Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Martini time!

A question posed here a bit ago about accurate .22's intercepted a weak brain cell and I found myself hitting "I'll take It" in the classifieds for a Martini MK-II International. If you're not familiar with these here's a pretty definitive website. Martini Internationals. This one has no fixed sights but had a neatly installed rail. I wondered why I was buying a discontinued Weaver 25X taste scope a few months ago (for a bargain!) and I guess this answered that question. I didn't weigh it but I'm betting it's up toward 16+ lbs. Not a mountain rifle. A car to the bench rifle. Lift with your legs not your back as they say. The trigger is maybe 2 ounces and has zero slack.



We had a great Labor Day weekend with CF friends Jorge's camp along with Hatari and spouses and other like-minded couples in central PA. Stunning nice weather, lots of cool guns to shoot, dead game to cook and spirits to consume. I took along 15 boxes of various .22 ammo to see what it liked. It was a bit breezy during the experiment but shot at 50 yards so not too bad. I was really surprised to find of the 5 varieties of Eley I had along that only one of them would chamber and that with great difficulty. It's the most British of rifles how is that possible?



For about $4.50 a box the SK Standard Plus and Norma Tac-22 at a bit less is my standard for shooting my Anschutz 1712 at silhouette as it's good enough. It was still "good enough" but there were a couple real standouts.



RWS Target rifle was pretty good but the real shocker was Federal HV Match 40 gr solid @ 1200fps. I have always believed, and it's been true, that slower is more accurate and at least for this 5 shot initial experiment the Federal won the shootout. Price is very reasonable so may need to acquire some more. It may be a little fast for silhouette (too hard on the targets) but I do need to see how it shoots in that rifle. For you gopher shooters I'd take a look at it.



What am I going to do with this rifle? I don't really know. Maybe benchrest but there are some folks shooting benchrest .22 silhouette at 200 yards and as long as there is no weigh limit maybe that's its right use. Maybe it's just owning a neat rifle from the 50's and seeing what its like to shoot rimfire at 200 yards. I'll certainly learn to read wind better! I put it in Burris rings with the plastic inserts so will need to adjust to get enough elevation.

Pugs,

Nice gun. I have owned many Martinis. Mostly 12/15s

Most folks don't know about them. They were about as good as it got for many years. One rifle I regret selling was a BSA Martini Model 12. Very, very accurate with the peeps. Unfortunately my eyes are not up to what the rifle could do. Kinda of a one trick pony however. Bit heavy for a squirrel gun. Off the bench!! Will surprise a lot of folks, even those with Anschutz.

Insanely jealous! Now you've gone and triggered the same receptors in my brain that made you get that rifle. Give me a minute and I'll come up with something with which to chase you around the benchrests with at 50/100/200 yards. My Model 52 would give you nightmares but it wouldn't be as classy as a Martini, eh what?! We'll have a go one of these weekend days while the weather is still nice. My range or yours?

Interesting that the Eley stuff is too tight to chamber. A piece of sandpaper wrapped around a stick in a hand drill would make short work of that situation. I'll bring it along. Happy to help a buddy.

I've owned a number of small frame Martinis in both rim and center fire. They included an International Mark II similar to yours (although mine had the sights), a 12/15, and a 13. Still have the 13, which is light enough to use as a squirrel rifle. The center-fires were mostly built on Cadet actions and ranged from a .20 caliber wildcat on a blown out .218 Bee case up to a .357 Magnum. I still have a .225 Winchester, a .223, a .218 Bee, a .25-20 and a .22 Hornet (the last built on a BSA Model 15 action). I'm hoarding a custom Cadet action that I want to build either a 7x30 Waters or a .25 caliber wildcat on a 5.6x50R case and use as a deer rifle.

I've only ever owned one large frame Martini, which had been converted to .22 when I bought it. It's a Swinburn's patent and is out being restored and rebarreled to .303 British.

I like them and wish they weren't so hard to find in good condition these days.

Pugs, your comment about 100 yard benchrest suggests Schuetzen, which includes 100 yard .22 benchrest where rifles such as yours are the norm.

It would be nice if you could find matches in your area.

The target, shot for score, has a 3/4" center scored 25, so a perfect score of 250 requires 10 shots dead center in a group not over about 1" (edge of shot scored). I did it, once, which won the match. I've come close several times, but only that one 250. Of course, to do well at distance with a .22 you have to know how to deal with the wind. An accurate rifle and ammo alone won't cut it.

Paul

Very intriguing idea Paul. I'll do some searching to see what I can find. I thought the Schuetzen matches used open/peep sights but maybe the interested parties got old like me!

Schuetzen is mostly an old farts' game, but they tend to be tough competitive shooters.

I've mostly shot informal club matches where most of the rifles I've seen have modern scopes. Yours would be good to go, fit right in. In the few regional registered matches I've shot in there have been iron sight and scope classes. There may also be a Vintage class with more restrictive equipment rules, but not in the Schuetzen matches I've participated in. Modern scopes seem to be the rule.

I don't have a centerfire Schuetzen rifle, but I've shot my .22 in those matches at 200 yards and held my own against the centerfires. A real hoot.

Paul

Iron sight and scope classes are the norm these days.

Interesting rifle sir. Long range RF is gaining popularity these days, wind flags are your friend.

Turns out there is a match near to me - http://www.tcandsc.org/index.php/disciplines/schutzen/48-schutzen-information

Alas, I chatted with the match dir and it's last match of the year is over Columbus Day weekend and we'll be out at the camp in WV but if the .22 matches are at a particular time I can drive back the hour and try to attend part of it.

Just do it. There's a lot to be gained by attending a match and watching and asking questions.

Don't be intimidated by fancy gear like $1000 front rests. Some helps and some doesn't, plus, you'll see a lot of homemade gear like my wind flags. My rifle, which holds its own, is a plebian Winchester 1885 "Japwall" .22, factory configuration but rebarrelled. Point is, the stock is not what is considered a benchrest stock, trigger is original not match-light, but I just shoot it and make it work. Pisses off the shooters with the full custom rigs.

For me a lot of the attraction, or lack thereof, in a shooting event is congeniality. Some groups are welcoming and friendly, others are cliquish like "Who are you and what are you doing here?" I've encountered both kinds. I'm too old to put up with the latter BS.

Schuetzen was huge in the early 20th Century, especially in German-American communities. Anti-German sentiment during WW I killed it, and Prohibition put the final nail in its coffin. You can't have a Schuetzenfest without beer! It enjoyed a bit of a renaissance due to support from the Coors Company. Now its a nice niche shooting sport.

Paul

Here's a pic of my dearly departed father from the Canadian Nationals in 1954.
He shot that Martini for many years but I am not sure where it went- he later got an Anschutz Super match.
I still have the sling however.
Cat

If you're seriously interested in Schuetzen shooting, take a look at the American Single Shot Rifle Association's web site. www.assra.com. Those guys are seriously into it.

Schuetzen guns are interesting. Have a couple or three, last count anyway.

Sorry, it's not a Martini





Neither is this, but al least it's a .22



This is the one that cracks me up. A ".17" before .17s were popular.

Great info folks and I'm going to try to make the October match. For a neat perspective on how popular this was -

http://www.novanumismatics.com/washington-dcs-schuetzen-park-its-token/

Very cool picture. Why do I feel I'm getting sucked into another shooting discipline.

Neat stuff. I started looking at those at the Baltimore Antique Arms show last winter. This year I may have to act if the right one reaches out to me.

Per usual I wandered into the sport niche without prior planning. Living in St. Marys,GA about 20 years ago and in the course of frequent trips to the range learned there would be a match and decided to attend. Took my #1 chambered in .257 Roberts hoping to learn something. Yep, it was destined to be. The part that lingers in my memory had me side by side with a genuine member of the US Navy's Palma team. He had something akin to a M14, and I figured he was going to whip my backside. Much to my surprise it went the other way and I was hooked.

I have several old school bench guns of the same spirit as yours that are far too heavy for offhand shooting, muzzle loaders for the most part. Yeah, lift with your legs, not your back.