Author Topic: Converting Metallic Cartridge Barrel to Muzzle Loader  (Read 650 times)

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Offline tn_junk

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Converting Metallic Cartridge Barrel to Muzzle Loader
« on: April 12, 2009, 03:55:54 AM »
Friend and I are talking. We are both "tinkerers".
I am contemplating a .36 Caliber Muzzle Loading Squirrel Rifle, with a fast twist barrel.
Plan on shooting 140 grain cast .358 bullets. Just looking at a breech plug we have laying here,
out of a 209x50 Encore, looks like I could machine a .357 Magnum Barrel to accept the breech
plug, totally removing the .357 chamber.
Anybody done this?

alan
Common Sense Ain't Very Common

Deceased May 20, 2009.  RIP Alan we miss you.

Offline trotterlg

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Re: Converting Metallic Cartridge Barrel to Muzzle Loader
« Reply #1 on: April 12, 2009, 07:19:57 PM »
Should be a piece of cake, I've thought of doing a .32 squrrel rifle but I think it really needs a slow twist barrel to shoot round balls.   Larry
A gun is just like a parachute, if you ever really need one, nothing else will do.

Offline Rangr44

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Re: Converting Metallic Cartridge Barrel to Muzzle Loader
« Reply #2 on: April 13, 2009, 08:24:52 AM »
You don't have to worry about completely removing the metallic cartridge's chamber, since that's where the muzzle-loading powder charge will lie, anyway.

I once did the same thing to the breech end of a .45-70 Ruger #1's barrel, using a Remington 700M breechplug and a primer adaptor lower half for ignition - a sort of falling-block inline, if you will.
I used a coiling ramrod ILO a H&R collapsible ramrod and/or drilling the forend for one.

You could also easily make a side-hammer gun, by tapping the chamber and plugging it with a large-headed bolt, then drilling the sidewall ahead of the bolt for a touch hole or nipple adaptor - which is how I made my first muzzle-loader in the 60's from the 8" cutoff section of a .444 Marlin barrel.

.
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Offline tn_junk

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Re: Converting Metallic Cartridge Barrel to Muzzle Loader
« Reply #3 on: April 13, 2009, 09:41:00 AM »
Thanks for the info-
This will be a "when we get to it" project. Hopefully before Fall. Hoping to have a BP squirrel gun that will shoot accurate, with bullets cast from a .358 Dia mold, out to 100 yards.
Now I just have to find a used .357 Handi. Cheap!

alan
Common Sense Ain't Very Common

Deceased May 20, 2009.  RIP Alan we miss you.

Offline Nobade

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Re: Converting Metallic Cartridge Barrel to Muzzle Loader
« Reply #4 on: April 15, 2009, 03:06:49 PM »
If you do this, save 2 inches or so of the same barrel you made for the gun to make yourself a push through sizing die. Run the bullets through a lubrisizer to fill the lube grooves, then through your barrel section die to size and pre rifle them. If you don't, you won't be able to load them from the muzzle. You could get a mould made up to cast bore size bullets that can be loaded, but lightweight ones like you want don't bump up very well unless they're hollow based.

You also don't need a breech plug. Just use a 357 case. I normally shoot my Sharps 45-70 as a muzzleloader, just prime a case and chamber it, then load from the front. The trick is to use enough powder or a combination of powder then filler to make sure the bullet is in the bore, not the throat. I get considerably better accuracy from my rifle muzzleloaded than I do with fixed ammunition. Also remember this won't work with smokeless powder. The bullets won't bump up to seal the bore and it will lead horribly. A handi rifle would work fine for this, but I wouldn't do it with anything that didn't have an exposed hammer. No need to shoot yourself, y'know.

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