doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Sorta/Kinda OT: Single Shot Shotgun to Rifle?

This may not be appropriate for a forum on "fine firearms," but I've always wondered about it.

I know you can make a single shot rifle out of a decent (i.e. steel framed) single shot shotgun since I had once a Savage Model 220 16 guage hammerless single that had a wrecked bore and a gunsmith in upstate NYS lined it to the not-very-wildcat .35-30 for shooting cast bullets. Worked fine.

I have seen ads in "Rifle" and elsewhere for a DIY book on how to convert double shotguns to double rifles and have seen a few examples of those at gunshows (there's a DEE-luxe one in the May "Rifle" but it is beyond many of us to provide the original fine double let alone pay for the exacting work of making an extra set of .500 double rifle barrels for it!).

But is there anyone out there who, given a decent Savage 220 or 219 or other steel single and an extra barrel of the same model, would make the extra barrel into a monoblock and silver solder (or some other method) a Green Mountain or other maker's barrel blank in an appropriate caliber onto/into it for a modest hammerless stalking rifle/shotgun combo?

Mike A.
There are plenty rifles like that around. Virtually any gunsmith with a decent size lathe can do that job for you. It will be easier if you start with a .410 that has a small firing pin.
Mike

The Savage 219 came in a number of rifle calibers, some of which came with a shotgun barrel as well. I owned a .30-30 for a while and seem to remember seeing a .22 Hornet. Not sure what other calibers might have been available. They turn up on line fairly frequently.

All it takes is money and they can be quite well done:

Julia Auction

Thaine

Thanks, guys--I am encouraged. I have a .410 220 in nice shape and will try to find a ratty .410 barrel to use for the monobloc, then look around for a 'smith willing to do the job. Think I'll go for a .25-35, since I like the chambering and have the dies. If I can't find a .410 barrel to use, I'll look for a 20 or a 16 and find another forend iron for it (even I can make the wood part of the forend, but a .410 220 forend is best because it fits the rifle barrels without any changes).

Remington40X, they came in .30-30 (most common), .22 Hornet (pretty common), and .25-20 and .32-20 (NOT common), plus some other R&D chamberings (damn rare). I've had all of them but the .32-20 and .22 smoothbore.

You might consider having a good smith line the .410 barrel instead. It would probably be a much more routine and cost effective option. There are very good liners available, likely the equivalent of many after market barrels. The same smith could easily fiddle with the extractor and set the barrel up the way you want it for your favorite sights. I'd consider a decent trigger job.

Having seen this done with a really nice old Belgian double hammer gun, I would go this route too except that I might have it done with barrels turned down (or ordered) to size rather than liners. I once had a hankering for a Dangerous Game Double Rabbit Rifle in .22lr. I still like that idea. So, I bought Graham's(?) book and studied it for a while, but never did move forward on it.

The guy that did the .22 set up some eccentrics so that he could regulate the double. The book discusses this too. It's not so simple as sliding in a liner and some glue. But it seems very doable (says he who does no machining).

A .22 double built on a .410 - still sounds like heaven to me. Something that would be shot a whole bunch and really enjoyed. I need to revisit this.

Yeah, Craig, I will consider that, too. But I might like my new single barrel to be octagon, and that is easier with the method mentioned earlier.

I've used a Green Mountain octagon .25-20 blank on a takedown Martini and was very pleased with the appearance and balance achieved; just right for a light stalking rifle. A Savage 219 is even easier to take down than a Martini and a shotgun barrel that fits equally easily is a plus.

As an aside, I never understood why the old guys always made their "half-round" barrels start with an octagon section that required shaping the forend groove octagon, then went to a round barrel once it cleared the wood. A lot easier to do it the other way around, I've always thought, and the differential in balance still works out OK (heavier in back toward the action and hand).

I do know how to twiddle a Savage trigger into a decent pull. Not benchrest, but decent, thanks to Frank de Haas, RIP.

Not a 'fine firearm' at all but there resides here what used to be an H&R Topper. The original 12ga barrel was chopped at the front of the lump and an octagon barrel sweated in chambered in .45-70. This was done by a friend of my brother who could never leave anything alone. He's sadly now gone home.

Sorry to hear that: we could use more people who follow their desires and curiosity without regard to lawyers.....

It does to me, too. I have looked into the inserts that are available for this, but they all require knocking the empties out with a cleaning rod, from the muzzle. I don't want one that bad. I could live with extractors, but not with using a rod for ejection.

I would begin with this. $489 and a great value. I've shot one for about 7-8 years without a hiccup.

http://www.yildizshotgun.com/en/elg_12.html

SRH

Stan,
An insert barrel(Einstecklauf)in 22LR can be "shop made" and be set up with a "thumbnail" notch to extract the empty. I have seen these at Al. Gun Collectors Assn. Gun shows, and by reports work very well. They are adjustable for POI, but I'm not sure if a 410 is large enough to be adjustable. I know of 20 ga. ones.
Mike

I have a Kreighoff .22 WRM insert barrel that I got for a Savage/Valmet O/U combination gun. It shoots very accurately and has an integral extractor that works with the original shotgun one. I have it set for the open sights and use the scope for the centerfire barrel.

I got mine used when a friend bought a modern drilling at an estate sale and didn't want the insert. Not sure they are available any more and would be pricey if they were.

My ultimate dangerous rabbit double rifle has always been, probably barrels instead of lining, in 38 spec. with the twist and throat for wad cutter target loads. On a slim, scaled down rifle, the holes in the end of the tube would keep a bit of the big bore look, but I think there's a good chance that it could be balanced a little better. If it ended up shooting half way decent, I think it would be a great plinker.

If I was a machinist I'd build my own liners, Der Ami, and have the bore a few thou off center at the muzzle, rotate them until I got the two tubes shooting to same POI, then cut the extractor notches to mate up with the original extractors. Sounds like something that could be done, but at great expense if you hired it out.

SRH

Stan,
One of my Einstecklaufs is regulated that way( with an eccentric on the muzzle of the EL which has a slot across the front, and is turned by a screwdriver from the muzzle of the shotgun to regulate the EL). You could also put a collar on the muzzle end, with 4 small set screws and regulate it like a 4 jaw chuck. A lathe is a necessity of life( a mill too).
Mike

A source for barrels is the Savage 94 hammer gun.
I would advise trying the barrel first before buying the donor gun, but up to this point I haven't found a 94 barrel that didn't have a little extra metal so that it could be fitted to the 219 (or 220).
I have a 219 with 3 barrels at this point. The only difference is that the 219 has a snap fore end and the 94 is a screw on.
25-35 is on my list. Nice choice.
Good luck.

Tom

Thanks, Tom--that's really good info. Actually I've asked specifically about using a 94 barrel on a 219 or 220, but nobody I've asked seems to know the answer, until now. So the BBS comes thru again! I'll start looking....

Mike Armstrong

One consideration is that if you line the barrel with a rifled liner, you can cut the barrel to 16" and be legal, whereas a smoothbore must be 18".