Australian Cadet Rifle

[Bricari]

Very nice. I have a WA issued cadet action, which I have been attempting to restore for a number of years, and you must have been there at the right time to get a WA marked butt.

The 32.20 stamp may be to get around the restrictions on military type weapons during/after WWII. The 310 was a military round and were supposed to be handed in, so by being stamped 32.20 they were not a military rifle anymore.

Information

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[Curator]

I paid CN$12 for mine in 1958 at Simpson-Sears in Guelph, Ontario,. It came with 200 rounds of .310 Cadet Mil-surp FMJ ammo that today would be worth way more than the rifle. I gave mine to my cousin who moved to San Francisco, California in the late 60's. His "bitter-half" made him get rid of the "evil gun" that occupied their happy home (?) so he sent it back to me about 12 years ago (Thank you, Larry!) BuffaloArms cases and CBE Mould blocks and I am in the .310 Cadet reloading groove. Cousin drilled and tapped for P/MH #9 peep sight--what could be better? Squirrels and Raccoons fear me. Too bad there are no woodchucks in SW Florida.

[butlersrangers]

IIRC - In 1958, the CN Dollar was worth about $1.07 U.S.

I remember U.S. Gun Magazine advertisements for the "Commonwealth of Australia" - Martini cadet rifles in the 1960s. $12.00 (USD) for unaltered riles in .310 Cadet, sounds familiar. The importers 'Altered Rifles', to .32-20 and .357 Magnum, and priced these a few dollars higher.

[browningautorifle]

Nice looking little rifle, 32-20 would be a skookum rifle to shoot.

[Aragorn243]

I have shot it, it is a lot of fun. I figured I'd take it squirrel hunting and actually did once but the lack of a safety is rather un-nerving to me and dropping a shell in and closing the action told the squirrels where I was and they disappeared pretty quick. If I took it up "home" where the squirrels aren't shot at constantly, I might get a few with it but they are too alert here.

[browningautorifle]

I understand about the safety issue, if you're alone though and carry it at the trail you won't tap one off accidentally.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Commercial .32-20 could just be a little "loose" in a re-chambered original .310 "Cadet" barrel.

The .310 figure in the Cadet cartridge refers to the nominal BORE size, in a similar fashion to ".303 and, of course, ".30" Carbine / -06 / Army /Krag.

Thus, .312 bullets meant for the ".32"-20 will be barely engaging the rifling.

Original .310 ammo uses a "heeled" bullet that looks like a scaled-up .22RF bullet, with the major diameter of the bullet being much the same diameter as the brass case holding it.

".32" cartridges seem to be mostly derived from older designs that used these soft, lead, heeled bullets. In their modernized form, they appear to have "shrunk". See also ".44" cartridges like the classic .44-40. These use .429" jacketed projectiles, as does the .44 Special and its MUCH later offspring, the .44 Magnum. Ditto the ".38" Special and its direct descendant, the .357 Magnum, both using .357" (oddly enough) bullets.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

The long-defunct "Riverbrand" company here in Oz made plain "lead" and jacketed soft-point bullets for these.

I don't have any of the "lead" ones here at the moment, but I do have two 100-round packets of the jacketed jobs.

The packet says, (VERY faintly): "100gn", which is about right and they measure out at 0.3155" - 0.3160" (ish) with the bulk being clustered towards 0.3155".

Not made since about the late 1960s, it seems.

If I had a Cadet in .310, I wouldn't be firing these; preferring to stick with "proper" bullets.

A couple of companies here have made heeled bullets for the .310, including one that finished them in a black, "polymer" coating.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

And then there are the '92 Winchesters that have been rebarreled to run the .310 Cartridge.

Post WW2, there were still a lot of '92s in use, but "proper" ammo and components were scarce and expensive.

Thus, some enterprising folk worked out that there were reasonable quantities of .310 Cadet barrels floating around, many of them "new, in wrapper". These "mint' barrels were still being traded around collector circles in the early 1990s.

Conveniently there was a fair supply of .310 ammo around as well. Delete old, rotted-out .32-20 barrel, insert suitably machined .310 barrel.

Lithgow even did an unknown number of SMLE conversions, complete with a box magazine, in .310. These were along similar lines to their much more famous .22 Hornet conversions. There was a single-shot .410 shotgun on this action as well.

[Aragorn243]

The US doesn't have a restriction on military rounds and I'm pretty sure the conversion happened here because of the shortage of 310 ammo.