Here are two of my 12 bore rifles

the German/Swiss made wide use of the Martini action in various versions and adaptations for schuetzen as well as for hunting rifles.   In the 1920's & 30's as the older traditional Schuetzen matches were losing favor  they were used pretty much as the action of choice for the International Free Rifle high power competition in some pretty serious cartridges such as the 30-06 (Swiss Hammereli/Martini actions imported and rebarrelled in '06 for our US military teams when the found that the triggers and lock-times of their Springfields were not competitive) as well as hot target loads in the 7.5x55mm Swiss military cartridge.

While they are not as amenable to the American style of breech seating for Schuetzen matches the faster lock time of the striker action might balance that out for offhand shooters, assuming accurate loads and a well fitted offhand-style stock.      

Since as we are aging (and a collective group) and more shooters are concentration on the bench-rest portion of our matches the breech seating friendly "Classic american" single shot actions predominate.

In the rimfire matches (at least at EG), it appears to me that the lower entry price level of the various ex-British imported BSA-style Martinis has made them more popular, with new shooters in particular.  And with 22rf ammo the ammo selection may well outweigh the action type safari as accuracy goes.

Referring to the BSA types I assume John?  if so, I agree.  however form follows function (and profits) and the BSA Martinis were all about function--accurate shooting.  For elegance in Brit rifles you have to look at the be-spoke custom arms.   The German/Swiss-martinis can be elegant and ornate or functional

I just picked up three original Cadets with what look to be unfired condition barrels, one of them is a rare CMF Tasmania issue with a serial no in the 2600 range. Need to drop the actions out to look at breech faces to see what evidence of useage. Have been using these lovely little rifles since buyung my first one in 1958 for the equivilant of A$5.oo. Apart from needing hob-nailed boots to jump on original trigger  set up they are easy and nice to use. Do yourself a favour and get one (orr more) good shooting.

Aussie Hunter,
I am sure I am ignorant of Australian gun laws so please educate me. What are the laws governing gun ownership(in a nutshell please). You stated you had many in your "vault". I guess in the states we call them gun safes. By the way my neighbors wife is from Sydney and you could not find a nicer person to be around. Thanks

JMH

40_Rod wrote on Oct 24^th, 2016 at 9:50am:


I agree with you. That's the one thing that turns me off about the looks.  Come to think of it, I've never seen another type of lever on a Martini. But, if you change the lever then you would need to change the butt stock or fill in the lever grove and that would look ugly.   
Guess we can blame Al Freeland for not improving the lever, since he worked so close with BSA in developing the International rifles. A very minor fault at most.

The lever on the BSA INT is truly ugly but, have you ever looked at the lever on a De haas  Miller. Ledball

Martini's, love them in all their variants. My favorites are the customs built on the Cadet actions. Here's a 219 Donaldson Wasp I just put in the classifieds here. 

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