Ishapore Enfield .410 **looking for experiences/photos**

[bearhunter]

Mine chambers and shoots 44 mag reasonably well. I haven't tried 45Colt

It's a novelty, used to fill a gap in collectibles. It has the short chamber but the short cartridges are available.


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[woodchopper]

I never really tried to find one for the collection, but now that I have a Ishy 2A I guess the shot gun is the only one I don't have an example of.

 

[.22LRGUY]

I never really tried to find one for the collection, but now that I have a Ishy 2A I guess the shot gun is the only one I don't have an example of.

Find me an affordable one first...then the next one is yours.

I've never owned an Enfield anything...but think one of these would be fun, and an interesting conversation starter.

 

[Moodie]

I used to own one reamed out to accept modern 3” rounds. Iirc, Remington brass rims were mostly ok, while Winchester were too thin, resulting in excessive headspace and consistent light primer strikes.

I currently own one with the original chamber. It’s a 1917 BSA, converted in India in 1935. Like most, it’s all matching receiver, barrel, bolt, nose cap, and forend, with renumbered rear sight.

I make my own ammo, but have fired only about 20 rounds. I start with once fired .303 brass and anneal it. Then use a series of ever larger ball punches to expand the neck. The shoulder expands as well and forms the crimp the .410” lead ball will rest on. Next I trim to 2.12” overall length. For powder I’ve tried only Herco, experimenting with 12 grains so far. Then, like the original, I put in an overshot card, a 3/8” felt wad lubricated with bees wax and Vaseline mixture, nitro card, another felt wad, and finally another overshot card. Then place the .410” lead ball in the cup, and crimp into place. It’s not perfect as tools are improvised. But it’s fun and reasonably accurate.

 

[.22LRGUY]

I used to own one reamed out to accept modern 3” rounds. Iirc, Remington brass rims were mostly ok, while Winchester were too thin, resulting in excessive headspace and consistent light primer strikes.

I currently own one with the original chamber. It’s a 1917 BSA, converted in India in 1935. Like most, it’s all matching receiver, barrel, bolt, nose cap, and forend, with renumbered rear sight.

I make my own ammo, but have fired only about 20 rounds. I start with once fired .303 brass and anneal it. Then use a series of ever larger ball punches to expand the neck. The shoulder expands as well and forms the crimp the .410” lead ball will rest on. Next I trim to 2.12” overall length. For powder I’ve tried only Herco, experimenting with 12 grains so far. Then, like the original, I put in a nitro card, a 3/8” felt wad lubricated with bees wax and Vaseline mixture, fiber board, another felt wad, and finally another nitro card. Then place the .410” lead ball in the cup, and crimp into place. It’s not perfect as tools are improvised. But it’s fun and reasonably accurate.

Very nice! Thanks for posting, that rifle is a beauty! I forget most of what I've read about these guns, were they ever "reamed out" for modern 410 loads by military armorers, or, have private owners (ever since) turn to gunsmiths for this?

 

[Moodie]

They were mostly reamed to accept modern .410 ammo by the milsurps importers who bought them in bulk from India. Though I have no doubt bubba and individual gunsmiths have done some as well. The problem with the re-chambered ones is the headspace though. 303 British and the 410 ammo based off it have a .064” rim thickness, while modern 410 ammo has a rim thickness something like .053”. When these were reamed the importers didn’t replace the bolt heads with extra long ones. So quite often you get light primer strikes and no bang. I countered that with a small dental elastic just above the rim.

I think the non-reamed ones are more collectible and more valuable. Even with the absence of ammo. The .410” rounds I make are very labour intensive. But fun for occasional use.