Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Marble's Sub-caliber cartridge adapters?

Any of you guys ever use the old cartridge adapters made by Marble Arms of Gladstone Mich in your 99s? They made them in many deer calibers (including 30-30, .250 Savage and .300 Savage). They allowed you to fire a lighter pistol round in your deer rifle for small game hunting. I've always wondered if they would chamber and eject OK in a 99 and if they were accurate.

Seems like just the thing to have in your pocket when you spot a snowshoe rabbit or a grouse from the deer stand.

One on Fle-bay now, i have never used one! be my luck to be fooling with it and big buck walks by! John

I emailed that guy asking if the internal firing pin was there, if it isn't it's pretty much useless to whoever beats Steve out on it.

No reply from the seller so I'm guessing it ain't there.

Thats a good thing to know!, I have never realy looked at one! John

I never have either but I'm positive theres a small pin that sits inside them like an arm to act as a firing pin from the guns firing pin to the small pistol cartridge. Just slapping a 25 auto into that shell adapter does nothing if the pin isn't included. It's a loose firing pin to so alot of them were lost.

pHIL
tHEY wORK gREAT
i hAVE oNE iN eVERY cASLIBER AND fEW lEFT oVER pARTS.
aS fAR aS jOE SAID ON THE FIRING PIN THERE EASY TO MAKE.
THEY WORK GOOD.
STEVE

The Reply I got Joe they Work and F.P. is There.

i know where a few are.

How do those things work? Is there an extractor in there that somehow extracts the spent case? What does the firing pin look like? Is it made of steel, and if so wouldn't that be a nasty thing to hit repeatedly with the firing pin in the rifle?

I would like to see one, or at least an accurate drawing of one because they don't look hard to make.

Every now and then I see a guy advertising sub-caliber adapters in Backwoodsman Magazine. He makes them himself. I never have gotten around to trying one though

I've used the Marbles Auxillary Cartridges many times, in several calibers. They hold the pistol cartridge with a good grip, so the empty case is extracted with the auxillary cartridge. In a Savage 99 they can be loaded from the rifle's magazine, a good point if you have more than one of them. Then, after the auxillary cartridge is fired and removed, the case from the fired pistol round must be removed before another loaded cartridge can be inserted. Sometimes pliers are helpful in doing that. I've never had an auxillary cartridge harm my rifles' firing pins. The auxillary cartridge's firing pins, inside the auxillary cartridges, are soft enough on the back end to be imprinted by the rifle's firing pin, and yet hard enough at the front to keep on being used without deforming. I'm pretty sure they were hardened only at the front. My favorite auxillary cartridge is the one for the .22 High Power and I like to use .22 CB caps in it. Those are easy to use and removing the empty .22 rimfire case is not hard to do. If .22 Long Rifles are used, I'd recomment that only standard velocity ammo be fired. That is simply because the higher performance empties would be harder to remove due to their higher pressure. Also, the .22 High Power auxillary cartridges are the only ones, for use with Savage cartridges, that have a removeable firing pin. That removeable firing pin becomes the extractor and it's used to push the empty case out of the auxillary cartridge. Winchester had a different version of the auxillary cartridge that was called a supplemental chamber, where the shorter cartridge was held at the back and was fired by having the primer struck by the rifle's firing pin. I have one of those for a .30/30 that fires a .32 Colt Short. In my opinion, the supplemental chamber is not as good or as easy to operate (reload) as the Marbles auxillary cartridge. Using an auxillary cartrige for the .250 is easy and that one uses .25 ACP ammo. The same can be said for the .300 Savage, used with .32 ACP fodder. The biggest problem with them is sometimes removing the fired pistol cartridge case after shooting. My favorite ammo to feed an auxillary cartridge, other than the .22 CB caps, is the aluminum cased stuff from CCI for the .25 Auto and .32. There was a more recent maker of auxillary cartridge called Alex, Inc. but I don't know if they are still making them. Their's were easier to use than the Marbles because they all loaded from the back. Anyway, I like the auxillary cartridges. They certainly add to a rifle's versatility.

The .250-3000 aux. was also made in .25 Rimfire, so might watch which it is that you are buying.

Very well said 303mike .....

Thank you, Sir!

Thanks for the info. Next time I see one that fits one of my rifles I'll try to pick it up.

Found this while trying to figure out what you were talking about.



This "flyer" is for sale on ebay if anyone is interested.

My friends dad used one in his 99, 250-3000. It fired a 25 ACP round. He used 25 ACP for deer, and the 250-3000 for moose and elk. That was during the depression, ammo is expensive when you had no money. Another friends dad was given a box of ammo for his 25-35 by the local store owner, with the promise that he get some of the meat. He naturally gave the shells to a good marksman. My friends dad was a machine gunner operator in WWI and was recalled for service in WWII because of his reputation. Later in life he had health problems, and even more problems with VA. Kerist, the man fought for his country in 2 wars. Fortunately we still have the stories.

NeBassman
Neat add, Tnx for Sharing.
Steve

didn't you have some for sale a few wks back?

Rod sold some in 22HP and some in 250. Though, this post is originally from 2009...