Has anyone converted a swiss Vetterli to centerfire?

I have converted two Vetterli bolts to center fire following information obtained from Swissrifles.com. Excellent article and the finished product, if you are careful works very well. If you want to shoot these interesting old rimfires the effort is certainly worth it. What is expensive for some folks is the puchase of the dies ( 10.4 x38R case are made from reformed Winchester .348 brass ) which can run from about $101 USD for CH4D dies to about $230 for RCBS ( custom dies ). The bullet is about 309-310 grains and can be had as a .44 Magnum bullet number from Lee. The trick here is that if you wish to use the rifle as a magazine loader the cartridge has to be just the right length in order to feed properly. MY rilfe, using initially cobbled together brass and bullets and fired as a single shot actually shot very well using black powder giving me 3 inch groups at 100 yards from a rest which is excellent for me. There is smokeless loading data available for these old Swiss rifles and some have been used with success at the military bolt action competition at Camp Perry. My new CH4D dies just arrrived and I now have a proper mold to make the right size bullets so I am looking forward to producing even better, consistent ammunition. email me at; turner3003@sbcglobal.net if you want to chat about this interesting old tube feeder. Best regards, Joe
 
NO, its not a "very big job" If I can do it, anyone can. You do need access to a lathe and silver soldering equipment. There are two methods, I used the one by Bob Kull.
Go to www.swissrifles.com/vetterli Scroll down to the bottom.
Good website on the history as well. Brass available from www.buffaloarms.com
It is sure as hell worth the effort if you want to shoot the bloody thing!
The only observable change to the rifle is the hole for the firing pin in the face of the bolt. Mould is same as for the Italian version.
 
Darn it Joe, Ya beat me to it!!!!! I was busy trying to find the stuff I printed instead of doing a web search. LOL. Used an original round to set the length of the centrefire one.
 
wannabe said:
I've found a nice website....just wondered if anyone here has tried.....
Click to expand...

Yes.... two of them ........ :D

Was shooting one of them last month out to 300 meters.

However, as you know, you have to REGISTER them after you do that .... ;)

Regards,
Badger
 
It's easy to convert, not difficult to load for and a blast to shoot. I have done three bolts: two by modifying the firing pin by adding an extension; and the other by using a RCBS decapping pin. My gunsmith charged $5 to drill the holes, and an extra $25 for the two that required modifying the firing pin.

Here's an interesting question - if you have several guns with rimfire bolts and you convert an extra bolt you have to centrefire, which guns need to be registered? The ones you intend to shoot with the centrefire bolt? All of them by virtue of possessing the bolt which gives you the ability to shoot them? If you then sell one or more of the guns with their rimfire bolt, do they get deregistered? And so on.... I sure won't be asking the CFC.
 
Did mine with soldered pin. Shoot it often and enjoy it much. For a complete setup to reload .41 Swiss check out the "Swiss kit" offered by Coyote at ...
www.oldyoti.com/moulds.htm
Coyote is #1.
By the way, I spent weeks with the CFC trying to register mine. Had it verified with a fine chap who supplied exact and correct information to the CFC. Then it was a steady several weeks and many many hours of time to many people at the CFC to try to register it. Initially it came up as restricted??? Then tech support (sounded like at least 3 of them arguing) couldn't figure why their computers kept screwing it up. Then was told it needed a new caliber description. The verifier supplied "41 Swiss Centerfire" but this wasn't good enought. They wanted to know how I could make such a beast and told me that they wanted to call it a "348 Winchester .41 wildcat improved"...WTF! Finally convinced them it was not as such and they settled finally on "41 Swiss CF" as the chambering. Holy rats ####### batman... I swear no one there has ever handled a gun let alone has any indepth knowledge. That was many months ago and have not seen any registration yet. Hopefully it will get flushed down the crapper with the rest of the registry when the Consevatives win.;)
Cheers
Jaguar
 
There is a factory CF version of the 41 Swiss which was made in Switzerland and should be on the vaunted $2 billion system.
 
Just to be clear here.....I plan to have the rifle permanantly altered to single shot only prior to a centerfire conversion....that way it will be a prescribed antique still....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom