I was toying with the idea of building up a rifle in 45 Win Mag for brush hunting. The case head seems to fit my Mauser bolt, so it should only be a matter of getting a barrel installed and getting it to feed.

Problem #1: All Mauser barrels I see for sale are .458" bore.

Problem #2: Getting a pistol cartridge to feed.

#1 seems to me to be the big problem. Anyone have any ideas? Obviously a relatively cheap barrel would be in order, as the caliber is not going to ever be useful at long range.

Any ideas? Thanks!

It is so strange that I can actually help with this odd request. I saw an ad in Shotgun News for a conversion kit for mausers to shoot and feed 45 ACP from a 1911 clip. They sell barrels of 16.5" length and military contour long chambered for 45 ACP for only $76 dollars. The whole conversion kit is only $130. I was thinking the same thing you are. If you do decide to do this project, do you think I could rent your 45 Win Mag reamer when you are done?

I think feeding could be accomplished fairly easily by installing some sort of block at the rear of the magazine box and lowering the feed ramp a bit. I'm anxious to give it a try.

Check out the website at:

www.rhinelandarms.com

Good luck and let me know how you fare.

Catter---

Fitting a barrel to the Mauser is not a problem at all. Just buy a .451-.452" douglas blank and fit it up. Turn it to what ever countour You want. I could do that for you without even having the action. I'd just need the dementions of your receiver socket.

Making the gun feed is a little more complex. There are a few ways to do that. The first and easiest is to simply block the magazine in the rear to hold the rounds in place for the bolt to feed them. This is not the best way to come up with a SHORT light carbine. You'd have a full sized action that just fed a short shell

The best way is to shorten the action. I have done this kind of work in the past, and it's not fast or very easy, although it's not that hard either. I am teaching My apprentice to do this right now. He's doing a 98 Mauser in 45 Colt. The 45 win mag would be an even better choice.

Let Me know if I (or My apprentice) can help. Advice is free.

I ordered one of the conversion kits, they are out of stock now, but said it should ship soon. I also got an 18" .451 barrel from Numrich for $45 to play with.

Free advice is always welcome. Thanks! Unfortunately, I am a learn-as-you-go type, and always stretching my abilities more, so you might regret the offer....

First, I was really looking for a pre-threaded bbl. My lathe is worn out and sloppy, so I don't trust it to cut the necessary threads from a blank. How precise does that need to be? How much $$ would I be looking at to have a blank threaded?

Second, I don't have a large budget, so I want to make all this as reversable as possible. No cutting and minimal machining of bolt and action.

Finally, as for feeding, is there enough clearance for the (normally) blunt nosed pistol bullets to clear the front lip of the magazine? It seems like a good place to catch on a (relatively) flat nosed, straight walled cartridge, since it was designed for spitzer point, bottlenecked cartridges.

Hi CHD

Yeah, the feeding can be a little bit of a problem, but not bad. You will almost certainly have to grind and polish the "feed lips" to make a 45 Win Mag feed, so it's not going to be reversable, in all likelyhood. If your just going to use the action full length, I don't think You'll have much problem. Just block the mag with a "square "U" piece of sheet steel, and get a SAKO short follower and spring (222 length)to feed the rounds up with. You'll have to get the barrel installed first , to work on the feeding. With the big blunt bullets it's important to "hit the hole" and not just come close, Round noses bullets work easier, but Hollow points or flat points kill better

SZ

I made a 45acp in 2001 with a 1903 Turkish Mauser and a Shilen 26" barrel blank in .452".

The Brownell's part number for the barrel is 787-451-160.

I am getting 1650 fps with 230 gr and 460 Rowland +P+ loadings. This has given me a few .7" 3 shot groups at 100m.

I am tempted to ream it out to 45Win Mag, then I might get 2000 fps with full loading [go to brass expansion and back off 6%].