Martini Day at the Indoor Range

[Dave DeLaurant]

I brought both my Martini carbines to the indoor range this morning for a little casual practice.







The Martini-Henry action was made in 1876, rechambered in .303 in 1900, then rebarrelled by me about 20 years ago in .44 Magnum. The buttstock is original, but I made a new forend for it from a walnut turning blank. I'm shooting up 40 rounds of leftover experimental .44 Special handloads in order to recycle the cases, and basically just trying to see how quickly I can fire the thing. The handloads are full wadcutters, which makes chambering a little fumbly.

The Francotte Martini Cadet action has likewise been rebarrelled and restocked. Both Martinis were imported from Australia, where they saw quite heavy use. The Cadet is chambered for a .357 case necked to .308; the new barrel is a surplus FN Mauser blank. I was just shooting to confirm zero, which even after using all available windage adjustment is still too far to the right of center.

The problem is that front sight base is canted to the left. I made a sight insert with a reverse cant, but it now looks like I'll have to replace it entirely to fix the problem. It's on the to-do list now.

 

[czhen]

Dave, such a beautiful single shot rifle I have had in my youth years a 22.cal an original Francotte Martini Cadet made in Belgique along with several shotguns of them, very few firearms had the balance and elegance in their engraving, I recalled some gauges hard to come by in the 70's my teens. I do recall having the tiny front sight post protected by an open arch somewhat soft that often bent from lying around.
Countless noon after school chores and TV shows going outside to blow some small cans.
Congrats in such a firearm.

 

[Dave DeLaurant]

Thanks brother! I came along too late for the real bonanza on Martini Cadets and had to pay serious money to get this action shipped to me from Jansa in Australia.

Thirty years earlier I could have bought several with paper route money!

 

[Bwana John]

Getting a couple of Martini Cadets on the original .310 Cadet cartridge helped me to enjoy reloading again.

Having to cast the heeled bullet, trying out homemade powder coating to get rid of the icky external lube, make the brass from 7.62 Nagent revolver, figuring out how to crimp the heeled bullet, working up a load with no real data, deciding to full length resize or no resizing at all, rifle or pistol primer, ect... ect...

The fact that after so many variables they shoot to 2 MOA really helped!!!

 

[1KPerDay]

so dang cool there's no words for how cool it is. Anyone make a current Martini action? No, right?

 

[Ugly Sauce]

I'm totally jealous, Dave has lots of cool rifles. And appreciates single-shots, which is probably my favorite type action.

 

[Rubone]

I have this original Turkish contract Peabody-Martini in excellent condition that was in one family from new, however it is in 45 Turkish and no ammo to be had!

 

[Armorer 101]

Did you check to see if the 45 Turk can be made from an existing cartridge, in the conversion book? Good 45-70 conversion, maybe. I am a conversion knd of guy.

Nice guns Dave.

The English Walnut Cadet in 222R I built. Got the brass from Sydney.

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

Did you check to see if the 45 Turk can be made from an existing cartridge, in the conversion book? Good 45-70 conversion, maybe. I am a conversion knd of guy.

Nice guns Dave.

The English Walnut Cadet in 222R I built. Got the brass from Sydney.
View attachment 1051593

Stunning!

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

Thanks to Jeff Olson for hooking me up with a BSA Martini Intl' Mk2 after failing to snag one from a LGS in time.

Should be arriving any day now- so stoked!

Have wanted one ever since watching Zulu for the first time as a wee lad.

 

[codytrucker]

so dang cool there's no words for how cool it is. Anyone make a current Martini action? No, right?

Check out Damko , made in Oregon . kind of pricey , but they have a pretty neat caliber list.

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

I brought both my Martini carbines to the indoor range this morning for a little casual practice.

View attachment 1051409





The Martini-Henry action was made in 1876, rechambered in .303 in 1900, then rebarrelled by me about 20 years ago in .44 Magnum. The buttstock is original, but I made a new forend for it from a walnut turning blank. I'm shooting up 40 rounds of leftover experimental .44 Special handloads in order to recycle the cases, and basically just trying to see how quickly I can fire the thing. The handloads are full wadcutters, which makes chambering a little fumbly.

The Francotte Martini Cadet action has likewise been rebarrelled and restocked. Both Martinis were imported from Australia, where they saw quite heavy use. The Cadet is chambered for a .357 case necked to .308; the new barrel is a surplus FN Mauser blank. I was just shooting to confirm zero, which even after using all available windage adjustment is still too far to the right of center.

The problem is that front sight base is canted to the left. I made a sight insert with a reverse cant, but it now looks like I'll have to replace it entirely to fix the problem. It's on the to-do list now.

View attachment 1051410

Those are both so awesome, Dave.....

 

[tark]

I'm loving those two, Dave.!

 

[adcoch1]

Beautiful rifles, I must admit I lust for that 44mag!
BTW, do you have a cartridge name for the 30/357? Sounds like my idea of the rimmed 300 blackout.

 

[Dave DeLaurant]

Ignore -- codytrucker got there first.

 

[Dave DeLaurant]

Beautiful rifles, I must admit I lust for that 44mag!
BTW, do you have a cartridge name for the 30/357? Sounds like my idea of the rimmed 300 blackout.

30-57 Shadow -- got the name etched on an MGM carbine barrel I ordered for my Encore. Shadow's the name of one of my black cats.





And you're right, it's basically a rimmed .300 AAC with a shorter neck. Though when I wrote up the specs for the chamber reamer I had the .300 Whisper in mind -- this was about 20 years ago.



The chief limitation of the idea is the relative thinness of .357 brass compared to .223 -- I sectioned a couple cases before working up my handloads and decided to keep things fairly conservative.

 

[Dave DeLaurant]

I have this original Turkish contract Peabody-Martini in excellent condition that was in one family from new, however it is in 45 Turkish and no ammo to be had!View attachment 1051580 View attachment 1051581

Beautiful rifle dude!

If you want it bad enough, the answer involves caseforming and handloading. I just posted a short article on this general subject here: https://surplused.com/index.php/2021/12/31/ammunition-options-alternatives-for-old-iron/

Donnelly says you can make it from 11mm Beaumont brass, assuming you could find any of that. Buffalo had some in stock at one time, but not at present: https://www.buffaloarms.com/11-43x55r-turkish-cases-11-43x55r.html

These guys evidently have some formed 11.43x55R Turkish brass available, if you have a kidney to spare:
https://www.ammunitionartifacts.com/metriccartridgecases/1143x55-turkish-peabody-mk5w6

If all else fails, this fellow has supplied me with some really nice formed brass in .41 Swiss and 8x58Rd -- he might have some ideas: https://littlegreenmentoys.com/contact-us

 

[Dave DeLaurant]

Belated update on the Cadet Martini: I removed the crooked front sight base, filled in the D&T'ed mounting hole and sweated a banded 1893 Mauser front sight base in its place. It took a couple tries to get the base properly centered, but the sights are finally zeroed! The Cadet shooting test is the second part of this short video (timestamp 1:23+):

 

[bluetopper]

I got outbid on this beautiful Martini sporter very recently. It was in 30-40 Krag.

 

[Ugly Sauce]

Amazing the amazing Martinis that talented people put together. Especially in unique and classic calibers.

On that .45 Turk, I'm not familiar with that caliber, but one way or another most if not all those odd ball cases can be fabricated somehow. Although pre-fabricated cases can be very expensive, in relatively low pressure cartridges they will last forever, (or your lifetime at least) especially if you shoot black powder.

Another suggestion, which may horrify some, and cause deep psychological pain and suffering, would be to ream the chamber out to take a longer, but more common case. Is the .45 Turk a bottle-neck cartridge? A good study of the dimensions might open some possibilities, if one didn't think it would defile the rifle to do that.

 

[JCooperfan1911]

Incredible rifles. A shame none are made today. The collector’s value continues to skyrocket on these and pretty soon, they’ll be far too valuable to shoot.

 

[Rubone]

Amazing the amazing Martinis that talented people put together. Especially in unique and classic calibers.

On that .45 Turk, I'm not familiar with that caliber, but one way or another most if not all those odd ball cases can be fabricated somehow. Although pre-fabricated cases can be very expensive, in relatively low pressure cartridges they will last forever, (or your lifetime at least) especially if you shoot black powder.

Another suggestion, which may horrify some, and cause deep psychological pain and suffering, would be to ream the chamber out to take a longer, but more common case. Is the .45 Turk a bottle-neck cartridge? A good study of the dimensions might open some possibilities, if one didn't think it would defile the rifle to do that.

.45 Turkis is a 11.43X55 bottle neck cartridge. One of the possible donors is a .50-90. The chamber is very large! I do not reload and am not going to start for this rifle. It was in a friends family from new, they were from Providence, RI and his Great Grandfather owned it. Probably bought locally after the cancellation of the Turkish contract.

 

[Ugly Sauce]

That's what I was kind of wondering, most of those bottle-neck .45 caliber cartridges can use a .50-90 or .50-70 case.

On the other hand, I guess if a person does not reload, does not want to reload, and is not perhaps a more than a average experienced reloader, fabricating cartridges would be out of the question. That's too bad, as then a useable rifle is "un-useable".

 

[bfoosh006]

So many fine single shots in this thread.... I actually feel guilty, thinking you all meant a Martini Drink. ( long day, so pardon the misguided comment )

 

[Ugly Sauce]

So many fine single shots in this thread.... I actually feel guilty, thinking you all meant a Martini Drink. ( long day, so pardon the misguided comment )

Drinking a Martini, and having any of those rifles in one's lap (unloaded of course) to admire would certainly be a nice combination. Don't feel guilty.