DIY Swiss Vetterli Bolt Conversion

[1874Sharps]

Gentlemen:

I recently picked up a cool old 1869/71 41 Swiss Vetterli rifle. As you probably know, this rifle was made to shoot a rimfire cartridge and must be converted to center fire to be a shooter. The easy answer is to hire the job out and have a gunsmith chuck up the bolt in a lathe and drill the CF hole in the bolt. I wish I had a lathe, but I do not. So if I did it, I would have to do it with conventional hand tools or drill press. I have a teflon firing pin carrier on the way from Swiss Products. The question I have is this: Is it possible to drill the firing pin hole accurately enough with a drill press or hand drill, or is lathe precision required?

[Mk42gunner]

Short answer is: Yes it can be done.

Longer answer is: It depends on how accurately you mark the center of the bolt for the firing pin, and how accurate your setup is in the drill press vise.

It doesn't have to be down to the last 0.0001", but within 2-3 thousandths is nice. Off center firing pin strikes look so wrong.

I did a center fire conversion on a Remington No.2 Rolling Block with a handheld electric drill once. A drill press and vise to hold the work would be better.

Robert

[redneck1]

I have a lathe , it was a lot easier to make a drill bushing that fit snuggly over the bolt then to mess with getting it dialed in the chuck .

I think it took around 45 minutes to convert mine .
Evidently quite a few other people have learned how easy these are to do , prices have gone steadily up .