Martini Cadet

[technojock]

Techno, How was the conversion "done poorly"?

The new firing pin hoe was drilled at an off angle and he made up for it by welding on and undersized pin. The primers would flow back into the firing pin hole and the new firing pin broke off at around 50 rounds. He was out of business when I went back to complain.

I wish I could remember his name so I could ad mouth him on the net...

My plan is to braze up and redrill the firing pin hole one of these days when I'm feeling brave. I've bought all the drill bits I need to do the job.

Tony

[Fishoot]

Techno,
I have refaced a couple of Martini's with off center firing pin holes, or holes too large which caused the primer to flow around the pin and mechanically interfere with the block's movement. I had John Taylor ( a great guy to send a rifle to) reface my first Martini, and he did an excellent job. After that, and a lot of studying posts on this board, I started doing my own. The process starts with making a 1/2" diameter disc of 1/8" thick carbon steel and then milling a pocket in the face of the bolt. I glue the disc in the pocket with black loctite. A punch is made to fit inside a case to be used in the gun's chamber to mark the bolt face where the firing pin is to exit . I use a long piece of 3/16" diameter steel to butt the punch and put a mark in the face of the bolt. I carefully set up the bolt in the mill to center drill the firing pin hole then drill a 5/64" hole in the block. You have to turn the firing pin down to 5/64" and carefully fit it to the new hole. Frank DeHass wrote a good book Single Shot Rifles and Actions that details most of these procedures although it is mostly detailed in the rolling block portion. John Taylor has provided tips on this board too. To my knowledge, the welding and re-drilling procedure you propose is the least favored method. But then, I have no experience using the welding method. I know that my description lacks detail. I recommend looking through the previous posts John has written on this, and reading the DeHass book. Good Luck with whichever way you go.

[john.k]

For sure .....the blocks are high carbon steel ,and hardened ..........and if you weld they will turn glass hard and need to be annealed to drill .....if you break off a drillbit inside on a hard spot ,could be difficult to remove.

[JDHasty]

De Haas’ book Mr Single Shot’s Gunsmithing Idea Book goes into detail on the Martini actions. It covers the various methods.

[technojock]

For sure .....the blocks are high carbon steel ,and hardened ..........and if you weld they will turn glass hard and need to be annealed to drill .....

That would explain a lot of of what's going on with my Martini 12/15. The idiot gunsmith TIG welded up the old firing pin hole. When I dropped off the rifle I had a reprint of an old NRA American Rifleman article on how to do the conversion. We talked about and he agreed to do it as per the article then proceeded to go his own way...

More recently, I measured the firing pin hole with digital calipers and determined that I could make a new pin from a #40 drill bit. I was right that the hole was drilled with a #40 bit. However when it put the bit in the hole, it stuck off at a strange angle. He did a p*ss poor job of lining it up when he drilled the hole.

If I could get to Australia, I could buy a center-fire BSA Martini Cadet bolt for under 50 bucks Australian. However I cannot get any one there to ship me one... I have a couple customers there but they don't want to risk getting caught shipping one to me...

Tony

[marlinman93]

You might consider bushing the bolt face. Have someone drill or mill out the face to eliminate all the bad work, then tap that hole to a fine thread, and make a threaded plug to fit. Drill a hole for the correct size firing pin and then use Loctite to install the plug, and once it's set up face off the plug.

[technojock]

If the economy picks up enough next year to where I can sell off all my collection of old motorcycles and parts, I'll probably just send it out to be repaired by someone with a good reputation. Back in the late 80's we didn't have the online resources like we do now or I might have been able to find out in advance the guy I hired to work on my gun was a dip****.

On the other hand if I could get my hands on a replacement center-fire bolt, I think I could fix it myself...

Tony

[John Taylor]

About the only way to drill after welding is with carbide. At this point even going with a bushing it will take carbide to machine for the bushing. I usually make the bushing out of spring steel ( old truck springs), which is plenty tough enough for the application. The bushing get soldered in place.