Convert a 303 to .410 ?

bobfortier

bobfortier

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Hi all

I got this no 1 Lee Enfield with dark and pitted bore, that shot all over the place. I made a full-wood restoration on it, I was hoping that the proper bedding would help, but no. My uncle has a 1918 he wants to give me, I hope it has a better barrel than mine.

What I'd like to do is take my uncle's 1918 barreled action and fit it into my homemade full wood set.

So now I'll have a barreled action with a bubba stock. Can it be re-chambered to fire modern .410 shell ? I guess that some barrel work is involved, since mine is not shooting good I don't care, and re-chamber.

Can this be done, and at how much $ ???
 
I certainly hope that you also plan on boring out the barrel as well as rechambering! Otherwise the pressure may get a wee bit too high. :runaway: I would doubt it is worth the work considering what you can buy a .410 musket conversion for (including the one I have for sale :D).
 
As I recall your full wood set that you made (great job by the way) was for a No4Mk1 and your talking about getting a 1918 enfield.... there is going to be a problem.

as for converting the No4 to 410 shotgun, I've never seen a No4 shotgun, they did a lot of No1 conversions to 410.
 
.303 to .410 was a common conversion in England a few years ago. Seems that a beautiful, historic .303 is evil and a .410 somehow is harmless or something.

But it can be done, has been done, to most military rifles at one time or another.

Just don't tell our Gummint about this!
 
Large numbers of L-Es were bored out to .410 (2.5" cartridge) here at one time. The bolt face required no change. It was possible to own such arms on a shotgun licence, which was less restrictive.
 
Big question: IS IT shot-out, or could there be another problem?

Remember, you learn NOTHING about what a rifle will do if you are using surplus ammo. Some of this stuff is 110 years old now, the most recent is 25 years old.... and the stuff deteriorates in storage.

Before doing anything drastic, set yourself up some handloads with a 180 Sierra bullet, seated out to match the Mark VII Ball round for length. Run them at 2250 ft/sec. Make sure the wood is bedded properly to the metal and watch The Damned Crack (at the rear end of the forestock). Remember that the Magpie Screw (Inner Band Screw) is there for adjusting your vertical zero. Try cutting back the muzzle reinforce to 1 inch (from 2 inches). Now your Smellie is bedded properly.

NOW try her out again.

If you really WANT a .410.... get a MUSKET!

And have fun, always.
 
Got to agree. a gunsmith is going to charge you more than the price of two .410 muskets to do the work. If you just want to get a good shooting rifle, (assuming the original barrel really is crap, I would look for a replacement barrel.
 
I had a couple of .410 enfeilds in the UK, and I was'nt impressed.
Too heavy and cumbersome to be a good shotgun, no accuracy with slugs to be a rifle. One was a single shot(welded mag), the other would feed a couple of shells from the mag.
I would'nt be in a hurry to get another one.
 
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