Nasty old RFI .410 pics

kjohn

kjohn

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I bought an oily (understated) old 1941 RFI .410 at Yorkton on Saturday, Feb 27. Other than having soaked up a barrel of oil and maybe been dragged behind a truck for a little ways, the old girl is matching. She was made in England in 1917.

I took it out to a friend's place to fire off a few rounds, after having measured the chamber and determined that it was chambered for 3". CLICK. Cocked it again, CLICK. Very slight mark on the primer. Hmmm.....

I took it home and took the firing pin apart. Dirty, but seemed to be on good order. Went on milsurps.com with the question, "Why?". A few minutes the answer came:

.410 rims are thinner than 303 rims. Had the same problem with my .410 SMLE. The fix is to use o rings around the base of the shell thus forcing the base onto the bolt head.
The firing pin should protrude .040 inch or 1.5mm more than that could pierce the primer.

Thanks "jona". I'll try that trick later today.

RFI410ax.jpg

RFI410bx.jpg

RFI410cx.jpg

RFI410dx.jpg
 
Asked this before with no response - does anyone know of a gunsmith who will ream these out for a 3" shell?

PS - like the o ring idea - I have an Israeli Mauser trainer doing the same thing with 22 - going to try that with a couple of 22 cartridges....
 
Could lengthen firing pin or handload .444 Marlin brass with shot and pistol primers....................
 
Lengthening the firing pin might be an option. While at the Yorkton Gun Show, I spotted these MagTec cases, presumably meant for these old pelters if they haven't been fixed for 3". Note the o-ring on the 3".

Has anyone any experience using these brass cases, i.e. crimping or???

410stuffax.jpg
 
I'm just blowing out annealed .303 brass for mine, gives me a casing about 2 and a quarter. I know that's not enough for some folks, but it works just fine.

I'm loading with Unique and a standard Winchester .410 wad. I suppose you could put shot into something like this, but I'm having too much fun with a couple of cast .375" balls. Have to rey shot some day, I guess.

Muskets are fun!

Work well for close-in shots where you need a military shotgun in a milsurp match. You can take all the targets we used to get with the Tommies, the ones that are too far for a pistol, not far enough for a carbine.
 
My friend and I went up north to his cabin at McBride Lake yesterday, and in the afternoon we went out and killed a beer can with the old Ishy. The o-rings worked like a charm! No misfires. We only fired four rounds, as the beer can likely died after the first shot.

Now for some serious "load development" with lead balls. I will have to check and see if the bore is choked or not. Does anyone else have one that they have checked? We fired Federal 3" with roll crimp, so I figure these will be good for loading a ball or two. Would a .429 ball be too big?
 
could the bore be an Ishy.410 bore. A lot of them are meant to fire the .303 brass that has been fireformed to fit the .410 bore. that could be the reason for the light pin strike. the guns are marked .410 but in reality are for .303 formed cases.
 
The .375" round ball as cast by the cheap-o LEE double-cavity mould is a tight press-fit into the plastic wad when loaded into a modded .303 case.

Original prison-guard rounds used a long wad column with a single .410" ball coned into the mouth of the casing.

No choke; these were guard-duty guns, not hunting guns.

PATIZAN is now making unfired, unloaded brass cases for blanks. Boxer-primed. They have a .303 case, about 2 3/4" long, that would be just about perfect for a 3-inch chamber in a Musket. Rim is correct thickness also.

I'm using DI-Z brass in mine, no troubles at all that are attributable to the brass. ALL troubles are attributable to ME! The Musket is just fine.

I got about a quart of motor oil out of an Arisaka once, using my friendly hot-air register and a big piece of newspaper. I followed this up with Brake-Kleen and, when all the oil was out, did a boiled-linssed-oil-and-Japan-dryer finish. I have a seriously PRETTY Arisaka. Would be a lot of work, but the same thing would work wonders on an oily old Musket.
 
but the same thing would work wonders on an oily old Musket.:eek:

Is that a subtle hint that there is an outside chance that my old musket has a bit too much oil on the stock??:p

It would probably lose a pound if I was to "drain" the oil!!:p
 
Actualy the original .303 cases were not fireformed to .410 they were just not necked. Remember the cases were necked AFTER the cordite was loaded for .303
If you are going to fireform brass, use NEW unprimed cases. Wartime stuff tends to get brittle with age.
 
John Sukey is right again.... as usual.

And my Musket is oilier than yours! So there!

Time to take my own advice, I think!

Army issued "Rangoon oil" for all purposes: cleaning, lubrication, stocks, you name it. Stuff was about like a 5W, but it sure soaked in. Nice thing is that you CAN get it out.
 
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