyone know of a Cadet action that has been successfully converted to .32-40 for Scheutzen service?

et tu, Mr. Steele?

Martini's? At least Gert has an excuse, what with him being a foreigner.

The scope caps is the trap is a stroke of genius!


Glenn

Post deleted by benashelor

JD how about pictures of the rest of the martini's?? Whitey

Some photos of my current project. The stock is in the acetone tank. 380 Long so 38 special works fine. Don't know who made it but it was sold by "G. P. Perrins & Co, Johannesburg and Pretoria." Am going to do some polishing and then refinish.

40X, I may have given you the wrong impression, sorry if that's the case. This Cadet isn't for a customer since I'm not a professional smith, I do the smithing work only as a hobby now that I'm retired from bean-counting. Occasionally I'll do a project for a friend if it's something that interests me, and if time isn't a big factor. I've found that things go a lot better if I'm not time-constrained, and that my performance is closely tied to my mood when working. So frequently a project takes me a lot longer than it would take with a professional smith, and I normally never solicit work since I can't & won't commit to any deadline.

My new motto: I don't wanta, I don't hafta, you can't make me, I'm retired and if it ain't fun then I ain't interested!

Glenn, I greatly appeciate your words, especially coming from such a fine workman as yourself. But, before you cast too many Martini aspersions, please allow me to remind you that YOU'RE the perv who useta like rollers! (VBG)

IMO two of the finest cartridges for the Cadet are the 256WM and the 25-35 WCF. My friend George the Knifemaker has Cadets in Hornet, Improved Bee, 25-35 Improved, 30-30, 30 Herrett, 357 Herrett, 357 Mag and 44 Mag. His 25-35 AI is one of his favorite deer rifles but he doesn't load it hot, not past about 40-45K psi.

I'm currently building a Greener ELW takedown Cadet in 224 R-C Maxi, a sort of poor man's rimmed wildcat for a single shot rifle. It's made by running a 223 Rem reamer in to the headspace dimension of a 222 cartridge, creating a sort of 222R with a short neck that's readily made from 357 Maximum brass. Standard 223 reloading dies are used after shortening the sizer to the 222 dimension; I also polished the rear end of the rifle's chamber slightly, to prevent pinching the larger case head in the shorter-than-design chamber's necessarily smaller base dimension. The Maxi's chamber is necessarily smaller at the rear since the tapered 223 reamer isn't run in to the full 223 design depth. I call it a poor man's wildcat since it can be done without the expense of a custom reamer and dies. It was going to be the subject of a future article or two but other factors have intervened in my planned choice of publishing venues.





You can see the takedown lever and engraving by The Infamous Engraver, also the roughed-out test forearm and buttstock. The second pic shows the two final blank forearm pieces for the 224 Maxi barrel & the planned interchangeable barrel in 357 Maximum, also the comparison with the little Francotte shown above. The Greener will weigh between 5 and 5.5 lbs, loaded & with 6X Burris scope in QD lever rings, depending upon where it goes from this preliminary stage. At a minimum the cheekpiece will be extensively further shaped, probably with a shadow line. Am still studying furniture and accessories...
Regards, Joe

Thanks Joe. Whitey

I know, I know. I'm a convicted Martini basher, but Ken asked me to post these for him, and they are really nice! Even for Martinis. I especially love the Frogmoor scenes. An ultimate Turtle rifle I think.