I have an option to buy one or both of these rifles. Both are currently chambered in .22 rim fire.

I'm interested in what they can be rebarreled to......22 Hornet?......22 WMR?....5 mm Remington? .221 fireball?......218 Bee?.....25-20 single shot?

First one is a Model 15:




and this one is an international Mark II:





I've always admired the ones others have but this is my chance to own one myself......but I must admit....I know absolutely nothing at all about them so absolutely any advice will be helpful!
Vapo

Sign me up for the 15 if you don't want it.

quote:

Reply

I have built rifles on the Austrailian martini in the following calibers: .22Hornet, .218 Bee, .218 Mashburn Bee, .222, .223, .17 Ackley Bee, .17-222. I am presently working on a 12-15 action that will be a .17 Fireball. If you can't find one of these calibers that you like just buy more actions and build one of each.
I have never heard of anybody doing anything with the International target rifles, it's quite a bit different. Personally I would leave it in .22RF. Bill

Opps, I forgot about a couple of .22 Super Jets that I built. Bill

So Bill...let me ask direct.....you're saying the Martini M-15 I have pictured here is capable of the .223 family of cartridges.....correct?
Vapo

Why not just make it a "DOUBLE MARTINI"...

To make the 22 actions into centerfire will require changing the breech block to centerfire. This will need having the LR hole filled and then re-drilling to the CF configuration. Then there is the question of the extractor. The CF ones are two arms coming in on the chamber from 3-9 oclock. The LR one basically is about half of the bottom of the barrel being removed. This is all possible but is a lot of work. If the CF extractors were available this would be a REAL bennie but they are not. The last one I saw on EBay went for about 70.00. I would suggest doing one of the 17 RFs either by relining the existing barrel or by putting on a high quality CF one. Bear in mind that the pressures of the 17 HRM AND the little Mach 2 peak at a lot more than the 22 LRs.This means you gotta take a LOT more care with headspace AND extractor fitting. Even then you might end up with a slight bulge in the bottom of the case which will not affect anything except you! These are great little actions but do have drawbacks. Now this is for the 12/15 and such NOT the big International one! These are even more problems to work on. All I ever did was rebarrel one and, believe me, it was no fun. Make a little Mach 2 and have a ball.
Aloha, Mark

I have a 12/15 in 22H and a MkII International in 22H.
I have also seen the small frame Martini (12, 12/15 etc) in 17 Hornet, 17 Bee, 22H, 22 K Hornet, 218 Bee, 218 Mashburn Bee, 222 Rimmed, 222 Rem and 221 Fireball. And have aslo seen the MkII International done in 17 Mach IV.

While I like the International, with its ejection system it is hard to keep cases for reloading which in my opinion makes it more suitable for rimfire cartridges like 17Mk2, 22lr, 17HMR and 22Mag.

If anyone is looking for a MkII International PM me I know of 2 for sale complete with original PH sights and the scope bases.......Kiwi

Vapodog, I have made all those calibers and I forgot about the .222 Rimmed and .357 magnum. Doable, but takes a lot of work. Worth it, YES! Bohica has some good points also. I talked to Bob Snapp at the NRA show, he's worked on a lot of martinis and makes a rimless extractor. I have never used his and always made my own. Bill

I have a model 12, with the stock BSA micrometer peep sights and shotgun style stock. I feel that there are better actions for centerfire. Yes they can be converted but there are fewer and fewer of the originals left. My model 12 now over 90 years old by the serial number on a calm day with the wind way down will shoot MOA at 200 yards. At 50 yards as many as I want to shoot into less than dime size hole.I plan to leave mine as it is.

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:
So Bill...let me ask direct.....you're saying the Martini M-15 I have pictured here is capable of the .223 family of cartridges.....correct?
Vapo

I don't think so.
I have two Martini Cadet actions made up into 218 BEE rifles. And I think the Martini Mk II's and the 12's, 15's and 12/15"s are not too suitable for conversion to centerfire rifles. I do have two Martini Mk II's that will remain 22 Rimfire rifles.

I think you should talk to a real Martini Guru on the subject, a gunsmith, and get his opinion. Andy Manson knows Martini's and is a full time gunsmith living in Chama, New Mexico.
His phone number is: 505-756-2331, and Monday is about the only day you can reach him. He does some traveling around New Mexico doing gunsmithing. Andy built one of my 218 BEE's.
Andy is Dave Manson's brother, Dave being the reamer maker here in Michigan where Andy is from originally.

Here's a pix of one of my Mk II's.



Don

Gee, nobody ever told this poor old farmboy you couldn't convert the rimfire 12's and 12/15 rimfires to centerfire. Evidently nobody told Bob Snapp either. Maybe you ought to look at www.martinigallery.com. But like I said before, I beleive the international target rifles should be left alone. Bill

If you don't buy the interantional I'd be interested. Don't know anything about it, just looks kind of neat.

I have two of the 12/15s, one in the original .22LR and the other in 7-30 Waters. I talked to Martini guru Bob Snapp before I did the 7-30 and his comment was that it is his favorite round in the small martinis, just stick to published reloading data. One advantage of the rimfire actions is that the receiver sidewalls are a bit thicker than the .310s action, so theoretically a bit stronger. Also, to directly answer your question, it is quite practical to convert them to .223 and a lot of them have been built. Also, since the firing pin and hole on the centerfires is often too large, they frequently need bushing anyway, so there is not a whole lot more work in converting a rimfire to centerfire.

I have a 310 converted to 357 with an octagon to round bbl, receiver sight and a Lyman tube up front. Not very heavy and a lot of fun to shoot. 150gr pointed bullets can be zinged along quite nicely. Be a shame to alter the International.

where have you guys been all along ???

I have 2 ( long "tropical" levers )... one was a junker my local builder rebuilt... found in a stash of rifles in a river... the wood & all the small parts had been wasted away... he rebuilt it for himself, in 50-70, & I bought it from im several years after completion, when he was having some health issues & needed the money... the other we built together... I call it my safari rifle, it's a good solid action, that was fitted with a light weight octogon barrel originally chambered in 458 Win mag... we shortened the chamber of the faster twist barrel to 45-70, & it'll now handle any type of bullet I want to put through it... a custom barrel band rear sight base was fabbed up to retain the fore arm, & the 3 leaf safari sight...

I still need to refinish the wood on the furniture, & file the rear sight "v's" to regulate the distances... I'm thinking of setting it up to shoot a heavy pointed cast bullet if the rifle shoots it well, or get a custom mold made ???

... anyway... I wanted to build a couple more, but "builder grade" rifles seem to have dried up around here... that 2nd 22... looks nice enough, I'd probably leave it in 22 rim fire... but I shoot alot of 22 Hornet, & would personally really like to get a Martini chambered in that cartridge as well...

since the Martinis have been tougher to get I just bought my 1st Remington rolling block to play with as this winters project...

my 50 - 70...



my 45-70...

Thanks everyone for the replies.....on second thought I'm going to pass on these projects and both are still available if you wish.....prices are in the $500 (give or take) neighborhood and the M-15 has an extremely short stock that probably has to be replaced.

If you want the owner's phone # just PM me and I'll get you in touch.