My RFI .410 SMLE Conversion

[Aughnanure]

This Indian .410 s/s shotgun is in better mechanical and cosmetic condition than most of my SMLEs and I wouldn't hesitate to fit it with a .303 barrel, except that I want to leave it as it is.

Pinned and numbered rere sight

Nicely blued action and Mk III* forend

Conversion stamp. '.410, RFI (Rifle Factory Ishapore) and 1948

Magazine plug

The 'Isshy' screw and a neat repair

Large headed nosecap screw and evidence of hand finishing on the nosecap

Nice clear stamp and the feint remains of something else

'L' for longbutt and a heel repair

[Aughnanure]

(continued)

Another business end view, plus the number again. All numbers match.

Slightly clearer view of the gun

Loading tray

[bradtx]

Eoin, I don't know if there is an Ishapore without some kind of butt repair! Has it been reamed to accept the standard .410 shell?

Thanks for sharing such a nice example of a .410 conversion.

Brad

[Aughnanure]

Brad,

Still original, I load blown out .303 shells for it, and load 210 gr lead .41 Magnum projectiles for solids.

[Niner]

Oldironsights and I were talking on the chat a while ago about the old Springfield Sporters. I had one of the old catalogs out....and..

Well, I never got around to getting one back when I could have for cheap enough.

[bradtx]

Eoin, That load would make a perfect 'companion' for my .41 S&W. I don't know why I hadn't thought of that before. How well does it shoot?

Brad

[stevyn]

Hi
Im new
A. The brit .410 is not the .410 that us yanks use.
B. Does anybody know why they didnt use the magazine with these? I've never seen 1 before so if its a dumb question I'm sorry.
But I am curious. Can you make them work with the Mag?

Stevyn


"Peace is that brief glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading".
--Thomas Jefferson

[A square 10]

thats a beauty , i once had both one in the original 303/410 and in the US 410 , but could never quite warm to them in my collection ,

IIRC/and if what i heard was true , they were issued to indigenous police force for crowd control , and one round at a time seemed safer to those issuing them , they do retain the bayo lug

[Aughnanure]

Brad,

Sorry I didn't get back with an answer; I've only loaded, so far, with full cases of 3F and I've managed 7" groups at 50yds, sometimes down to 5" except for a flyer. I think that with a good smokeless load they ought to shoot better than this. Possibly round ball would do better as I've managed 6" with my 20ga percussion trade gun.

These are best figures of course, most times I do far worse; I'm thinking of pre-rifling the projectiles to see if that will give them some spin and improve performance.