444/410 underway

In my introduction I said I was planning to build a 444/410. This is how it is working out so far.
The donor was a Rossi 762x39 that only fired 3 or 4 out of 5 rounds due to excess headspace(new gun)
I cut the barrel off at the beginning of the taper, drilled, reamed and threaded it to 3/4x16TPI. The front 1" was then bored to 13/16". I purchased a H&R bare barrel blank from Numerich for $48.00. I turned it for the shoulder and threaded the end for a snug fit. It test fit very good.Attachment 10983Attachment 10984Attachment 10985Attachment 10986

Back to the lathe to face the barrel to match the stub. Next I test fit it in the frame. Perfect. Marked barrel and stub, removed stub and plugged barrel with wood dowel. Coated the stub inside and the barrel threads and shoulder with "no gap insurance" and reinstalled stub(torqued to my specs).Attachment 10987Attachment 10988Attachment 10989

2 days dry time and it was time to fit it for the front stock. I had cut the stock attaching stub off the donor barrel. I didn't want to weld it to the barrel and make a hot/hard spot so I sliced 3/16" of the donor barrel off(big end) and ground the stub to fit the bore. I welded them together and ground it to fit the dovetail I cut into the barrel.Attachment 10990Attachment 10991

The front stock was fit for a 3/4" barrel and the new barrel is 1-3/32". Some die grinder with a stone and a lot of sanding with a 1" bar with 80 grit wrapped to size and it looks like this.Attachment 10992

The chamber reamer is under way. I'm making a D reamer for 410 chamber. Brass magtech 410 cases will be used so 444 bullets will fit in case. Plastic is too thick. Fire formed British 303 brass will be used later. This was a fun project. The gun weighs in at 8.8 lbs and balances perfectly. I will install the scope rail, shoot thru mounts and iron sights.

The chamber was step drilled to 29/64 and 15/32" and reamed with the D reamer in the lathe. Then the rim recess was cut. The extractor cut was roughed with a dremel using a cutoff wheel and a lot of jewelers file work went into fitting the slot to the 7.62x39 extractor. The extractor fit all but a few thousandths of the front corners. A few strokes with the jewelers file and it fit the radius perfectly. The original scope rail was remounted to the stub, cheap AK shoot thru mounts installed and a Barska 3-9x40 scope installed. Scope bore sighted as installed was 1" high @ 100 yds. Test fired with Winchester Super X, 2-1/2" #6 shot. Extractor worked perfectly, hull shows no swelling. Pattern was large @ 20 yds as was expected with a rifled barrel. I don't have any bullets or brass yet, so slug tests with 444 pellets will have to wait(sorry).Attachment 11386Attachment 11387Attachment 11388
This gun came with the scope rail installed over the rear iron sight dovetail so I will make a rear sight to mount to the scope rail and install the front sight at a later date.

Ben