Martini project

[justashooter]

Lucked into a large frame Martini action of questionable origin, and am planning to put an Enfield #1 Mk3 barrel on it to make a cheap common caliber cast boolit gun. I was thinking about setting the barrel in tight and brooming back a standard sizing die to create a custom cartridge "303 short" for a chamber that will not accept factory loads. Thinking about a parker hale tang sight and a ramped and hooded front, or maybe express sights. There is a correct buttstock with the action.

How about adapting a #1 Mk3 buttstock and forearm to a large frame martini? Maybe go with new synthetic furniture and put a scope on it? I am considering sweating a Marlin 444 barrel into a sewer pipe 303 stub, but I can't seem to locate those crappy 303 barrels I pulled a few years back. Anybody have a junker #1 or #2 barrel for cheap? Your thoughts solicited.

173214

[Frank46]

Don't remember where I saw it but there were some large frame martini's (such as your's) done up with a #1 MKIII barrel and they used a part of the wood from a #1MKIII as the forend also using the barrel bands and nose cap. They called it a SMLETINI or something similar. Action looks good. Have fun. Frank

[Wayne Smith]

Treebone has a Martini stock - pistol grip even.

[Boz330]

Don't remember where I saw it but there were some large frame martini's (such as your's) done up with a #1 MKIII barrel and they used a part of the wood from a #1MKIII as the forend also using the barrel bands and nose cap. They called it a SMLETINI or something similar. Action looks good. Have fun. Frank

Home guard gun. There were a bunch put together when the Ozzies were thinking Japan might invade.

Bob

[Ballistics in Scotland]

The markings look like those of an Enfield made rifle with an 1870s date, nearly effaced by sanding. There should, in this case, be a matching serial number on the front face of the action and on the block and other major parts, and they ought to match up. That breechblock pin might be standing a bit proud of the action, indicating that it could have been sanded a bit thinner than it ought to be. The sides ought to be an eighth of an inch thick or very nearly.

You should check very carefully for cracks in the top of the action sides near the barrel, as this can be done by someone unscrewing a barrel by the light of nature. The firing-pin hole in the block ought to be bushed to a smaller size if high pressure cartridges are to be used. There is some possibility that deformation of an early Martini will deform under high pressure, but this isn't certain, and should produce only difficult opening, not disastrous failure.

With these provisos, this action should be fine for the standard .303. If the intention in going for a shortened case is to reduce pressure, it isn't necessary but should be workable. You would only have to grind a little off the bottom of the loading dies, and although that might make the chamber too tight for some brass, most American made cases are sufficiently undersized at the head. You could even lengthen the case and chamber neck slightlye, which would still allow the use of .303 brass, perhaps untrimmed, but would be better for cast bullets.

I think obtaining a chambering reamer to make it a standard .303 is worthwhile, and it would reduce the problem of oversized shoulder and neck which are often found in .303 military rifles, although the No 1 or SMLE is seldom as bad that way as some No4s.

The SMLE barrel is quite small in diameter, and I don't much like the idea of making it into a stub into which a new barrel would be soldered. At the very least I would want some sort of mechanical joint too. You could ream the stub with a ¼in. per foot taper pin reamer. Better, though, would be full-length lining of the barrel, which isn't beyond the capacity of the amateur. TJ's make a chrome-moly liner intended for the 7.65mm Luger which is right for a .303. The prices here are a bit out of date.