I have been puttering away at getting Robert's conversion of a Springfield rifle operational and have it to the point where I can shoot it now. It still requires some finishing work on the lock such as beveling the edge of the lock plate.
These conversions were made on both Springfield and Enfield rifles and the conversions are similar but not interchangeable. There is a difference in the location of the tang screw hole and possibly in the presence of absence of a notch in the right side of the action for a lump on the inside of a Springfield lock. Also worth mentioning that the Springfield conversions are fussy about whose lock they will accept and presumably will only accept those from a Springfield manufactured lock from the 1853 model. Even though I have two original locks, one is from an 1851 model and the other was made by Colt and neither will fit which forced me to make my own lock. The guns are centerfire and the earliest shells may have been internal centerfire as opposed to the external primers we are used to. The shells are also quite short in order to feed into the chamber. The extractor does not appear to be very strong although perhaps I did not make the stock recess deep enough for the breach block to go down far enough. The stock is very fragile after the conversion and the recess for the dipping martini style breach, goes right to the bottom of the ramrod hole. Sideways there is only a thin fin of wood left.
I made the shells from some snider shells with splits in them and it would appear that I have to thin the walls a bit in order to load a groove diameter slug in them.
cheers mooncoon
These conversions were made on both Springfield and Enfield rifles and the conversions are similar but not interchangeable. There is a difference in the location of the tang screw hole and possibly in the presence of absence of a notch in the right side of the action for a lump on the inside of a Springfield lock. Also worth mentioning that the Springfield conversions are fussy about whose lock they will accept and presumably will only accept those from a Springfield manufactured lock from the 1853 model. Even though I have two original locks, one is from an 1851 model and the other was made by Colt and neither will fit which forced me to make my own lock. The guns are centerfire and the earliest shells may have been internal centerfire as opposed to the external primers we are used to. The shells are also quite short in order to feed into the chamber. The extractor does not appear to be very strong although perhaps I did not make the stock recess deep enough for the breach block to go down far enough. The stock is very fragile after the conversion and the recess for the dipping martini style breach, goes right to the bottom of the ramrod hole. Sideways there is only a thin fin of wood left.
I made the shells from some snider shells with splits in them and it would appear that I have to thin the walls a bit in order to load a groove diameter slug in them.
cheers mooncoon
