A Shotgun that was a Rifle ???

F

Fleetwoodmac

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Ok guys, now brace yourself for this surprise.

The above gun is a shotgun and not a rifle. :eek:

No? :confused:

Don't believe me ?

But it is :)

It is the BSA .410 shotgun.

Want to learn more about this strange piece of history? Read this

Detailed review of
REVIEW > BSA .410 - A Shotgun that was a Rifle
 
After WWI, AKA the Great War, War to end all wars", etc.)

The conversion of rifles to more common purposes evolved, also in Germany all rifles has to be rendered useless as rifles, so making shotguns was an appropriate response.

Have seen photo's of WWI M98's converted to 16ga shotguns, milles the bolt to a flat face (shotgun is a low pressure round and bore out the original chamber and barrel. No more rifle.
 
More than a few Enfields were converted after WWII to fire .410 shells.
Click to expand...
Yes Sir and a friend of mine has one of these for whatever use, around his timber property.


Another one comes to mind and that is a relic called Zulu Shotgun, although I'm not sure what the origin caliber was.


Be Safe !!!
 
The Zulu shotguns were based on the Snyder action, an attempt to convert muzzleloading muskets to breechloaders. The original chambering was the .577 Snyder, chosen so they could use .577 muzzleloading barrels for the conversion. The Snyder was replaced by the Martini Enfield rifle (based on the American Peabody beechloader), which was chambered in .577/450, a .58 cartridge necked down to .45 caliber.
Same thing happened on this side of the Atlantic with the U.S. Allin conversion for Springfield muskets, chambered for a rimfire cartridge, the .58 Miller (AKA the .58 Allin). Two reductions in bore size and we had the 1873 Springfield Trapdoor rifle in .45-70.
 
The Zulus I have seen and seen pictured were French, the 1853 rifle musket converted to breechloading by a system resembling the British Snider from 1867, then surplused and made into (cheap) shotguns. No doubt there are some real British Sniders in the mix.

There are varying reports as to why you see Lee Enfields converted to .410.
I favor the one based on the much greater difficulty of getting a firearms certificate versus a shotgun certificate in the British Empire/Commonwealth. There are some number of much nicer rifles ruined by being smoothbored for shot so they could at least be kept in the family even if of little use.
 
Meh.

The market flooded with Indian versions of that shotgun a couple years back.

I think the Geha is more interesting. Mauser bolt action shotgun.

And then there's the Saiga, which is an AK shotgun.
 
Biggest problem with that one is someone has buggered up the stock. A few years back those were pretty common, seems I paid $75 for mine in mummy wrap.
 
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