.410 musket conversion

[mrclark303]

Perhaps I've misunderstood pocketshaver, do you mean reforming .303 brass to form .410 shot shells?

Otherwise, there's a massive difference in pressure between a .303 ball round and a .410 shot shell ... Even taking into account a .303 round bouncing down a .410 barrel with all the accuracy of throwing a sausage down the high street, as gas pushes past the bullet, the initial pressure would be 'way above' the designed, proofed and safe pressure in a paper thin .410 barrel.

Looks like a clear case of Darwinian evolution theory in action to me, great way to loose your sight and have two hooks for hands!

[bigduke6]

Link below to Buccaneer's original thread, I remember these in Guns Review and another publication when I was 17 as I was toying with one as not long got my SG certificate, (back then it was just a piece of card with basic details on and no bigger than a credit card)


https://www.milsurps.com/showthread....929#post432929

[42rocker]

Nice link. I have several well used ones that were in India. Also here in the States I've seen several boxes/cases of that ammo. Bought one case of it. So have several hundred rounds of it. I offer a free round to anyone on this or one of the other forums that I'm on that asks me for one at any gun show that I'm set up at.

Later 42rocker

[mrclark303]

I remember the ads too Geoff, interested to know if the barrel on these propose converted pieces is thicker than the smooth bored .303's?

I can remember lots of different smooth bored firearms for sale back in the day as "shot guns", from 24 inch barrel semi auto Sten mk5's (yes you did hear me right, the most bizarre looking Sten you ever did see) and Garands, Bren guns etc, I wouldn't mind betting there is still quite a few out there in peoples attics and long forgotten at the back of wardrobes.

You just know the junior hack saw came out on the Sten gun don't you .... few collectors could resist, I am sure!

These were all swept away with the 1988 firearms amendment act, they all reverted to Sec 5 and that was that.

For collectors, it was an easy way of collecting classic military rifles etc without an FAC, as Geoff said, getting a shotgun certificate was simplicity itself, individual shotguns weren't registered to the certificate and needed no secure storage either.

So in reality, no one really knows how many of these conversions were completed and for that matter, how many of those were subsequently handed in for destruction when the law changed.

[Roger Payne]

That's precisely how I started collecting military rifles; on the old UK shotgun certificate, starting when I was 17. There was no such complication as mag restriction then; if it had a smooth barrel of 24" or more & was not capable of automatic fire it was a section 2 shotgun. My first acquisition was an Enfield 1918 SMLE, & it wasn't long before I had a couple of dozen, including a Brandt 60mm mortar, a GrB 39, & other weirdies, although as things developed they all slowly went (to be replaced by others still with rifled barrels of course). Sadly more & more types of firearm have been taken from the general public & elevated to section 5 status ('banned' in simple terms) which could be relatively freely owned quite legally in the UK when I first started. Society isn't any safer but they're hardly likely to give us them back..............

Just having a nostalge!

[bigduke6]

John, Roger,

Them were the days........ I remember the Stens and Brens John, life was so simple back then and not a mobile phone in sight........ I remember the day I got my First SMLE and put it in the back of my Opel Kadet and went round my mates house to show him..... I'd bought this from a dealer who lived in the village, of course he tempted me with a lot of other stuff also all could go on the the Shot Gun ticket I was hooked from that day and was like a kid in a sweet shop looking at the stuff he had.

[newcastle]

I have a couple of these 410's and have owned several over the last 20 years or so. I shoot commercial shotshells from it no bother and with lots of practice (and the second shell held in the mouth) have managed to get a 'left and right' when skeet shooting with one.

I have found that the .410s manufactured or at least dated POST 1948 seem to be chambered for 3" shells and those from before that date are chambered for the formed 303 cases and approximate to 2 1/2" commercial shells. That is just my experience with a very limited data set of about 10 -12 items.