Converting Pardus (Turkish Folder) 12 ga. to 357 Mag

[KLR]

Jedman, The Pardus has a steel frame and seems to have a tight lockup. You raise some good points, and I'll have to think about reaming it to to 357 Max. Maybe it would be a good idea to just ream it deep enough to chamber 357 Magnum. How heavy of bullets did you shoot out of the 357 barrels you used? I'm wondering about the twist rate and how heavy I can go.

Gewehr-Guy - I'd like to be able to use open or peep sights, but my vision just isn't good enough. It would certainly be lighter and handier without a scope.

[Jedman]

Sounds like the reciever is fine, the GBO max reamer has a generous leade before the bullet touches the rifling so even if you just go deep enough for using 357 mag brass you will be able to load 200 gr. bullets to a OAL well over 1.6". I forget what the twist is in the Tiberwolf barrel but I shoot 200 gr. LBT FNGC bullets with good accuracy, plus 180, 158, 125's.
I'm a older guy and can only see iron sights well enough for plinking in bright light. All of my guns I use to hunt with have scopes or red dot sights.

Jedman

[KLR]

Yesterday I epoxied the barrels together and painted the scope base. Today I painted the barrel and put it all together. I need to get some lower scope mounts.



I tested it with a few 38 special rounds I had loaded for my snub nose. They were unsized tumble lube 158 gr swc plinking rounds. My son and I took a few shots and everything worked perfectly. We adjusted the scope several times and the barrel and scope are aligned. I'll load some 158 gr JHPs tonight.

[Texas by God]

It looks at home in those woods. Good job! What does it weigh?

[KLR]

What does it weigh?

6.4 lbs for the rifle, 7.2 lbs as pictured.

[Jedman]

Nice looking rifle, Good Job !
I see you making more than one.

Jedman

[Texas by God]

I used a IMI Uzi barrel for a 9mm Luger stub and it shoots cheap factory fmj so well we haven't felt the need to reload for it. Looking forward to a range report.
I mentioned this because IMI made the Timberwolf rifle.

[KLR]

We're supposed to get slammed with cold weather this week so it may be a while before I can get a range report. I'd also like to ream it too so that I can work up a good 357 Mag load. There's not much data out there for 38 Special rifle loads.

I have a .30 cal barrel destined to become a 30 Badger. I want to put it on a .410 Yildiz and make it as light as possible. I'll have to figure out a way to get to an Academy Sports first...

[KLR]

Update:

I received the GBO 357 Max reamer yesterday and reamed it last night. I went ahead and made it a 357 Max, but will just load to 357 Mag levels and see how it goes.

[Jedman]

Just in case you didn't know Starline has 360 Dan Wesson brass for sale.
Like most other strait walled cases it will last nearly forever in a single shot.

Jedman

[KLR]

Just in case you didn't know Starline has 360 Dan Wesson brass for sale.
Like most other strait walled cases it will last nearly forever in a single shot.

Jedman

Thanks, Jedman. Brownells has both the 360 DW and Max brass in stock. I made a chamber cast and the GBO reamer made a nice long throat. I think I'll go with the Max brass because it will give me more flexibility and likely 100 rounds will last me the rest of my life.

It got up to 10 degrees here today so I loaded a 357 Mag round with a 158gr XTP seated long and 18 gr of Lil' Gun and shot it over the chrono.
1896 fps. Mild report and recoil and the primer looked good. If it's accurate, this is going to be a fun rifle.

[KLR]

Eight degrees but no wind this morning so I thought I'd shoot a quick group with the 158gr XTP/Lil' Gun. Result: Two out of the four rounds wouldn't fire due to light primer strikes. I put the rounds that didn't fire in my Ruger GP 100 and they went off fine.

I wish I would have tried it first with the original shotgun firing pin.

So - time to pull it apart. Likely I'll end up making a new firing pin and finding a slightly stiffer hammer spring.

Also: I have ordered some 357 Max brass and 158gr & 180gr Hornady XTP bullets.

[KLR]

I think I have it fixed. When tore it down I found a little rubbing on the tapered part of the firing pin where I turned down the nose. So I ground the tapered part back some more, polished the firing pin body, polished the hole in the receiver where the firing pin travels, polished the spring guide and it's mating hole in the hammer.

Put it back together and it still misfired.

So, back apart one more time and I installed a couple of spacers to add about 3/16" of preload to the hammer spring. It added about a pound to the trigger pull, but it fired four out of four rounds now. I think that took care of it.

[Texas by God]

Awesome. Get your accuracy baseline with those excellent XTPs then go boolits. Watching this.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[KLR]

Awesome. Get your accuracy baseline with those excellent XTPs then go boolits. Watching this.

Thanks. That was my thought too. Guess I'll have to get another mold. I have a couple of Lee 158gr molds and a Noe 230gr for my 358 Win. I figure I'll need something in the 180gr range.

The Max brass and bullets are scheduled to arrive Monday. I'll bet it rains all week.

[rancher1913]

do you have any photos of the barrel mating process, would love to see more of the detail type images, thanks for the write up its been fun following this.

[KLR]

do you have any photos of the barrel mating process, would love to see more of the detail type images, thanks for the write up its been fun following this.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the barrel mating process. But there really wasn't much too it.

The only tricky part was turning the barrel down to fit the 12 ga barrel. I hesitate to show this because my machine work is so rough, but I used a bit with a sharp point and a fast feed rate so that I would get a rough finish for the epoxy to hold. Also keep in mind that I was working quickly because it was 10 degrees in my unheated shop. I had to put a heater under my lathe drive to get the oils warm enough for the lathe to run. Anyway, enough excuses - I left the 357 barrel the original diameter for 3.1" from the breech. This fits in the 12 ga chamber. I turned the rest of the barrel about .008" less than the shotgun barrel. BTW, the blue band is layout dye.



Then I:

1. Degreased both barrels.
2. Applied paste wax to the bore at the muzzle and the chamber of the 357 barrel in case any epoxy got in there.
3. Drove a .360 cast bullet into the muzzle to seal it from epoxy.
4. Squeezed out about 3/4 of each tube of JB Weld into a paper bowl and mixed thoroughly.
5. Used a dowel rod to apply JB weld to inside of shotgun barrel.
6. Smeared some JB on the outside of the 357 barrel.
7. Pushed 357 barrel into place while rotating it to be sure epoxy coated evenly. The JB Weld is so thick that the whole process was smooth and controllable.
8. Put rifle muzzle up and pushed 357 barrel back to make sure it was contacting the breech.
9. Open action and clean up any JB weld. Do this several times to make sure barrel is perfectly contacting breech.
10. Lean it in the corner in a warm room and wait overnight.

[Jedman]

I have had to add some small spacers to slightly compress the coil mainspring on 3 or 4 shotguns that I made to fire CF rifle cartridges. It seems shotgun primers don't need as much of a strike as the smaller pistol or rifle primers to fire.
I don't think I have ever had a problem with shotguns with a hammer, just hammerless designs.

Jedman

[Texas by God]

I'm wanting to do a .41 Magnum using an Uzi .41 AE barrel rechambered and set into a Stevens 16 ga. Model 94 with those "beautiful" Tenite stocks. Maybe next year.....

[KLR]

Glad to know that my problem and solution are normal. My next conversion will be on a Hatfield with a hammer.

While I'm waiting for my brass and bullets, does anyone have favorite loads for the 158gr and 180gr bullets? I'd like to keep it a littler hotter than Magnum but on the lower end for Max loads.