doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Martini BSA 12/15 Target Rifle .222 Limey (our .22

Well, Westerner never called me a schmuck, or accused me of rigging bids.

Brent you are sure right about that.At least Joe knew what he was talking about. He just done it to stir the conversion up.And not because he was just being a ????. Whitey

Ooopsie- my bad- I thought you were just trying to "jerk my chain"- so to speak-- Trying to "help Me" here on the old BBS run by Davey-Boy-- I am sorry, I didn't get that message--That might be a "first"-- most folks here just sorta "jump into my &^%$ and let 'er rip- even when I reply to questions about welding- my stock in trade. Truth be told, there are about a handful of guys here to whom I actually psay attention when they either post or reply to a post-- they are: Jerry Linden, Raimey Ellenberg and JBR from N. Dakota, and Jim the Italian guy- a true Paisano--the rest of you, not so much. I'd like to know more about E-Bay, but as I refuse to use plastic money or Pay Pal, it's really a moot point, is it not? You have to have a Pay Pal account to buy the stuff listed there, and to have a Pay Pal account, I believe you must have a credit card- sort of an Euclidian theorm, in reverse, wouldn't you say? You know- If A is equal to B, and B is equal to C, then, ergo, A is also equal to C-but I digress-- Thanks for the possible kind thoughts, and if you ever need any technical advice about welding, I shall be most pleased to assist you in that realm. RWTF

Oh shoot- I'm busted!!

I had a Model 12 takedown in 22LR. I had a spare 22 Mag barrel fitted to it and using three different gunsmiths, it would not extract the empties. John Taylor in Washington state claims that the problem is the long straight case.

When you say Model 12- to a long in the tooth Winchester guy- so I am guessing you mean the Remington Model 12 .22LR pumpgun- I have mounted the scope and shot this BSA- wow- real sweet shooting rifle-- wish .22LR ammo wasn't so dear-

Isn't the Model 12 action a little short for .22WRM? Even the ones originally made for the .22WRF/"Remington Special"? Getting all the geometry right on a complex feeding gun like that is darn tricky--I can see why the conversion would have problems.

Somehow this went from 12/15 martini to 12 Remington pump. Martini also had a mod 12.
I agree with Fox. Cash has always worked best for me. I would put serious thought into turning the 12/15 into a hornet get a mold Lyman 225438 and the stuff that goes with it. and you wont have to worry wether you will run out of 22s to shoot.

Getting back to the original question, I have a BSA Martini Model 15 that was converted to .22 Hornet using the original .22 Long Rifle barrel prior to my acquiring it. It's the less common saw-handled stock, but is otherwise quite similar to RWTF's Model 12/15, except that the rear sight is actually mounted on a vertical dovetail at the rear of the action rather than separately on the tang.

The firing pin needed to be re-bushed, which was done by David Kaiser. Once that was done, I discovered it is a quite pleasant and more than satisfactorily accurate rifle. I have no idea how long the rifling in barrel will last with the higher temperatures and pressures of the Hornet compared to the Long Rifle, but I doubt I'll shoot it out in my lifetime.

The .222 requires a rimless extractor (Bob Snapp made them and may still, for all I know) or procurement of a batch of .222R cases.

As nearly as I can tell from 20 years of small frame Martini shooting, the BSA rimfires make quite satisfactory rimfires as long as the firing pin is bushed. Since you have to bush the Cadet firing pins as well for any of the higher pressure cartridges, starting with a rimfire is not really all that inconvenient. I've owned small frame Martini centerfires in .20-20 KCF (think .20 Mashburn Bee), .20 Tactical, .22 Hornet, .218 Bee, .218 Mashburn Bee, .219 Zipper, .222 Rimmed, .225 Winchester (which was loaded down a bit in view of the case diameter), .256 Winchester, .310 Cadet, and .357 Magnum, and I've probably left one or two out. I have an action set aside that will be a .30-30 or a 7x30 Waters if I ever get the funds and the ambition together simultaneously. They are fun little guns and deserve more respect than they get.

Are 22 R/F barrels really any different from centre fire barrels?
I have asked various people about this and most seem to think they are for some reason or other without having any facts to support this.