The Home Machinist!

[Rob_Black]

I brought this up on the old board. Name of a book was given about converting shotgun actions to rifles. Trouble is, I can't find the old thread. And no, I can't remember the name of the book. Author's name and address were given if somebody can find it.

Rob

[gamachinist]

Thanks for the info Rob.One day when I have a few hours to spare I'll go hunt it and repost it here.
Robert.

[gamachinist]

Mike I found the book Jack Sullivan refered to in his first post.It's available from Gunnerman Books.I located this with the help of some posters on a site devoted to double guns and double rifles:
http://gunshop.com/
Just follow the site to double guns and advertisers.As soon as I get a couple of pending bills paid I'll order it and file it for future reading.Of course I'll have to stay offline for a while.But then I wouldn't get a chance to meet and learn from others as much.Sort of a Catch 22!.
Robert.

[Al_Messer]

I think an O/U in 6.5 x 55 Rimmed would suit me just dandy!

[gamachinist]

One big plus of the O/U conversion would be ease of regulation(hopefully).Maybe one fine day I'll get to work on some projects of my own.If work doesn't pick up soon,it may be sooner than I am ready for!.
Robert.

[Al_Messer]

I was looking at a Drilling in a sporting goods store that when the selector button was moved to select the rifle barrel, the rear sight would pop up out of the rib. No idea how it worked but it sure was a sweet handling piece of mechanism--would come up to your shoulder and your eye would be at the right place just like it ought to be. Too many bucks for this poor boy's pocket though!!

[gamachinist]

I've never handled a drilling personally.Not to say I wouldn't like to.I've never seen one in any of the shops I used to frequent.The pop up sight sounds neat.I don't know if this was common on any of them or not.
A lot of those were brought home as war trophies from Europe.As the WW2 vets pass on,the heirs may start to sell them so they may become more available.Hopefully soon I'll be able to spend money on guns again and maybe one will come up for an affordable price.
Robert.

[JV in Germany]

The pop-up rear sight is standard on any traditional german drilling. Drillings are very common over here, particularly with older hunters, and the vast majority of them has the pop-up sight.

[Al_Messer]

Wish I could afford to have one stashed in my gun cabinet!!

[darsmark]

I had a customer years ago,brought me a NR Davis double a nephew tried to shoot the snow out of the barrel.
He wanted to make a 45-70 double out of it,without ruining the shotgun barrels. [the good 20 in. left.]
I made a pair of liners for it ,and held them in by putting setscrews in on an angle through the breech end behind the ejector.which would bite in to the barrel in the brass part of the shot shell,and not affect ejection.
I turned down the liners as small as i thought i safely could from 2 in. ahead of the chambers to the muzzles. And threaded 1/2 in of the muzzle
I made eccentric cylinders to fill the muzzle end ,threaded inside same as barrel liners.
These had a pair of small holes 180 deg apart to use a pin type spanner wrench.
I then made a new ejector,in 45-70 size .and installed a set of Brownells express style sights.
After many shots at the range,and one new made eccentric bushing with more offset,i was able to get both barrels within 1 in apart @ 50 yds
[He wanted this for a PA. brush ans thick woods rifle and wanted the low sight as close as possible,not worried about the other 2]
I then punched a small mark on the bushings,removed the barrels from the gun,and soft soldered the bushings on,turned the excess left on the muzzles,and re crowned the barrels.
The gap between the 12 ga. barrels at muzzle, was stuffed with tissue,and filled with accraglass with black dye in it.
So in use this could be used as a 12 Ga., or with an allen wrench,remove the ejector,and replace the barrel liners on index marks,exchange ejectors,and have a 45-70 double,one gun for bunnys or deer.
The owner passed on 5 yrs ago,and i wanted to buy this gun back,but the family fought over it to the tune of $1100.00 ,[more than i had to spend]Mark

[Al_Messer]

Robert, Brownells.com has the book I think to which he was referring about converting double barreled shortguns to double rifles.

[PeteH]

Darsmark's post sounds very similar to what a friend of mine did, something like 40 years ago. He had a 12-ga. hammer double with shortened barrels (24", give or take), and a gunsmith friend of ours did the conversion. The smith was very particular about testing the metal in the receiver, made sure the double-lug locking system was tight, and milled out a slot across the breech face, silver-soldered in a piece of tool steel, and re-drilled for smaller pins; he turned the original pins down to "rifle primer" size. He mounted a three-blade "express" rear sight, and a blade front sight, both on the rib.

The smith had lucked into some Martini-Henry barrels - the ones with "Henry" rifling - still packed in greasy brown paper, and those were used to make the liners.

Now, this memory is kind of faded, but as I recall it, he was able to turn the barrels to fit them into the breech end of the shotgun. He silver-soldered them in place at the breech, keeping them centered, with a little space around them, at the muzzle. He then put in some steel shims around the liners. He started with the left barrel, I think, and test-fired it, moving it around with more shims, until he got it to hit about half-an-inch left of center, and about an inch high, at 50 feet (he was working in an indoor range). Then he soldered the shims in place, and repeated the process with the right barrel, until it hit the same distance right of center, and about as high. I don't recall how he filled in the gap between the barrels and below the rib.

The gun was test-fired with substantially overcharged loads, after all this.
The owner never fired this with any kind of high-powered loads... he shot US standard "Trapdoor" loads, or else black powder. Regrettably, he sold it some years ago.

I shot the gun quite a bit, and found it to be very muzzle-heavy, not much fun to carry in the woods. The recoil was about the same as a "Trapdoor" carbine.

[Mike in Michigan]

Check out Amazon.com with search question: double rifle from shotgun
The book comes up from time to time. Usually costs a couple hundred dollars.

[theoldsarge]

[Rolland]

The book is available at http://bundukipublishing.com
you need to get the 2nd edition it has all the changes.