Rook-Type Rifle Wanted - Who Can Make one and what is the best action

Just one thing to remember. You either love or hate Martinis. If you love them, one is never enough.

I have two in 303Brit. One has Metford style rifling and the other has Enfield style. One was made in the Afghan National Armory and one was made in the UK. I have two in 357 Maxi and the performance on both of those rifles is great. One has a 1-15 twist rate for light 158 grain bullets and one has a 1-10 twist rate for long heavy bullets. Several 22lrs, 22rfmag, 218 Bee and a custom Rook rifle with a beautiful stock set and chambered in a yet to be established cartridge that fits into a rifle with a .401 diameter bore. That one will be one of the winter projects.
 
pmatuk alerted me to this EE find... bone stock BSA .310 Australian Cadet, CMF ("Citizens Military Forces") unit marked. All there.

This would make one hell of a restoration project. If you think it isn't much, look at my photos at the beginning of this thread to see what potential these elegant little rifles have! Or, you could go the full-on custom route and have it rebarreled, new wood, whatever.

http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/1229697-a-few-surplus-rifles?highlight=cadet
 
The Kurgan said:
Good to know there are options.
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Ron called me on Thursday... he's working on it now. So I might well get it back by spring :) I'd better get to work refinishing the stock.

That one you linked to on the EE is basically the same as mine; I think I paid about the same for mine 5-6 years ago so although they're pricey, the price hasn't gone up recently. I'm giong to try it with the original sights but eventually I'll probably replace the front sight with a white line post and modify the notch in the rear sight to accommodate it. I'd like to stick with open sights but i might eventually look into putting a low-magnification pistol scope on it if I could make a scope base that would fit into the existing rear sight base. Another non-magnification option might be one of the See-All open sights. :)
 
The Cadet sights work quite well for me. I won't bother changing mine.
Yeah the one linked above has potential, and it would be nice to restore.
 
josquin said:
I'm loathe to muck with them "just because" (the rear sight is a work of art) but my eyes aren't what they used to be. But I'm certainly going to try them "as is' first.
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You want horrendous sights? Try using diopter sights! They look great, but are absolutely unpleasant to use! :)
 
picked up the baby martinis from corlains ,they do nice cerakote job.Reason for the creakote as someone will ask is that the barrels are stainless steel and wont blue properly
 
pmatuk said:
picked up the baby martinis from corlains ,they do nice cerakote job.Reason for the creakote as someone will ask is that the barrels are stainless steel and wont blue properly
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Aaaaarrrgghh...... Stop! Enough, already! You're driving us GREEN WITH ENVY. Wherever you are in Northern B.C. must be the Classy Single Shot Capital of the World.
 
Sorry Josquin,but only one moer pic .They are all assembled and will not look this good again after use and banging around so here it goes


 
The Kurgan said:
btw, looking forward to seeing your rebored Cadet. .357 is the perfect caliber choice.
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To my utter astonishment, it arrived back from Ron last Thursday. He even called me on Saturday to confirm that I'd got it. I'd been expecting a delay of several months, but he said something to the effect of, "It arrived and I just got interested and set to work." Woo hoo!

It looks the same outside except for a larger hole at the naughty end. I refinished the stock a bit- really just did a gentle stripping of the original finish and then several coats of tung oil. If we get a decent day and I can get up to a shooting spot I'll post some pics. I'll get a report back to Ron as well, probably by snail mail as I don't think he has embraced Ye Moderne Internette.

He didn't reshape and bush the firing pin - often recommended when shooting high-pressure rounds in Cadets - but suggested using rifle primers if I got any ruptures. I won't be loading full-house rounds anyway. I've got some Bullet Barn 158 gr RNFP loaded to around 1000 fps. (book value, not chronographed) for my Ruger SP-101 I can try out as well.

The only casualty of the operation was that the split pin at the front of the trigger guard (which holds the action in) broke at some point. He replaced it with a roll pin, which looks icky but was really the only practical alternative as gunsmiths aren't likely to have those unusual split pins on hand. Numrich Arms in NY, however, does, so I've just ordered a trigger pin, as well as a spare mainspring and trigger spring. (Not the best time to be ordering stuff from the US with the exchange at $1.40. Fortunately the order only came to about $22 USD, including $6.50 shipping to my alternate US address. )
 
Can't wait to see it. However, surely you can fire full-power 357 mag? I fire much hotter reloaded 32-20 (100 grains at 1800-2000 fps) without issue.
 
The Kurgan said:
Can't wait to see it. However, surely you can fire full-power 357 mag? I fire much hotter reloaded 32-20 (100 grains at 1800-2000 fps) without issue.
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That's good to know. The "bushing the firing pin" thing probably came from one of the Martini forums a few years ago and as I recall wasn't said to be essential.
 
excellent ,you have it in your hands .I have a spare split pin as the roll will look out of place .As for bushing the hole ,try it first if you encounter hard opening from primer flow you can use cci 400 .Some you can get away with just putting a larger pin in play .

If you want the split pin PM me your addy and will send it ,I like screws myself in the front
Cheers Peter
 
pmatuk said:
...I have a spare split pin as the roll will look out of place ....I like screws myself in the front
Cheers Peter
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Darn.... I've aready placed the order with Numrich, but thank you :) The roll actually looks HORRIBLE, but I guess that's all he had on hand. I had thought of using a screw, too, but of course I'd want a nice, thin head one with thread only at the end and some sort of thin escutcheon rather than just a nut. Or better, if I were doing a real custom job as you've done on yours, I'd tap one side of the frame and have the screw thread into that.

:) Stuart
 
well Ron probably test fired it so he had to hold the mech in place .When you get a chance post a pic ,I like to look at all martinis .I didnt realize you had placed the order ,oh well
Cheers Peter
 
pmatuk said:
well Ron probably test fired it so he had to hold the mech in place .When you get a chance post a pic ,I like to look at all martinis .I didnt realize you had placed the order ,oh well
Cheers Peter
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Yes, there was powder residue in the barrel. Haven't had a chance to get it out shooting yet but I got a couple of pics in the sun late this afternoon. I'd forgotten what a nice, light, trim little rifle this is.

Rebored%20Cadet__zpsxtlvkh90.jpg


The new, slightly larger naughty end.

The%20new%20naughty%20end_zpspmjxrugd.jpg


And the big, fat firing pin indent. I went up the road to Rusty Wood and got some CCI Small Rifle Primers:

Firing%20pin%20indent_zpsdkwrziqf.jpg


:) Stuart
 
Hi Stuart ,the old rifle looks complete and in really nice shape .Also the bigger hole adds to the package nice.The pin dent is big , shouldnt rupture or flow with regular magnum loads.Testing will tell for sure .

If it does cause you greif I can send you the tools to bush the pin hole

all said that is a nice martini that will use common store bought ammo and that makes it an excellent plinker !
cheers Peter
 
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