A custom martini rifle build

A custom Martini cadet

This will be a post with a lot of photos. This project has really been in the pipeline for 2 to 3 years waiting for things to align.

I've had a desire to build a nice custom martini in either the English Rook Rifle style or along the lines of a mini big game rifle like the Wesley Richards and Rigby mausers. But in 22lr - mainly because I have much more opportunity to shoot a 22lr over a large centrefire and the idea of a walk around bunny gun always appeals. Martinis are an acquired taste for sure and if done right they can look really good, but if done wrong can be one of the ugliest guns you can find :D


The stocks:
I had seen a stock pattern many years ago by Geoff Slee that was a two-piece English style pattern with a pancake cheekpiece that looked perfect for a small frame cadet and was the style I was after. Geoff died many years ago and his patterns have passed through several hands of stock maker before finally landing with Cameron at Hatcher’s Gunstocks. I'd enquired years ago but he wasn’t doing two-piece stocks at the time and didn't have the capacity to drill the draw bolt hole. So, I had to wait until they eventually came up. I think it was two years or more but finally some stocks became available. I was after something with deep colouring and mineral streaks and got one of his XXX grade, after some more complications around the draw bolt hole tooling they finally arrived.

https://i.imgur.com/ypyesPp.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/jSR9Kh4.jpg

So the process began. I had a Sportco Martini that was in reasonable shape and a good candidate for the project. I chose to leave the original barrel in the rifle, mainly because I really didn’t know how it would all turn out and to be honest they don’t shoot too bad. Depending on how it all came out maybe I’d consider a custom barrel in the factory taper down the track someday but it’s just a bunny gun.


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