Turning a worthless Enfield into a .410?

hifiwasabi

hifiwasabi

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I have a cut down beater Enfield that was given to me years ago, I was wondering how complicated and expensive it would be to get a gunsmith to turn it into a beater .410? I’ve seen all of the Turkish and Brazilian single jingles, but they don’t really interest me. Thoughts?
 
If you are paying a gunsmith to do it, it probably would not be cost effective.
As a DIY project, I suppose that the .303 barrel could be converted to a breech bushing, and a salvaged .410 barrel could be installed. Or, if the salvaged .410 barrel was large enough to handle 1-14 threads, leaving a shoulder, a conventional rebarrel would be possible.
The Indian .410 muskets were made by drilling, reaming and rechambering the .303 barrels. This requires some specialized tooling.
 
I have a ishapore full stock that I was gonna start repairing. its a 410 the adaptation is really basic.......Like Really basic aside from the machining to lenghten the chamber a bit
 
Use an extended 10.5mm drill bit and drill out the barrel, all but the last 2 inches, ream the chamber 12mm( hope it cuts a touch bit) and drill back in from the muzzle that last 2" with a drill about 0.020" smaller then the one you used to drill the barrel to make a choke, ive made a few over the last few years.
 
I have the barrelled receiver from a Stevens bolt action .410. The barrel is slender - it could never be threaded 1-14. The receiver ring could be threaded, though, and act as a sleeve to thread into the receiver. Just index it so that the extractor notch would be in the correct position. Breech the barrel against the face of the internal collar, don't bother with a shoulder.
Evenguy's method sounds very interesting - although I think I would prefer to finish the bore with a 10.5mm reamer, rather than a drill.
Bubba'd Lee Enfields with usable actions are readily available, cheap. Great for all sorts of projects.
 
if the bore has any rifling left why bother. you can find an Indian .410 musket for around $500 if the chamber hasn't been reamed out already id run a .410 2 1/2 in reamer in there. the Indian muskets are made for a .303 shell that is straight and either a single ball or shot they were converted because someone got a little trigger happy in India.
 
Evanguy said:
Use an extended 10.5mm drill bit and drill out the barrel, all but the last 2 inches, ream the chamber 12mm( hope it cuts a touch bit) and drill back in from the muzzle that last 2" with a drill about 0.020" smaller then the one you used to drill the barrel to make a choke, ive made a few over the last few years.
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now that sounds like an interesting project.

I just got given a No1 that has been abused, charger bridge removed, no sights, wood chopped and it needs a repair.
 
antiqueguy said:
if the bore has any rifling left why bother. you can find an Indian .410 musket for around $500 if the chamber hasn't been reamed out already id run a .410 2 1/2 in reamer in there. the Indian muskets are made for a .303 shell that is straight and either a single ball or shot they were converted because someone got a little trigger happy in India.
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My understanding was they were converted so they couldn't be effectively used in an uprising against the British. Useful for police/prison guards, but pretty useless vs an Army with repeating rifles.
 
antiqueguy said:
if the bore has any rifling left why bother. you can find an Indian .410 musket for around $500 if the chamber hasn't been reamed out already id run a .410 2 1/2 in reamer in there. the Indian muskets are made for a .303 shell that is straight and either a single ball or shot they were converted because someone got a little trigger happy in India.
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The Indian guns aren't as common as they once were, particularly in the original musket caliber. A lot were reamed for .410, to make them more saleable at the time. One that hasn't been altered perhaps should be left as is.
 
tiriaq said:
The Indian guns aren't as common as they once were, particularly in the original musket caliber. A lot were reamed for .410, to make them more saleable at the time. One that hasn't been altered perhaps should be left as is.
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maybe they should and brass could always be made from .303 . I was reading up a while back apparently the fins also did something similar with mosins making shotguns out of them for the commercial market kind of like those Mauser shotguns but they used a longer case with the same rim as the mosin.

a project like this is great if you could do it your self but other than that a sporter is still able to put meat on the table. I can respect an old sporter from back in the day because someone bought something cheaper than a new sporting rifle so they could feed their family I just bought a snider that has the full length barrel and could be restored but I like it the way it is.
 
I have the remains of a Mosin Nagant based .410 sporter. Single shot, restocked. These conversions were made using Tabatiere, Gras, Rolling Block, '71 Mauser, '98 Mauser rifles. Probably others. There was a market for inexpensive shotguns, and these obsolete rifles were available really cheap.
 
tiriaq said:
I have the remains of a Mosin Nagant based .410 sporter. Single shot, restocked. These conversions were made using Tabatiere, Gras, Rolling Block, '71 Mauser, '98 Mauser rifles. Probably others. There was a market for inexpensive shotguns, and these obsolete rifles were available really cheap.
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I can trip over the tabatiere/Zulu shotguns as well as the Mausers last gun show someone was offing to sell me a 98 Mauser shotgun(ghia) for $75 as well as a Zulu for cheap should have grabbed them there was also a 20ga rolling block I should have grabbed. I like these odd balls and may start collecting them.
 
tiriaq said:
I have the barrelled receiver from a Stevens bolt action .410. The barrel is slender - it could never be threaded 1-14. The receiver ring could be threaded, though, and act as a sleeve to thread into the receiver. Just index it so that the extractor notch would be in the correct position. Breech the barrel against the face of the internal collar, don't bother with a shoulder.
Evenguy's method sounds very interesting - although I think I would prefer to finish the bore with a 10.5mm reamer, rather than a drill.
Bubba'd Lee Enfields with usable actions are readily available, cheap. Great for all sorts of projects.
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I have done it with a 10.5 reamer, 10mm reamer and a 12.12mm reamer, that worked real well, that was a nice finished product.

I just posted the quick and dirty diy at home way that i did on the first one. ( although i did use a lathe opposed to a hand drill. Although with the 8mm bore in the barrel id bet a hand drill could do it pretty well. use a piece of 3/8" steel to extend the drill bit.(i used 5/16 cold roll silver soldered into the end of the drilled(endmilled) out drillbit))
 
Every so often I have the urge to buy a beat-up Enfield, to build one of these

prototypes1.jpg
 
Different caliber rifle, pistol, shotgun barrels. Lee Enfields are relatively easy to work on, great for projects. Perhaps the trickiest part is if a functional magazine system is desired.
 
hifiwasabi said:
Drilling and reaming is a neat idea, but it's already cut down to 19". I want to run commercial loads; I'm not set up to load shot shells
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with .303 brass all you have to do is fire form it annealing it first use a powder like H110 or 2400 paper on top of the powder charge and then fill the rest of the case with cream of wheat and cap it off with some wax.

you don't need a shot shell press to load them find some data using a straight wall hull(Cheddite) knock out the old primer with a punch that fit in the flash hole reprime throw you charge of powder put in your wads(.44 cal card wads work well) put in your charge of shot put a thin over shot card on top and glue it in place.

I had 15 or so .303 brass that I converted for my old Mossberg bolt action .410 they will last a lot longer than .410 plastic hulls .444 marlin brass can be used as well.
 
tiriaq said:
The Indian guns aren't as common as they once were, particularly in the original musket caliber. A lot were reamed for .410, to make them more saleable at the time. One that hasn't been altered perhaps should be left as is.
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They're getting pricey as well.
 
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