Retrofit cartridge to inline

[Dogfood]

Hi all,
First post here so please bear with me if t geg any of the board culture/etiquette wrong.
I've seen it done once- an old BP cartridge gun made into an inline- but have any of you every retrofitted a single short cartridge rifle to be a muzzleloader, or otherwise know the process? I'm looking for a project and would love to get my hands on an already sporterized, old school single shot if it can be done without costing too much- that is to say more than the cost of the would-be inline itself, a few hundred bucks.
Your knowledge is much appreciated.
Cheers,
Ken

 

[deermanok]

Although I've never seen one, conversion kits for shotguns are available.
Some single shot rifles have muzzleloader barrels you can swap out.
Welcome and good luck with your project.

 

[BuckDoeHunter]

These two aren’t old rifles but the cartridge they use to fire has been around for a while.

I had two single shot 45-70 Gov’t Apex rifles converted to muzzleloaders. Cost to convert was $325 a piece. Check out the smokeless section for more info. on them.

 

[Dogfood]

Deermanok,
Thanks for replying. A chamber insert that effectively becomes breech plug would be optimal.
Maybe there's a way to mull one of them down the the specs of whatever the particular rifle is. I imagine something that would take a straight walled cartridge is a better bet than anything that's necked down, though that's just an assumption.

 

[Dogfood]

BuckDoeHunter,
Oh sweet! I will check them out immediately. Thanks for the tip.
I really like the idea of being able to get use out of something that would otherwise just be a wall hanger due to scarcity of ammo/expense of handloading super obscure cartridges (and being able to use during muzzleloader season).

 

[GM54-120]

Virtually any break action 45/70 can be converted into a 45cal ML. Land and groove sizes are more or less identical. roughly .450x.458 plus/minus .001ish. There are no suitable 50cal options however in modern cartridges. The chamber is either too large or the land/groove is way too small. You could do it with something like 500S&W but you wont be shooting sabots.

ATM the cheapest way is a CVA Hunter 45/70 and send the rifle off to Center Punch USA for the breach plug install. That should be under $500 total in 209 primer.

 

[Dogfood]

Virtually any break action 45/70 can be converted into a 45cal ML. Land and groove sizes are more or less identical. roughly .450x.458 plus/minus .001ish. There are no suitable 50cal options however in modern cartridges. The chamber is either too large or the land/groove is way too small. You could do it with something like 500S&W but you wont be shooting sabots.

ATM the cheapest way is a CVA Hunter 45/70 and send the rifle off to Center Punch USA for the breach plug install. That should be under $500 total in 209 primer.

I appreciate your reply. I'm picking up a Swedish Remington rolling block. It's chambered in 12.7x44R, just a bit smaller than a .50-70govt in all dimensions other than overall length from what I've read.
The going rate for a CVA .45-70 seems to be $250-300, so making the breech plug job about $250 itself. Does that sound about right to you?
There's just something that really appeals to me about modern muzzleloaders. For lack of better phrasing, it's like taking a peek into a alternate reality where cased ammunition never got invented.