444marlin on lee enfield No.4

[mickbr]

This is what happens when you go to gunshows, you see things you dont need or cant afford. Anyone heard of this conversion before? Fella claimed it runs fine and feeds well too. I didnt have a good look at the magazine but it looked original from the outside.

[Bill in Oregon]

Makes sense. I used .444 brass as a stand-in for .410 brass shells when loading for a No. 1 Mk. III in .410. Not the smoothest-operating but it worked.

[Molasses]

I think I recall an article in Rifle magazine, probably in the mid 1980s, that talked about doing that conversion and how it worked. IIRC, it was one of those things where the rim diameter was close enough to not require bolt face work and that was a lot of the motivation to try it on an Enfield with a poor bore?

Seems to me that the article said that it worked out pretty well, but even I know better than to trust my memory on things from that far back. Or where I set that thing down that was in my hands just a minute ago, truth be told.

[LeverGunner]

Not heard of that but it sure sounds cool. I've heard of Enfields converted to 45-70, and those sound cool too.

[2ndovc]

I had one of the Gibbs .45-70 conversions. It was awful. Wouldn't feed and terribly inaccurate. Traded it off to a guy that was going to rebarrel/ rework into a .444 Marlin. Would love to know it if worked out.

jb

[mickbr]

just doing some online research and they can work out pretty well apparently. Long throated and seating bullets out makes a difference to power capacity- fellas report 2400fps with 300 grain bullets in a 25" barrel. That beats regular 22" marlin velocities by 200fps. Thats got some thump, 3800ftlbs+.