doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com .310 Cadet sporting use?

Once upon a time I had a Savage 23-D in .22 Hornet. The pre-war W.J. Jeffrey catalogue used to offer them stating that for a few Pounds they could refine the woodwork to make an more attractive rifle,

I think mine must have been one of those they reworked as the stock had been slimmed down and chequered at hand and forend with a horn tip.The stamped trigger guard had been replaced with an engraved English guard and there was a grip cap.

What puzzled me (it was clearly the original stock and butt plate) was the highly figured wood. Then when I looked at the heel where the finish had worn off I realised that the grain figure had been painted in.

The .22 Hornet, .32/20 and .310 Cadet all seem “to punch above their weight”. No doubt the combination of accurate rifles and mild recoil leading to good bullet placement.

In this article, he ended with the fact that his dream Martini would be a 300 Sherwood with serious open sights for long range shooting, but the barrel/chamber would be hard to source. He stated, however, that he did want to build one more ultimate Martini and his intent at the time was to make it a .298 since the bullet was for a barrel he could buy and the case was for all practical purposes a 300 Sherwood. That way it would be a custom rifle and not a semi-wildcat. The loads and ballistics he presented did seem to be a step up from the rest of these rounds.

AGS,
From memory, I think the 300 Sherwood takes a .300" bullet, I wonder if he considered a barrel from a 7.35x 52 Carcano rifle.
Mike

I gathered his intent was to build a high end full custom rigfle with a lengthy barrel for long range shooting. I doubt a used barrel fell within his project ideas.

I have no doubt that Jeffrey's could improve on the handling and looks of most Savage centerfire bolt actions of the mid-20th century! Especially the 3-- series from the 322 to the 340, which are notably clunky looking. But couldn't BSA or somebody else come up with a medium power bolt repeater of "English Make"? I suspect your Jeffrey's 23 Hornet may be a very rare bird!

I have no doubt that Jeffrey's could improve on the handling and looks of most Savage centerfire bolt actions of the mid-20th century! Especially the 3-- series from the 322 to the 340, which are notably clunky looking. But couldn't BSA or somebody else come up with a medium power bolt repeater of "English Make"? I suspect your Jeffrey's 23 Hornet may be a very rare bird!

Mike,

They did indeed, and introduced In about 1951 the BSA Hunter, a controlled feed short Mauser type action with integral scope mounts.

Prior to that Parker-Hale built Hornet rifles, some with a flush mounted scope just in front of the action, as well as ParkerRifling other rifles to Hornet using a 1/2” instead of the usual 3/8” O D tube.

The reason I no longer have the 23-D is that I felt I didn’t need 2 Hornets, and kept my Hunter instead. The one I should have hung on to was a cased ParkerRifled Holland and Holland hammerless Rook Rifle.

AGS,
I guess whether a used barrel fit into his "project ideas" would depend on whether he wanted a .300 Sherwood or not.
Mike

I'll try and look up the article and post the source. I believe his final decision was made because he could use a more common barrel and components and still use an actual period cartridge which is essentially the functional equivalent of the Sherwood, which was the best in class of these cartridges as far as performance.