Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots 218 Martini Rifles

Developed an interest in Martini rifles lately. Haven't picked up any but just wondering....

I see a lot of them in .218 Bee or some variation of that, Are these .22 rimfires rechambered and altered to centerfire or are they rebarrels?? Just wondering if that 22LR to 218 something was a popular conversion at one time.

Thanks for your time.

Perhaps the most common conversion was the Martini Cadet originally chambered in 32-20 as a trainer for the Australian army. I have one converted (rebarreled) to 218 Mashburn Bee, and another in 7-30 Waters.

They were NOT originally chambered in 32-20. The original chambering was .310 Cadet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.310_Cadet

...and simply running a .32-20 reamer in made them, typically, a handloading nightmare due to the variations in bore dimensions - all of which were based on the .310 using a much bigger bullet than the .32-20.

Altering Martini .22LR target rifles such as the Model 12, 12/15, and 15 to handle .22 centerfire cartridges was a fairly common practice. Not a huge problem, but two caveats: the bores will be a little tight by modern .22 centerfire standards (not a big deal), and the breech block will need to be bushed and fitted with a centerfire firing pin (a sort of big deal). They're strong actions and the only cartridge limitations are their overall length (in order to make the awkward dive down and into the chamber) and head diameter (limited by the small barrel tenon diameter). That's why .218 Bee and .22 Hornet were popular conversions.

Latest Martini........




17 Ackley Bee

ya!

GWB

Cool little rifle.

I've owned a bunch (>15) small frame Martinis over the years and still have 4. A lot of the various .22 caliber centerfire cartridges did use the original .22 rimfire barrels, but a lot of them did not. The actions were popular as the basis for a nice little custom single shot and it was not uncommon to see everything discarded but the action, with the gunsmith installing a new barrel and restocking the gun.

One good way to determine if the barrel is original or a replacement is to check for British proof marks. If they are there, it's likely the original .22 rimfire barrel. If they are absent, it's probably a replacement.

Thanks for the correction!

Since you do not have a Martini Cadet, if you find one and it is a 22 center fire, check the twist, if it is a 1-16 then the barrel is probably a 22 RF barrel .222 as that is the standard 22 RF barrel and not a .224 barrel. The use of 22 RF barrels in AU was fairly common. The RF barrels are cheaper, so. Just something to check on and be aware of.
I have built and own a few Cadets. To rebarrel a Cadet requires some cutting for the extractor angle at the rear. The 218 Bee and the AU 222 R make fine little varmint rifles with a .224 barrel.

Mine chambered and fired 32-20 perfectly. Perhaps it was "tweaked with a reamer" at some point in its life. To this day, I cannot understand why the hell I sold it!! I was going through a separation and I temporarily lost my mind.

Cadet 1
Cadet 2
Cadet 3
Cadet 4

Yeah, you should have your butt kicked!! And another kick if it shot .32-20 ammo accurately!

I've owned 6 or 8 original Cadets in my life, a couple of which had .32-20 reamers run into their chambers, and only one shot decently. The .310 Cadet groove diameters are all over the map, from .316 to .319 that I've observed. Not a recipe for accuracy if a .312-.313 .32-20 bullet is asked to rattle down the bore. Nominally the ".310" nomenclature describes bore diameter not groove diameter.

I have a minty BSA Model 12 that would be a good candidate for a .22 hotrod, but I'll submit to an ass-kicking myself if I laid a finger on it!

Current Cadet love affair, .357 Maximum:

I had one of the BSA Martini .22 target rifles that had been rechambered to .22 Hornet for a while, and it was very accurate with .224-bullet handloads, using whatever plastic-tipped 40 I loaded.

The late Dave Gentry, a well-known gunsmith in Belgrade, Montana, had a .310 Cadet that shot .32-20 ammo very accurately. In fact, among Dave's many plans that he never had time for was to make Martini actions....

A couple more I let slip away during periods of financial embarassment.........



30-30 WCF




218 Bee

ya!


GWB

Geedubya, that's very cool!