If it's a bad (totally unsafe) idea from the get go, just say so...

How big of a deal would it be to take an old SxS 10 gauge and line the barrels down to something like a 50-90 or 50-110? I was looking at the Green Mountain barrels at Brownells for around $100 each...ream the bore and turn down the barrels to fit, solder into place??? It LOOKED do-able (relatively easily) to my non-gunsmithing eye.

This is a Harrington and Richardson with a badly pitted bore, and I'm just looking at it trying to figure a use for it besides hanging on the wall. I have 2 barrel sets...I've thought about lining one as a 12 gauge and the other as a double rifle. I know its a money pit, but how deep for a hunting grade working gun...just to have something different.

"If it's a bad (totally unsafe) idea from the get go, just say so..."

Yes.

You can make a double rifle on a shotgun action, in fact it's done fairly regularly. To do so safely however requires the right action and yours is not it. Sorry but better safe than sorry eh? Its possible you could build a very low pressure rifle but your action is questionable even for that.

There is a lot more to such conversions than simply sleeving the barrels. One must first have a through understanding of the unique forces at play on a SxS action, where the strength is needed to counter these forces and not a few other sundry skills. Its not a job for a "non-gunsmith" as you describe yourself. Putting the project in the hands of just any gunsmith could be equally dangerous and one who throughly knows whats needed is likely to be cost prohibitive for what sounds to be a low budget approach to a SxS.

If you are serious about having one spend the money for Ellis Brown's book - Building Double Rifles on Shotgun Actions. It will give you the basics of what's involved. Then you can start researching and studying in ernest!

Good luck & sorry about the bad news.

Try this link to the practical machinest. You can check his progress and it has photos.
Butch
http://www.practicalmachinist.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/16/936.html

Here's a book by Ellis Brown (Bunduki Publishing Ft Collins Colorado) that can provide some great ideas on this subject...

I haven't seen a Browning sidelock SxS in a while. Do those have a third fastener?? ICRS.

LD

I do have a line on a Beretta 495 10 gauge (boxlock, of course). The previous owner treated it like crap, but the metal is still very fine. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.

A 10 gauge frame is about right for a 470???

12 gauge for a 9.3 x 74????

quote:

Originally posted by SDH:
Contrary to what you might think, the smaller the bore the more adaptable it is for a shotgun to a rifle because of less convergence from muzzle to breech. A 20 ga. would be better than a 10, if it can hold the pressures. And for shotguns, the smaller the bore the greater the pressure.

Hmmm, learn something every day. I figured the larger bore===more thrust===stronger action. Plus, that's why I was thinking Black Powder Cartridges...low operating pressures. The width of the action is something I had never considered, and I have no idea who's actions are considered 'strong enoug' for such conversions...hench the question here.

Thanks for all the input.

Now what to do with an old 10 Ga...hate to hang it back on the wall.

Thanks SDH,

I was thinking in terms of geometry more than pressure. I'll take the calipers the next time I go into Boise. I would only convert a very well built shotgun, and then only for something to do.

That old Beretta 495 will still be ok for geese. I've used it for that before, and it swings nicely out of the blind. I load my own Bismuth, so the barrels are still clean.

LD

Sleave it to 12 guage with rifled tubes. Now you have 12 bore parodox rifle (sort of).