Stories to the effect that the Martini Cadet was developed as a rifle for training Australian Cadets is a cover up for a tremendous waste of the British tax payer’s money.

Most shooters are familiar with the Martini .577 rifles used by the Brits during the Zulu wars in Africa. Rorke’s Drift in 1879 is one battle that fires the imagination. The largest number if Victoria Crosses ever awarded for a single battle were awarded to the Officers and Men that fought there.

The .577 Martini and its heavy bullet inflicted terrible wounds on the Zulus.

Following the Zulu wars, where the Martini .577 served with distinction, it looked like there was going to be fighting with the African Pygmy tribes. At the same time, the Liberal left in London had sent the usual passel of Jane Fonda types to Africa to survey the results, and Fleet Street played up the damage done to the Zulus with the heavy Martini bullet. The left was outraged, and with war with the smaller stature Pygmy tribes, a protest movement started. The left wanted a kinder and gentler type of warfare.

In addition to that, there was also a shortage of lead in the offing because the Amalgamated Brotherhood of Lead Miners. Local .308 was in the middle of fruitless negotiations and probably a long strike. It looked like the price of lead was going to go through the roof.

The was Department caved in and sent the Ordinance Department to the drawing board to come up with a smaller bored rifle along the same lines as the Martini. They did this by simply reducing the Martini .577 by the use of computer graphics. The cartridge was designed by Greener, and became known for a while as the Greener .310. The rifle was named the Martini Pygmy.

Thousands of the little rifles were made up, but before they could be fielded to the troops, there was a negotiated settlement with the African Pygmy tribes.

This left the Brits stuck with a glut of small rifles, along with the prospects of having to pay for the war in Africa. The rifles were secretly warehoused, and the expenses incurred hidden.

The War Department, of course, looked for a way to quietly sell these rifles in order to get their money back, or at least a lot of it. They looked for a market overseas.

They sent a sales type to the States where he met an American huckster by the name of Phineas Tyler Barnum. Barnum considered buying a handful of these rifles for use in the Shooting Galleries of his Connecticut Enterprise. However, he changed his mind before he bought any of the rifles. His reasons were that .22 cal rim fire ammo was cheap and plentiful and he was also loathe changing the backstops to accommodate the more powerful cartridge.

Barnum suggested that the Brit try hiring one of the marketers that were beginning to start burgeoning on Madison Avenue in New York.

En route to the Big Apple, the British salesman encountered an officer of the 7th US cavalry that had been issued orders to be stationed in Montana. The officer introduced him to an Australian Naval officer that was in the States serving in the office of the Navy’s Judge Advocate General’s office in Virginia, but had been sent to West Point to investigate a situation that had arisen from the annual Army-Navy game.

The introduction of the Brit and the Aussie proved to be fruitful, as the Australians had just been levied for a huge number of officers and men by the British Army. The Australians had no training program at the time and were in the process of forming one.

The little rifle was just what the Aussies needed, as their fledgling Corps of Cadets was getting off the ground, and included mere boys from the ages of 14 to 18 years of age. The .577 had been determined as being too large and difficult to fire for the youngsters.

The rifle was sold to Australia and was delivered, and was quickly renamed the Martini Cadet, where it served as a training rifle until it was replaced by the .303 Lee-Enfield in 1921. The rifle was than warehoused. The cartridge became the .310 Cadet.

In 1942, with the threat of a Japanese invasion, the rifle was issued to police, home guard, and militia forces. After WW2, the rifle was declared surplus and was sold off

In the 50s and early 60s Klein’s Sporting Goods in Chicago sold these for under $10 each, but ammunition was pretty much unavailable. Lee Harvey Oswald brefly considered the Cadet, but changed his mind and bought the Italian made Cacarno carbine instead because of the unavailability of ammunition for the Cadet. Many of the rifles were re chambered or re barreled to calibers such as .357 Magnum or .32-20.

Brass for the original .310 is available, but expensive. It can be made out of .32-20 brass.


Later: Reloading the .310 Cadet.

Quoted: . . . The was Department caved in and sent the Ordinance Department to the drawing board to come up with a smaller bored rifle along the same lines as the Martini. They did this by simply reducing the Martini .577 by the use of computer graphics. The cartridge was designed by Greener, and became known for a while as the Greener .310. The rifle was named the Martini Pygmy. Thousands of the little rifles were made up, but before they could be fielded to the troops, there was a negotiated settlement with the African Pygmy tribes. . . .

Quoted: Quoted: . . . The was Department caved in and sent the Ordinance Department to the drawing board to come up with a smaller bored rifle along the same lines as the Martini. They did this by simply reducing the Martini .577 by the use of computer graphics. The cartridge was designed by Greener, and became known for a while as the Greener .310. The rifle was named the Martini Pygmy. Thousands of the little rifles were made up, but before they could be fielded to the troops, there was a negotiated settlement with the African Pygmy tribes. . . .

that was my though

He's full of sh*t.
They used Calvin's Transmogrifier to do it.

Waiting to see the explanation for this one.

Every minute.


ByteTheBullet  (-:

Anything with 'The Gospel according to Piccolo' in the title= a test to see how many people believe everything they read on the internet.


When I get time, I WILL share my reloading experiences on getting the rifle to shoot straight.