.444 Mosin Nagant?

[badge176]

alright, I have for some reason caught the "bigBORE" bug and am considering a .444 pr .405 Win conversion on the MosinNagant action (Cheap and plentiful). Any thoughts?

[Dutch4122]

Don't quote me on this, but I seem to remember mention of this conversion here on the board before. IIRC converting/rechambering to .444 Marlin may leave you with a single shot rifle.

Just thinking out loud here, but would it be possible to neck the 54r case up to .44 caliber? After all, the cartride is rimmed so the shoulder shouldn't be a concern for headspace, right? Rebore to .44 and have a reamer made?

[trooperdan]

I have one, it was built by a retired machinist in Texas. He likes to make something, just to see if he can do then he sells it and goes on the next project. I just plink with mine and usually single-load but if I'm careful working the bolt, it will feed from the mag sometimes.

[Buckshot]

...............I converted a MAS36 to 45-70:

http://www.fototime.com/4CE0AE555332580/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/D84C26951C36B50/standard.jpg
http://www.fototime.com/6B73F57ED82F5AB/standard.jpg

And a M95 Steyr to 30-40:

http://www.fototime.com/3F99F55C9811736/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/F2618D4764522E3/standard.jpg
http://www.fototime.com/CBEAAE5A40D244A/standard.jpg

And a Spanish Destroyer carbine from 9mm Bergman to 45 ACP:

http://www.fototime.com/4FFDE36264BD077/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/70FB3F38BF60C27/standard.jpg

The easiest conversions to do IMHO, are those done to some other cartridge(s) that are fairly close matches to the parent cartridge in 2 main catagories. Casehead/rim OD, and case length.

Of the above 3, the one that was the easiest and works just as slick as the original is the M95 Steyr 30-40. Everything was a close match. The rim was a bit smaller, the case at the shoulder is smaller and those 2 slight mis-matches were simply remedied with very simple mods to the sheetmetal clip.

I had seriously given some thought to a M95 conversion to 375 Winchester (38-55 Mag;-)) for the simple reason of having one with a trashed barrel. Since the clip does the lion's share of cartridge guidence during feeding, I suspect a bit more extensive mods to it would be required. Without a doubt a VERY simple conversion for the Steyr would be to 7.62x54R but using a 30 cal barrel. The 8x56R and 7.62x54R are VERY similar sharing the same rim, and also very close in caselength.

I'd think the main headaches in using the M-N action is how the action rails are milled specificaly for the cartridge it was designed to use. I had to spend considerable time grinding form the top and bottom on the MAS36 to get it to present and feed the fat 45-70. The really helpfull part and it's saving grace is the rear bolt lockup. This placed the breechface (like the Lee-Enfields) right there at the end of the magazine. No locking lug recesses for the cartridge to traverse on it's way to the chamber.

................Buckshot

[Suo Gan]

That Bergman conversion is something sweet!!

[Artful]

I was thinking about trying to use M-N for 44 Mag conversion using a clip from a Desert Eagle but haven't done anymore thought on it -

[ZebDeming]

I've done one in 450 marlin. Nice thing about it is you don't have to modify the bolt face and with a little tinkering you can get it to feed from the magazine, Here's a quick video on it feeding and extracting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mkyi2hSOCew

The rebarreling was easy, straighforward rebarreling of a bolt action, It was a single shot for a while, but once I went at the magazine and feed rails in the receiver, it wasn't hard at all to get it to work from the magazine. It's probably one of my favorite rifles.

Zeb