Help me with my Martini Cadet please.
Hi everyone, a new member from Aus. I realise this is a mostly Canadian site but you never your luck. I am hoping that some members out there may be able to assist me with finding out something about my rifle.
I have been fortunate enough to acquire a lovely little customized Martini Cadet.
http://i1255.photobucket.com/albums/...artini006b.jpg
Now I would like to learn as much as I can about its history. The gentleman I purchased it from in Queensland acquired it in the early 1990s from a gunshop in Fortitude Valley. It was sold to them as part of a deceased estate with a lot of other rifles. A gunsmith interested in cadet modifications suggested that it was from the 60s or 70s when there was a lot of experimentation by benchrest shooters with cadets and 222s, but didn’t know the builder.
I have been advised by another shooter that it was probably built/customized by Bill Marden Snr. from Sydney. The shooter once owned a similar rifle but in a different caliber. He believes the timber is French walnut and may have been modeled by Earhardt Mersch.
I vaguely remember seeing something similar in an old shooters magazine of some nature. Unfortunately I have not kept my old copies.
Does anyone know anything about it, that they would be willing to pass on? Has anyone seen it in a magazine that they could direct me to?
I would love to attach the providence to this rifle when I hand it on to my kids.
Thanks,
