Just curious what it would take to convert a Ruger No1 in 45-70 to 450 Nitro Express 3 1/4.

I, too, would like to hear from the experts on this one.

Help the guy out.

Stephen

Here is the details of doing that; the 45-70 rim is much thicker (twice as thick) than the NE; but the NE rim is .015 wider. So if you ream the chamber out, you will only have a .0075 rim recess to headspace on. Unless you set the barrel back one turn. Which is what I would do. Bear in mind that the Ruger 45-70 has a very light barrel and the recoil will be quite brisk if you make it a 450 NE. I would use a 458 Win #1 as a platform. Just need to ream the chamber for that.

Thanks dpcd. A friend has 1 for sale and thought if it was a simple conversion it might be kind of fun to have one. If I decide to take this plunge I'll look for a 458.

45-120. Look at the 45/120 nitro loads we have put up on ammoguide. Nearly the same case capacity as the ne but way cheaper.

Oh, yeah, I should have thought about that; the rims on the Sharps brass is thick enough. You still have the light rifle thing though but all you need is a finish reamer. Best to remove the barrel and do it in a lathe. Hand reaming would work but there is a danger of you making an egg shaped chamber if you are not careful.

A friend of mine did the 45-120 conversion on one. It came out to about 6 3/4 lbs if I remember correctly. Loaded some maximum 500 gr bullet loads and off we went. I shot it once, just once and that was one time too many. Saying recoil is brisk is like saying the Titanic had a small leak.