Snider to 24 gauge shotgun conversion?

[antiqueguy]

There is the question of what is possible, and what is practical.
Making a barrel from a piece of 4130 tubing would require a lathe and a chambering reamer. If someone is being paid to do this, the cost of the project is going to exceed the value of the gun when finished.
How many smiths would have a 24 gauge reamer? Better chance to find a smith with a 20ga reamer.
Reamers have pilots on them to guide the reamer into the bore.
24ga bore is nominally .579; 20ga is .615. Neither a 24ga nor 20ga reamer would have a pilot to fit a .625 bore.
A custom one off reamer or reamer pilot could be made.
A reamer would cost more than a beater, project grade Snider.
A 24ga chamber tapers from .685 to .649; 20ga from .698 to .661. Pilots would likely be .577 and .613 respectively, perhaps a bit smaller.
It would be much easier to install a salvaged Snider barrel - and that is assuming that the threads in the receiver weren't messed up when the pipe threads were jammed in.
Or start with a salvaged Snider barrel receiver unit.
Or thread a salvaged 20ga barrel to fit the Snider receiver.
All this is in the fun project category if you can do it yourself, but quite impractical if the smith's meter is running.

the taper in the chamber would be not as long as normal you are taking about 1/2" out of it and yes a custom reamer would be needed(never seen a 24ga reamer) but it shure would be a head turner at a trap shoot it may cost more then what the gun would be worth but if it was me doing a project like this it would never be sold anyway

another good option is get a barrel made up with a good twist rate and bore dimensions (maybe .585 insted of .595 or so) and make a good close range moose gun a bullet of .585 dia with a nice wide meplat would leave a good hole in a moose or deer

 

[LomondK]

I am wondering about the assumption that this is just a piece of common pipe. It has significant rifling in it and already has a chamber reamed. Would anyone have actually put that much effort into a hunk of pipe? Anyone with the capabilities to rifle it and ream it out would know common pipe would be a waste of effort. What are the chances this is the left over peice from someone's barrel blank?

 

[antiqueguy]

I am wondering about the assumption that this is just a piece of common pipe. It has significant rifling in it and already has a chamber reamed. Would anyone have actually put that much effort into a hunk of pipe? Anyone with the capabilities to rifle it and ream it out would know common pipe would be a waste of effort

are you sure its rifled or is that the seam

my guess is it was used for blanks the chamber may have even been drilled out

 

[tiriaq]

The taper to which I referred is the taper in the chamber, not the forcing cone.
I have a piece of that Aircraft Spruce tubing in the shop. Also have some detached Snider barrels and a couple of basket case rifles.
One detached barrel has a shootable bore, but someone cut about 1/4" off the chamber end. Easy enough to pick up the threads and cut them further up the barrel, but the chamber is now too short to accept a cartridge.
It could be used to make a muzzleloading barrel to shoot Minie bullets. Ml to breechloader to ml; full circle. Even thought about using it to make up a ml combination gun. Too many possible projects.

 

[LomondK]

The taper in the chamber is almost nonexistent, very abrupt. It is definitely rifling though I'd guess either 1:9 or 1:10. I was thinking about just getting another snider barrel but I doubt the threading would work. I am guessing the reciever was re threaded