.358 or .444 Marlin #4, Mk 1, Jungle Carbine

[oksmle]

Last night I was messing around with my Enfield/SMLE stuff & realized that I only have enough parts to build one last rifle. I've put together several SMLEs, Enfields & Jungle Carbines in the .303 Brit. caliber. Then several .35/.303s, .30/40 Krag/.303s, .444 Marlin/.303s .45/70/ .303s. & the last one was a .30/40 Krag Jungle Carbine. Anyway I found a .35 caliber barrel with a one to 22 inch twist & a .44 caliber barrel with a one to 25 inch twist. Both barrels are about 21 inches long. So I thought I'd make another Jungle Carbine. Just can't decide which caliber. Do you folks have a preference? I like them both.

[wiljen]

35/40 Krag?

[dualsport]

I'd like one in .444. Is that a easy conversion? I have a barrelled action with a bad bore, no bolt.

[rhbrink]

Bet you would like that 44 with the 25 in. twist a lot better that a 35 with a 22 in. twist, seems too slow to me maybe could only shoot very light boolits?

[elk hunter]

I have one in 375 Waters Express, AKA 375-444. I'm still working on getting it to feed 100%. If you get yours to feed 100% I would like to see what you did to your magazine. This is one of those projects that I work on occasionally and only when I don't have something else more interesting to do, so I haven't put a lot of time in to it.

Good luck on yours.

[Bullshop]

We have available FS/trade a short heavy barrel rough turned outside about 18" long threaded, chambered, and ready for a SMLE action.
Will take $25.00 plus shipping.
If you can find or make a Gibbs type single stack mag they will feed nicely.
BIC/BS

[dualsport]

Is that a .44 barrel? If it is a .444 I'll take it.

[Bullshop]

It is chambered for the 444 Marlin, sorry about that!!! Now dont I feel silly!!!
BIC/BS

[dualsport]

OK, here I go into the wild world of custom rifle building. This is a first, I think a good starter project. I may go single shot but we'll see. Will standard mags feed the 444? PM me where to send $. Yeehah, I'm excited already. I've wanted a .444 for years and thought about going with the SMLE. Right now I'm seeing it as a br gun so I can play with more cast bullets, I'm already set up pretty good for the .44 Mag. Two questions, how much to install the barrel on my action, and can I ship and receive the action using my C&R? thanks

[madsenshooter]

Seems like the .405 Win would be a simpler conversion. I've been getting a lot of "can't ship an action" from sellers on gunbroker, including Numrich. It seems that BATF has defined "original configuration" to mean whole guns in their original configuration and receivers, even though from a C&R rifle like an 1898 Krag don't qualify. Idiocy to me, the receiver is in its original configuration!

[dualsport]

Just curious about the rebarrel job. I think this will be a good project to learn how to rebarrel a gun on my own. I have a lot of reading to do, and probably some tools to buy, but hopefully just a wrench and go-no go gauges. Is it possible to rebarrel with just a field gauge, just to save some $. If this gets going I'll move over to the gunsmithing thread with it. One thing that surprised me, Lyman's 48th edition doesn't show a 240 gr. going much faster than a .44 mag. For $25 and shipping I think it's a good deal, I have the action just sitting around.

[leadman]

dualsport, I had a 14" Contender barrel in 44 mag first rechambered to 445 SuperMag, then to 444 Marlin.
I shot 265gr. Hornady JSPs at 2,050 fps and the Lee 310gr. FNGC at 1,850 fps in the 444. That is significantly faster than the 44 mag.

With 4 mores inches of barrel the 310 should hit 2,000 fps. Then going the other way, it should shoot the lightweight pistol boolits just fine. Mine way not real picky at all.

I too have thought about a 444 on an Enfield since reading about a conversion many years ago.
Good luck and have fun.

[dualsport]

Thanks Leadman. It just so happens I have that Lee 310, a very good mold. I'm really looking forward to this project. I'm going to Amazon.com to look for used gunsmithing books. I need to read up on rebarreling.