Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Charting new territory with a .310 Martini Cadet

Bristoe-sounds like you have it all under control. I like the little Matinis because they are light and I am old!! My next one will be in 25-35 Win. because of bullet weight choices. It will be for deer hunting. The best comparison I can give you on the firing pin,barrel dia. and receiver ring is the Model 43 Win. I have one in 218Bee. If you have access to one pull the bolt and look at firing pin size and firing pin protrusion. This is not what I think is proper, this is what Winchester thought. I can tell you have been reloading quite a while, so there is no need for me to tell you to hold your pressures down to a nominal level. Have enjoyed batting this back and forth, not trying to make anyone mad.For a good safety, I have used crossbolt safetys from old shotgun receivers. You have to do a little metal work, but you seem qualified.

Mad?

I ain't mad. I'm just asking questions.

We have a good 'smith in our state that specializes in Martini work, including Cadets. I've seen his work and it's first rate. Here's the info:

Joe Snapp
6911 E. Washington
Clare, MI 48617
989-386-9226

ACGG member.

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Thanks!

I'm gonna call him right now about the bushing job.

Nice guy,...very knowledgable about Martini Cadets.

I assume Joe Snapp is related to Bob Snapp, the Martini Maestro?

lol,...same guy. He answered the phone and when I asked for "Joe",..he says, "Who?"

Kool!

About 27 or 30 years ago I used a friends "Bob Snapp modified" Martini in a wildcat blown-out version of a .219 Donaldson Wasp to hunt coyotes in southern Ontario.

Man, what a nice rifle! Action was as smooth as can be, straight true sides... obviously polished by hand with stones or hard felt blocks, and by somebody who knew what they were doing.

The trigger was perfect (even to a real target shooter like I was at the time), and the lock time made hitting running coyotes, well, a wee bit less difficult perhaps. Don't want to exaggerate...

Wish I could have bought the rifle, but the owner kept it for sentimental reasons.

John

Bristoe,
Did not ever believe that you were mad, but I did not want to cause a problem as I often do, going on and on about the same old subject. I feel more at ease now that you are in the hands of a pro. Just threw the 43 Win. in where you would have something to judge this rifle with. As for people laughing about round balls I have been known to kill a few squirrels with a 06 and a smaill chaarge of 2400.

Bob Snapp is one of the few who succesfully converts Martinis to rimless ctgs. like the .222 and .223. Been doing that a LONG time!

Cool deal. I always thought a rook rifle would be a fun thing to get running, even if it needed some obscure/improvised components. Light single shots of modest power just have a good feel to them. Love to find a good low wall that way.

Bristoe, on the slow burning powders in a straight case, will you get a tight enough bullet fit with a .320 expander, to have consistent ignition? Most guides I've read say that in the straight walled case handgun rounds, you need a tight bullet fit and strong crimp to get the least velocity variation, especially with slower powders. I think Dave Scovil published some data to that effect a few years ago. He was targeting revolvers - while you don't need the bullet tightly anchored for function in a single shot rifle, doing so helped consistency, was his point.

Lil'Gun has just about replaced 296 for me.

Don't know,..but It's going to be one of the things I find out. I also made one up in .318". I'm thinking that a 24" barrel, as opposed to a revolver barrel, will aid the ignition situation somewhat,..as will magnum primers.

I used to shoot a lot of WW680 in my .357 Maximum Thompson Center Contender and I had to load the case full just to develope enough pressure to expand the case enough to create a seal between the case and the chamber,..even with 215 grain cast bullets. But I got a bit over 1700 fps from the heavy cast bullet out of a 10" barrel with AA680 and the cases would just drop out of the chamber if you opened it and tilted the barrel up.

AA1680 is very close to the burning rate of the old, discontinued WW680,..and the experience I had with 680 in the .357 Maximum made chose to start out working with it in the Cadet.

If it's too slow, I'll move up in burning rate to 296. But I think it's going to work okay. The case will hold 15 grains of AA1680 and still leave enough room to seat the bullet. I've got it up to 12 grains and it's starting to bark pretty good.

I'm going to dig out the chronograph and head to the range before I go up any higher, (I've been shooting it into a firewood log in the basement so far) but I think 13 to 13.5 grains of it will be where it maxes out.

Getting tired of waiting for my dies to arrive. I made an expander die a while ago. Last night I fabricated a seater die which matches the contour of the bullet I'm using and holds it concentric to the case. I'm going to make a taper crimp die tonight. If I could dig up a .30 carbine sizing die, I think I'd be in business.

Yeah, Bob's the guy. I had another brain fart. It happens more often now. Sorry, Bristoe. Glad it worked out well.

Bob was at Jay's a couple years ago hawkin' tickets for the annual guild gun, which was a Dakota 10 in 35 Whelen IIRC (you know not to count on that). He actually had the gun there. It was justly gorgeous.

He also had his own personal cadet there just for show-n-tell. It was chambered to 257 Roberts and sweet as candy. When I asked him "How much?" he just snickered and said "It's not for sale."

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Squeezed in enough time at work tonight to finish my taper crimp die. I reamed a .323" hole through it first to insure that the bullet wouldn't make contact, then opened it up with a #6 taper pin reamer. It took a bit of touch and go before I got it so that it would just make contact at the case mouth. The taper of the case isn't quite as steep as a taper pin reamer, but after counterboring it for about .6" from the bottom, and shortening it so that the ram of the press doesn't make contact with the die before the mouth of the case is compressed down to the desired dimension, it all fell into place. The last step was a high speed (3000 RPM in a Hardinge lathe) polishing job with a quick and dirty hone which held a strip of very fine silicon carbide cloth lubricated with dark thread cutting oil. It functions quite well.

From left to right, .32 long, .310 cadet, .357 magnum. Also, the 170 grain 8mm bullet and after it's been trimmed to weigh 125 grains.