.310 Cadet Rifle info please

[Bwana John]

Hi,
At the local funshow today I found a .310 Cadet Rifle, BSA, Australian.
Comes with ammo, cases, and bullets .
The more i think about it, the more I am thinking about going back and buying it tommorow.
Anything to look for good or bad with these rifles?

And while I know its not the full sized thing but I find myself singing "Men of Harlech", and hearing the commands, "At one hundred yards, volley fire, front rank fire, rear rank fire...."

 

[Gordon]

Buy it if nice ! It should shoot 32-20 as is, but it should have a 32-20 chamber reamer run in to be perfect. One can rechamber to .32 Winchester Special and make the extractor arc bigger, that about as big a rim as the Cadet Action will handle without major modication. I had an almost stock configuration Cadet in .32 Special for a couple yeas as my deer and hog rifle in remote Big Sur. It made a fine walking stich gun in the mountains Now I just have lefy my .22 K hornet amd .17 Ackley Varmint Cadet rifle, that are wonderful

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

Bully, here here!

 

[Dave DeLaurant]

Buy the thing! These were once easy and cheap to buy, but nice examples have gotten pricey. Originals are an especially nice find in decent condition now, since many were reworked into sporters and target rifles. Even the bare actions sell dearly these days.

The .310 Greener uses an outside lubed bullet (like a .22 LR), so anticipate a few reloading challenges ahead. This guy's videos do a pretty good job explaining the reloading process with the original chambering:





There is some variation between rifles, since they were manufactured by Greener, Francotte and (mostly) BSA, but parts interchangeability doesn't seem bad. Numrich/Gun Parts has a number of parts available right now, but the Cadet action is a pretty durable beast.

I own a pre-1900 Francotte action that I imported directly from Australia in 2002. I'm currently working it into shooting form with a new barrel and wood. More information on that to follow once I've got it back into one piece.

Before I got my Cadet I had also bought a MkII military Martini action from the same Aussie exporter -- it came with a usable buttstock, which was a nice surprise. It had been converted to .303, so I had a new barrel in .44 Magnum fabricated and installed (same rim dimensions for both cartridges) and I made a new forend.

 

[Hookeye]

LGS got one about a week ago.
It sold quick too.
Not great shape, but not too bad either.
Dunno what they put on it.

Hadn't seen one for yrs, then one pops up local, and on forum.
Yeeesh.

 

[Bwana John]

Still there today so I picked it up

$475 with 100 loaded Kynoch rounds, 80 new Bertram brass, 100 lead Kynoch bullets, original sling.

Unaltered. Metal- vg, wood- g+, bore- ex., crown- vg


Wife says, "Whats that for?"...and I say, Honey, the days of the Roo's getting through the Dingo Fence and into your vegetable garden are over!

( When asked the same question about a 416 Rigby... " Honey, the days of Jumbo....." )

 

[.455_Hunter]

Great find!

It hails from the era when Australia was not headed down the path of full-press emasculation of it's population.

 

[Snidely70431]

Wonderful little rifles. Over the years I had several. An original .310, one rebored to .357 Magnum, one rechambered to .32 Winchester Special (essentially a 30-30 with a larger bullet), which was one of the worst recoiling rifles I've ever owned.

 

[Dave DeLaurant]

Still there today so I picked it up

$475 with 100 loaded Kynoch rounds, 80 new Bertram brass, 100 lead Kynoch bullets, original sling.

Unaltered. Metal- vg, wood- g+, bore- ex., crown- vg


Wife says, "Whats that for?"...and I say, Honey, the days of the Roo's getting through the Dingo Fence and into your vegetable garden are over!

( When asked the same question about a 416 Rigby... " Honey, the days of Jumbo....." )

Well done -- Gunbroker has Cadets in that condition starting at around $600. Hard to imagine these once sold for around $10 in the late '50s!

 

[Speedo66]

They were $11, all in a barrel, when I was a kid in Manhattan.

Have fun with it!

 

[natman]

I used to reload 310 many years ago. The bores run about .318 or so, so finding a bullet that fits is a challenge. I had good results with a Hornady .314 hollow base wadcutter. The soft lead base appeared to expand enough to get a good grip; at least they were reasonably accurate. Alas, Hornady has since discontinued this bullet, but Lapua and Speer make a similar one.

You can make 310 cases from 32-20 cases, but in my rifle they would NOT chamber as is. It was necessary to thin the FRONT of the rim a bit.

 

[Gordon]

with gun unloaded !!!!!!! makes a wonderful hiking aid !! An untouched one like that is a treasure! Get loading dies for the original cartridge and like the man says The .32 S&W Long 98 grain HBWC will work well and be very deadly at trans sonic velocities to 100 yards on small game. OR get a Lee C324-175-1R, and size it down a little and use an appropriate charge of sy Unique to get sub sonic whackers with the 170 grain bullet. ENJOY!

 

[Bwana John]

It is the best carrying thunder stick I have ever handled.
Light, well balanced, very comfortable to hold at the balance point.

It might be a great rifle for introducing new shooters, no recoil, low report, cartridge is not too fumbly small, action is easy to understand.

Sights are nice (but small) and seem well regulated. Very nice trigger but lots of overtravel.

Barrel and receiver # match, bolt/trigger group/lever # match
Trigger group is TIGHT in the receiver with "Mario" marks on the front of the trigger guard where the trigger group was beat into the receiver (That famous Italian gunsmith really gets around!)

The factory Kynoch ammo is covered with a hard wax substance that needs to be totally removed before the round will chamber. Kynotch ammo is Berdan primed.

#82023 RCBS mold is on order.

I am excited about reloading for the first time in quite awhile.