If this is retarded I'm confident ya'll will say so.

Any reason I can't make a Pietta 1858 Remington into a shotgun?
What I'm thinking of is to bore most or all of the rifling out of the barrel and cut a small groove 1/8" inside the mouth of each chamber in the cylinder.
The groove would be to catch an overshot card (.450), so I could load a 25 or 30 grain charge, a wad, about 1/3 ounce of shot and the card. With little or no rifling (and no plastic shot condom) I won't get the dreaded "donut" pattern that's usual with shot charges out of pistols, and with the shallow grooves holding the card my charges should stay in place during recoil.
I'm thinking it would make a perfect tackle box gun for snakes.
What am I overlooking?

Might work as long as the wads hold the charge in place and exit the barrel every time. A chain fire with a cylinder full of shot might be interesting though.

quote:

Originally posted by craigster:
Might work as long as the wads hold the charge in place and exit the barrel every time. A chain fire with a cylinder full of shot might be interesting though.

As long as the cards hold I'm not worried about the wads moving, and if one dumps the shot charge seems like all those #6 shot rolling around would serve as notice

Sure it will work. I would still use grease over the overshot wad to keep the fouling soft. And prevent chain fires; I had one once, it is no big deal.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Sure it will work. I would still use grease over the overshot wad to keep the fouling soft. And prevent chain fires; I had one once, it is no big deal.

Now I just need to find a smith who can do it.