doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Greener .310 Cadet DR

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I mentioned this little double rifle in another thread. Here are some photos of it. Sorry the emus are not visible on the actin body - photographic conditions were challenging.

What would you expect it to sell for, Dig?

I seem to remember 32-20 Win ammunition will work in that lovely little gun.

.310 Cadet ammo is not difficult to make because the brass is available. I had a Cadet rifle at one time. My boys loved it, especially when they saw "Zulu" and realized it was a mini-Martini. That is one cool little gun.

Wow!

.310 wouldn't be my first choice for emus, but may give satisfactory service for drop-bears...

The .310 is really forgiving to handload, surprisingly accurate. Love the cartridge and the small frame BSA martini rifles, but this...!

The estimate is likely to be in the region of �7,000 - �9,000.

He also had a mint, cased Churchill double boxlock in .22 rimfire.

That is one little gem; I shudder to think of the price. I noticed that Holts had a Holland & Holland double .300 hammer Rook rifle that had belonged to Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey that someone had unwisely bored out to double .410. Thank goodness that this is still original. Can't have made many of those. Lagopus.....

wow, that is really beautiful , what a sweet double rifle
franc

Just look at the finish and detail, quite something.

A lot of nice rifles were bored out to a shotgun bore. Radcliffe's of Colchester had a Farquharson 450 falling block bored to 28 bore. Well, at leat it could be used.

It's cool. I want it.

Oh, and what's it good for?

What does one actually shoot with a .310 Cadet? Is this a .22 rimfire equivalent as far as stopping power? (acknowledging that it has a larger bullet, of course)

Rabbits? Maybe gophers or groundhogs depending on where one lives. Someone could also just like to shoot targets. Also from the looks of the gun it is something you could go out and enjoy immediately instead of buying some fixer upper (that will cost a fortune) that has already been comprimised seven ways from Sunday.

The .310 Cadet is about the ballistic equivalent of the .32-20 and makes for a pretty effective small game cartridge, although it was originally designed as a target/training cartridge.

This would be the world's coolest rifle for a squirrel, rabbit, groundhog, crow hunter.

I love the .32-20! I had a beautiful Browning limited edition Winchester Model 53 bought when they came out in the early 90's.

One of the guns I had to sell in the mid 00's. Missed it so much I bought another one last year (though not as purty and a bit scuffed up).

Then I found I still had a case of ammo stashed behind piles of other ammo!

But this, THIS Greener is glorious. I'd say it was cute if it weren't so downright gorgeous

Very cool! Thanks for posting, Dig.

For some peculiar reason I am really attracted to the Greener Facile Princeps action. Mike knows my project gun. This is a beauty. Thanks for posting the photos.

Here's mine, not a double but tons of fun.

Unless you re-load, the .310 ammo will be a problem.

The .32-20 ammo may work but it also could sacrifice some accuracy as it may rattle some down the barrel.

The way most cadets were converted to 32-20, was by grinding off the face of the breachblock until a cartridge would chamber. They were able to do his because the 310 had a "heeled" bullet so the chamber had no shoulder at the end of the case.This way would not be possible in a double rifle. As 1cdog pointed out, there is a consideable differance in diameter between 310(320+) and 32-20(311+).The proper answer is to load 310 ammo. Cases are easy to make from 32-20, and there is a bullet mold for the proper "heeled" 120gr bullet avaliable now.If you just absolutely refuse to make the cases and bullets(that is where the fun is),Buffalo Arms has both at a reasonable price.
Mike

The Gardiner catalogue is now online. The Churchill estimate is several thousand pounds more than the Greener. How much do you think that has to do with the fact that .22 ammo is much easier to come by than the .310?

A lot. The churchill is also pretty much unused with full case colours. I prefer the greener by some margin. No comparison in quality - the Greener could not be replicated today.

I have a .310 cadet martini too. Its a fun little thing.

Roy . I may be wrong but it seemed that 310 remained a caliber popular in Australia long after it fell into disuse in the UK . Apart from use by Greener for there cattle killers . Seem to recall Webleys made a couple of their single shot traget pistols in 310 for an Austrailian in the mid 70's possibly the last ones they made .

Because of the tens of thousands of surplus Model 4 and 4b BSA martini cadets sold out of service in the 1960s(?), there were plenty of the rifles to be fed in more recent times by Riverbrand and Super companies; as best I'm aware, no ammunition is being made just now, but old stock can be found now and again, and they're easily handloaded by enthusiasts with fairly readily available dies, moulds and components. There could be thousands still being hand fed today (two in my safe, anyway!)

Yes, there has been a resurgence in popularity over the last 10 years. Many rifle clubs have a .310 shoot on their calendar and the punters take it seriously. Brass is available fron time to time, and diest etc.. are easy to come by. I have not seen the target pistol but that would be a good one to tuck away in the safe.