bolt action 45 ACP kit

[sghart3578]

delete

[Texas by God]

I smell a cool thread coming.

[W.R.Buchanan]

There are several threads on this subject buried here and a "Search" will find them and all the problems and solutions have been discussed in depth.

Randy

[Greg in va]

I've got one in 45 win mag but I've not finished it yet, uses a carbine mag to feed the rounds. I've done everything but mount the mag catch.

[Harter66]

I got 1 for a SR Mauser .
The shank wasn't long enough to hit the ACP headspace , not a problem for me as I had intended to build it into a longer case anyway .
If you wreck the the mag adapter I have a spare .
I ordered a short action kit and used it to assemble a 45 Raptor (308 based 460 S&W rimless ) with the bbl and a reamer . I'll treat it as a 45-60-350 or maybe even up into 45-70 lever levels .

[Elkins45]

Someone on THR just recently completed one and started a thread about it.

I have a Siamese Mauser receiver I'm afraid to barrel with anything with very much pressure. One of these days after I retire I'm going to build one of the Rhineland kits with it.

[map55b]

The Siamese is a very strong action. It will handle modern 45-70 and then some.

[colchester]

The Siamese is a very strong action. It will handle modern 45-70 and then some.

No doubt about it. Many have been done in 45/70 I did one for myself a few years ago in 40/70 SBN Its pretty fun to shoot

[colchester]

I did a 45 acp on a springfield 1903 It was one of the welded up parade guns. I used a 50 dollar green mountain barrel

[Texas by God]

Does the conversion use a barrel nut?
Plus one on the Siamese Mauser strenth. My first rebarrel job was one in 6.5RemMag.
Best, Thomas.

[Mica_Hiebert]

I got a special interest arms 45acp kit for a no4 mk1 Enfield I never could get extraction/ejection to work properly. Tried modifying severall extractors and came to the conclusion you needed a plunger type ejector in the face of the bolt, I gave up on the project and traded it for a ruger blackhawk. Good luck on your project.

[Buckshot]

................I started one on a SR Mauser several years ago. A friend of mine produced one on a 1891 Argentine Mauser action, but it was a single shot and had to be loaded one at a time. He was getting some fairly heroic ballistics out of it. I decided to modify a 1894 Brazilian action.

http://www.fototime.com/AE05C30FF497A51/standard.jpg

This was the action with the 45 ACP case in a 1911 magazine st up to feed. I wanted something more in tune with the cartridge.

http://www.fototime.com/DE63B301AAA3A3F/standard.jpg http://www.fototime.com/DBBA3E2B7F5FD1B/standard.jpg

I shortened the action after making a fixture to hold it.

http://www.fototime.com/D2B647FE01654B8/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/8A2BCFD33D9C92A/standard.jpg

And then welded it it back together.

http://www.fototime.com/5EA94B613445A40/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/9791792F57864C9/standard.jpg

Them shortened the bolt and welded it back together.

http://www.fototime.com/071A0EB45795839/standard.jpg

Then I recut the firing pin keys for the cocking piece.

http://www.fototime.com/2821280E2C9CF3D/standard.jpg

Here it is sans the bolt handle.The problem was that there wasn't enough length to the bolt to put the mainspring on it while assembling the firing mechanism. Other then that, everything worked just fine :-(. I did have a Spanish Destroyer carbine rebarreled form it's 38 caliber (38 Colt) to 45 ACP, and it was a real heller. I used EC43 (Evansville Chrysler) steel 45 acp cases in it, and had a 405gr Lee slug going 1200 fps from it's 16" bbl.

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

[NoAngel]

I'd LOVE to see the rest of that project!!!!!!


Did you section a stock or make a new one. What about the bottom metal?


Nice work!

[Buckshot]

............I never got it shooting! :-) :-( You can't get a mainspring on the firing pin and then attach the cocking piece and get it into the bolt. It's a physical impossibility, doggone it!

http://www.fototime.com/0D4798327EAC454/standard.jpg

Cutting the new keys on the firing pin.

http://www.fototime.com/AEADFA280B7829D/standard.jpg

This is the firing pin, shroud and cocking piece in the fired position. That 2" measurement is not sufficient to allow the cocking piece to be assembled to the firing pin. The spring comes up solid before the cocking piece can be assembled to the firing pin.

http://www.fototime.com/23D945BF2867B56/standard.jpg http://www.fototime.com/8C27E567DA214EE/standard.jpg

This is the fixture I made to hold the action while welding. The shortened action mounted in the fixture with the alignment rod in place.

http://www.fototime.com/CFF5DC049C8598B/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/071A0EB45795839/standard.jpg

External welding done. Right photo was after some internal 'cleanup' welding was done and cleaned up. Also shows the welded together shortened bolt. It was a nifty exercise, fun and interesting but shortened a bit too much. Rather then attempt to modify the issue magazine/trigger guard for feeding, the idea was to feed from a 1911 magazine that would be held in the modified bottom metal.

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

[map55b]

Buckshot: My friend did a similar action and had a similar issues. He milled a notch on the bottom side of the bolt shroud so that he did not have to push the shroud low enough for the sear to clear. This way the sear slipped past the notch he milled. Sorry I don't have a picture of this action.

[Geezer in NH]

Someone on THR just recently completed one and started a thread about it.

I have a Siamese Mauser receiver I'm afraid to barrel with anything with very much pressure. One of these days after I retire I'm going to build one of the Rhineland kits with it.45/70 that you can get almost 458 mag out of!!!!

[nekshot]

Buckshot that is awesome! Why could you not make a longer bolt shroud to accept the spring, you don't need much of a safety for a block of firing pin travel. That is far to neat to let set and gather dirt!!

[NoAngel]

Damn if I'd be outdone by a spring!

Do you have an extra to sacrifice? I wonder if you could assemble it and the wind the spring on? It would require the closed loop ends of the spring to be removed. I don't know how distorted the spring would become after stretching the coils apart enough to let the shaft of the firing pin to pass through which is why I asked if you had a spare.

Alternatively you'd need to find a spring of same OD & ID but of thinner wire diameter to get a shorter compressed length. A weaker spring would make little difference setting off pistol primers.

Certainly shouldn't be game over for want of a stupid spring.

Keep us updated. I LOVE this stuff.

[Moleman-]

Buckshot, How close are you coming to getting the cocking piece on? Is there enough room to bore out the ID of the bolt deeper and make a firing pin with the spring stop further towards the firing pin tip? Or, could you make the firing pin spring stop removable? Sort of like a small engine valve spring retainer where the retainer is held in place by the spring? Worse case thread the front section, screw on the retainer and pin it in place.

[Buckshot]

............I suppose that nowadays with the flat wound springs (like the Glocks use) shortening the sear on the cocking piece, lengthening the trigger sear, slotting the bolt shroud to allow the cocking piece some clearance (to allow the cocking piece to rotate into place) that a short mainspring of sufficient force might be doable. Also shortening the buttress threads on the shroud one thread would add 0.100" of space or so. The thing has been in a box on the shelf of the back wall of the shop for years. I never even think about it until a thread like this comes up :-) I'll have to take another look at it after I get a couple other fires put out. I do have the original mag/trigger guard to work with. Probably any cheap Mauser type stock would suffice for a handle.

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

[405grain]

Buckshot: I saw your thread about shortening the Mauser action years ago and thought it was pretty cool. I'd thought about shortening a Mauser at one time, but decided that also shortening the trigger guard + follower & spring, making a custom stock to accommodate the shorter mag well and action screw spacing, as well as doing the modifications to the receiver and bolt would have been too much work for too little return. On your build, there are probably a lot of ways to overcome the problem with the firing pin spring. If you turned a custom firing pin and machined a new cocking piece so that they screwed together, that might work. I've seen this done on other designs like the Wichita Mini. Once the proper firing pin protrusion on the bolt face is reached the threads on the firing pin are locked by a set screw through the cocking piece. It's an easy way to get the firing pin spring onto a really short action.
Also, I built a 45acp out of a Turk Mauser. It's a load of fun to shoot. The last time I had it at the range the other shooters were amazed that they could actually see the bullets going down range.

[405grain]

Right after I posted I remembered something. Dutchman had a thread on this site called "Swedish Mauser Bolt Modifications - Shorten Lock Time". In his thread he linked to some photos of a target Mauser that had the bottom of the bolt shroud scalloped to reduce friction and shorten lock time. A scalloped bolt shroud might give the cocking piece enough room to rotate into position with the short firing pin and spring. Here's a link to the photos. http://dutchman.rebooty.com/fm36.html

[seppos]

I have made the action shortening both to Mauser and to Mosin Nagant.
Had similar problems in Mauser, but in Mosin there is none.

183888

Mosin is also better as it has separate bolt head so you could have different bolt heads for different cartridge diameters if you make swap barrel rifle.
It also feeds from single line so easy to convert forexample to feed from m 1911 mag.

S

[Buckshot]

...............Very cool seppos. What cartridge did you convert it to?

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

[seppos]

The shorter ruskie.. The popular 7.62X39
As the bolthead is wide due to the original rimmed cartridge that would aslo suit easily to the whacking .50 cal shortys.

S

[samari46]

Buckshot, ever give any thoughts to using belleville washers instead of a firing pin spring?. One of the British target rifles I believe uses them. But cannot remember the brand name. Frank

[Clark]

184300184301

My single shot 1903 Turkish Mauser I built in 45acp in December, 2000. That has been a success. Very good groups at 100 yards. with 460 Roland level loads in 45acp brass. It is so heavy I can barely get it into the range, but everyone loves to shoot it.

The shortened VZ24 project is not yet working.

[Buckshot]

..............So Clark, how did you handle the mainspring, firing pin lengths and bolt assembly & Disassembly?

...............Rick

[Clark]

I got a short VZ24 and a long VZ24 from the chopping. I could go on about spring problems with the short one. That is my biggest hang up.

[leebuilder]

Wow them shortened actions are to cool!!!!, wicked good work. I hope one day i can do that level of work.

I too built a 45acp conversion on a no4 mk2 action, i had extraction and ejection problems. Here was my fix, i trepanned a groove into the barrel face to allow the extractor to pivot more better with out trimming it to nothing.
Ejection works best when the action is driven like a stolen rental.
184603
here is the finished rifle, the owner said he never gets to shoot as his son has clained it as his.
184604
be well

[roadie]

Buckshot, How close are you coming to getting the cocking piece on? Is there enough room to bore out the ID of the bolt deeper and make a firing pin with the spring stop further towards the firing pin tip? Or, could you make the firing pin spring stop removable? Sort of like a small engine valve spring retainer where the retainer is held in place by the spring? Worse case thread the front section, screw on the retainer and pin it in place.


That was my first thought too, should be able to pick up .250 - .375 fairly easy. Whether that would be enough is another question. I had to do that for my .22 Squirrel type conversion on a Brno .22, stock spring wouldn't set off primers.

I'm thinking the flange might be setup to bottom out in the bolt now, might need to be fairly solid?