50 to 32 Caliber Knight Mountaineer Conversion

A client contacted me and ask if I could build or convert an existing inline and make him a .32 caliber stainless steel squirrel rifle. So after a bit of back and forth he bought and shipped direct to my shop a .50 Caliber SS Knight Mountaineer. I ordered a .32 Caliber SS Barrel Blank in 1:36 Twist. I decided to spend the Memorial weekend getting this put together for him.

I started by indexing the Mountaineer in my lathe and drilling and reaming it out to 5/8". It's not very often I get to ruin a brand new in the box unfired rifle. Then I threaded the first inch of the muzzle to 3/4"-16tpi.


I turned the .32 caliber barrel blank down and threaded to match.


I turned the breech end down to match the original breechplug so that everything would seat and seal properly without any modification to the factory original breechplug this way if it ever gets damaged it can be easily replaced.


I put the two together with a 3m epoxy that is design for use with stainless steel, then after it had set up I put it back in my lathe and parted off the excess muzzle and then re-crowned and shaped it making the joint line disappear.



I even peened the ".50" stamping on the barrel down and re-stamped it "32".


Unless a person examines it pretty closely it looks pretty much like it was made by Knight as a .32 Caliber Stainless Steel Mountaineer.


It was a fun way to make a few extra bucks over the holiday weekend.

Colin

Wow, that would be fun! Now, we wonder how it shoots?

I didn't spend any real time doing load development but just from the shots I ran through it for function testing it was grouping about the size of a nickel at 25 yards.
I think if my customer spends some time after he gets it developing a proper load it will shoot even better.

Colin

Green Mountain offered a DISC based 32cal squirrel rifle for a short time. They are super rare and you never see them for sale. Lately ive been regretting not buying one but at that time i had no interest in a PRB shooter. Now i cant imagine a rifle that would be more fun to shoot or as cheap to shoot.

Great work. That would be a blast no pun intended to hunt squirrels with!

Very nice work. Careful workmanship always pays off! :yeah:

That is DEFINITELY some super slick work! I like that idea a lot! Congrats!

that would be mine. I saw an article on the green mtn .32 but the few people who got one loved em and wouldnt part with them. I found Colin and he agreed to build me one. I went one up and built it off a mountaineer. cant wait to get it in my hands. Ill post some range work pics when I get it all together. I have talley bases, rings and a silver leupold 3-9 waiting. cant hardly wait! :mrgreen:

That is pretty nice work there.

Am I to understand that you reamed out the .50 cal barrel and inserted a .32 cal barrel inside the .50, fusing them together? If so, cool!!

Thanks for the compliments guys.

SteveH, That's exactly what I did was ream out the .50 and re-line it with a .32.

Colin

I wonder if you could use an old Mauser action or Rem 700 or other removable barrel ML type action and make that work too? Just thinking out loud :huh?: That's still a great job!

JStanley,

Other types of inline muzzleloader actions(especially the kind that have a threaded barrel and separate action) are easy to rebarrel or line to a different caliber. Mausers and 700's and other type of bolt actions not so much...the problem with most bolt actions is the bolt face is inside the front ring. If you try to use the bolt as is you have the problem of getting a primer that far into the action and extracting it. Or you have to modify the bolt and firing pin to shorten it, then put a long breechplug in to make it easy to access the primer/cap. That's why most of the inlines that use a standard bolt action also use a standard size cartridge(shortened) to act as a holder for the primer, it allows for easy loading and extraction without major modification to the action.

I've seen several Turkish Mausers modified into M/Lers but it's quite a bit of work.

Of course the real easy answer is, just start with something like this:

then build to suit.

Colin

JStanley said:

I wonder if you could use an old Mauser action or Rem 700 or other removable barrel ML type action and make that work too? Just thinking out loud :huh?: That's still a great job!

Click to expand...

You sure can, ive seen MLs built as small as 6.5mm. The original Henry Ball prototype MLs were built on a Mauser Mark X action. I bet Green Mountain sells a affordable blank. A 209 carrier is already available for at least 2 bolt actions, Rem700s and the Savage/Stevens 10/110/200. Personally i would prefer a smaller action for that application. There may even be some rimfire actions that could be converted and the weight savings would be substantial. The White ThunderBolt might make a dandy action for the conversion too.

IMO, that is what made the GM LE Squirrel rifle so special. The weight and barrel contour was like no other DISC ever made. It was dead sexy with the tapered octagon barrel and according to TB it weighted 6 1/2lbs with a scope. Ive always wondered if a non FPJ plug would work in that rifle. A mag primer in a FPJ sent the ball down range at nearly 400fps. I would assume a bare primer with far less blowby would increase the fps a little.

Squeeze

If you have the time and a chrono, could you try yours with only some 209 primers. The data would be very interesting and potentially a lot of fun.

Colin

The 209 bolt conversions are available and they are made to be used with a Savage breach plug. Installing the carrier is quite simple according to several people who have done them. The 209 carrier cost about $80 plus the cost of a breach plug and vent liners.

This one belongs to a friend in his Stevens 200 CF action.

I've never had my hands on the savage 209 conversion to see how they are put together, what retains the conversion in the bolt face?

Colin

StolzerSons said:

I've never had my hands on the savage 209 conversion to see how they are put together, what retains the conversion in the bolt face?

Colin

Click to expand...

My understanding is it swaps out just like a standard Savage/Stevens CF bolt head.
http://www.switchbarrel.com/BOLTHEAD.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqeXNCA_JtA

GM54-120, I dont have a chrono, but this article is what got me started
http://www.namlhunt.com/mlrifle3.html
according to that, he was getting abt 360 fps with just a primer pushing a prb. seems there was just 250 GM disc built, but Ive spoken with a few GM employees who got a few leftover barrels and built their own. I dont know how many are out there, Ive only found a few who have them and they wont even think of selling. I know my CVA .32 varminter with a 1-48 twist doesnt group as well under 22 grns, prob best at abt 25, and my .32 cherokee with a 1-30 twist will group with anything over 12 grns or so, It does well with 15. I cant say what the speeds are though. Ill have to get a chrono one of these days

That would be my Savage/Stevens 209 bolt head. You just disassemble the bolt, in my case remove the .473 bolt head, and put the 209 bolt head on. The barrel, Pacnor .392/.400, is screwed on and headspaced with a Savage plug installed. I just got my Swinglock full form die today and will be lighting it up soon. Bullets are sized and ready. Mine is for smokeless but could be used with BP and BP subs.

Nice work on the Mountaineer

Ive read the article many times and even though i don't think very highly of TB, he hit the nail on the head in his article about my GMB54-120. I looked at the pic on GMB's website many times also and almost ordered one. I seldom hunt small game, we can only use shotguns for turkey, 40cal is minimum for ML deer hunting here and they were so expensive. I even had a chance after they quit selling them but like a fool i passed. I could not justify the cost just for a PRB plinker.

It a pretty poor excuse since i have over $900 in another ML that i don't hunt with either.