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Sometimes, you have to make the ammunition before you can shoot an old gun. This is a Martini Rook Rifle that was made in Scotland, and it's chambered for the 300 Rook Centerfire Cartridge, sometimes called the ".30 Rook."
The English Rook is a member of the crow family, and a Rook Rifle is really just a small game gun.
The cartridges were originally loaded with ten grains of black powder with an 80-grain bullet. This rifle's action is derived from the standard .310 Cadet rifle action, but one of the main differences is that the cocking indicator is on the side of the rook rifle rather than on top as on the standard Cadet model.
The Cadet rifles are originally chambered in .310 Cadet, which used 120-grain bullet over 12 grains of black powder. The cadet rifles are scaled-down versions of the large frame military Martini Henrys, which were chambered for .577/450. The large frame actions were also used for sporting rifles. You can see the difference in size between the Cadet model and the military model and quite a contrast in the size of the ammunition.
300 Rook ammunition is long obsolete, so the only way to shoot this gun is to load for it. Brass is still being made but I'll have to make my own bullets. This mold cast an 80-grain bullet that's 0.3000" in diameter.
I'm using a 20 to 1 alloy: 20 parts of lead, one part of tin. The mold is slid in on the rails, and raising the handle on the casting furnace allows the molten lead to flow out and fill the mold.
It takes only a few seconds for the lead to harden, then the mallet is used to knock over the sprue plate, which separates the sprue from the base of the bullet. Bullets from a cold mold are typically wrinkled, so the first few go right back into the pot.
The next step is to lubricate the bullets. The thin film of lubricant reduces friction as the bullet travels down the barrel and minimizes leading. A lubricator sizer is a correct tool for this job, but a lube and size die of the right diameter isn't available so I modified a smaller diameter die by annealing, then reaming it out to three hundred-thousandths of an inch.
I wipe off the bottom of each bullet to remove excess lube. Now, I need to prep the cases. The first step is to bell the case mouths. The expander plug puts a tiny flare into the case mouth and allows the bullet to start easily without damage to the case or the bullet.
Next, I need to prime each case using a small rifle primer. I use a hand priming tool for this. Shaking the tray orients the primers anvil-side-up,
then I seat the primer into each case, making sure it's just below flush.
With the cases primed, they're ready for powder. The original cases were loaded with black powder, but I prefer to use smokeless. Since no published load data exists, I'm using a light charge of Unique, as this works well in my experience.
Small charges are easily dipped, and I have an antique dipper that just happens to throw the desired amount of powder.
It's extremely important to pay attention and to put only one charge in each case. Now that each case has powder, I use a seeding die to push the bullet into the neck of the case.
The bullets should be seated to the crimp groove. I'm using an original round to adjust the die to seat the bullet to the correct depth. If the bullet isn't deep enough in the case, I turn the seating stem in slightly. This is a single-shot rifle, so I'm leaving the cases uncrimped, as this is generally thought to give the best accuracy, but I will remove the slight bell at the case mouth.
Now that I've got a supply of ammo, I document my load data and head to the range. Shooting old guns is a lot of fun, especially when you've made the ammo yourself.
--Larry Potterfield
