OT - martini cadet ?s

[Remington40x]

I have owned a number of Martini Cadets over the years. Chamberings included .218 Bee, .256 Winchester and .20-20 KCF (essentially, a .20 Mashburn Bee). All were sub-minute of angle rifles for 5 shots at 100 yards with scopes. The .256 was a ton of fun, but I used primarily 75 grain spitzers, as the original 60 grain pointed hollow-points are no longer manufactured. (I once did find 5 boxes of new ammo when a gun shop went out of business and I hoarded them for a long time before selling them for about 3 times what I paid for them to a guy in Texas who was shooting small Texas whitetails with them out of a stand.) My recollection is that the muzzle velocities ran around 2400 fps using the 75 grain bullet from a 24 inch barrel. Not a deer rifle, at least for me, but a highly effective varmint rifle that could be downloaded to .25-20 speeds for edible small game.

Bob Snapp, who is the dean of small frame Martini gunsmithing, regularly built rifles on these actions for .30-30, 25-35 and other similar cartridges. If he thought it was acceptable to do this, I wouldn't worry about a .25-35, assuming the barrel twist would stabilize a 100 grain bullet. If you're worried about the tapered case, chamber the rifle for a .25-35 Ackley Improved and load to normal .25-35 pressure levels. Ackley thought this one of the best of the AI cartridges.

I have a custom Martini Cadet I just acquired by a gunsmith named Baily (not sure of the spelling) in .225 Winchester. Although I haven't shot it yet, the previous owner reported excellent accuracy and no signs of problems with 36 grain Barnes Varmint Grenades at 3700+ fps.

[mescalero1]

I am surprised the bullets are holding together at those velocities!

[Remington40x]

I'm hoping to find out how they hold together this weekend. I'll report back once I shoot it.

[model55]

I'm almost to the painful part of this project-paying the bill so hopefully I'll get on photo bucket and be able to post pics soon.

[Hobie]

This is really starting to get the juices flowing to get my poor bore/original wood Cadet rechambered in .256 Win...

The .357 Maximum is essentially a rimmed .223 Rem (.222 Remington case head) blown out and could be necked back down as mentioned earlier.

I thought the .357 Max was a lengthened .357 Mag?

It is. All these cartridges are related in some way. Eases manufacturing concerns/costs while producing something we think is new and improved...