Bolt Action Shotgun Conversion

In my area, .410 shotguns have become extremely popular. Some of the worst guns I have ever seen have been coming out of closets and hidey-holes where they’ve been hiding for ages. Most of them have not been worth more than their scrap value. So, when a customer brought in an old bolt action shotgun, my first thought was, "Here we go again!" Handed to me was a Ranger 101.12 that he had picked up a gun show for a fantastic price.

However, once home, he could not get it to hold shotshells in the tube magazine or feed them into the chamber. Pulling the bolt back and looking down into the receiver, I could see the lifter was missing and as well as a few more parts. Disassembling the action off the stock I found out that all the parts needed to feed ammunition from the magazine into the chamber were missing! Not a very good buy on his part. Fortunately, the chamber and bore were in like-new condition and the bolt had some minor wear to it.

With the exception of the missing parts, this was a decent enough gun to put back into working order. He left the gun with me asking to have it repaired. I pulled out my Store Brand Crossover List, available for free download at NRAMuseum.org, and figured out this was essentially a Stevens Model 39. Looking online for parts, I quickly discovered that the lifter for a Stevens M39 is not available anywhere.

Now, I could have put this on my list of parts to fix guns and store it with the other ones I might find apart for. Instead, I thought I could get this bolt action to work as a single shot. Having seen inserts used in competition to convert bolt actions into single shots, I figured I could do the same. I called the customer and talked to him about doing this instead of trying to find or make the parts needed (along with the expense…) to return the shotgun to full working order.

He agreed, so I set about figuring out how to do this. The first thing was to look for something that was close to being a tray to hold a shotshell, I thought of bending apiece of shim around apiece of pipe. Finding a length of half-inch pipe was just the right shape and size to make an insert, and 1/2" black pipe has just the right curve and thickness to hold a .410 shotshell. Top: A Ranger 101.12, also known as the Stevens Model 39.

I cut the pipe just a little longer than the receiver opening, then used a lathe to true up the ends and trim to fit into the receiver. Then, I painted the section of pipe that was to be cut out with layout fluid. Measuring the opening with calipers, I transferred this on to the pipe. Using a square on the end, I dragged the caliper down the ruler part and cut the section out of the pipe. A mill would make this quicker, but mine was down for repairs so I just hacksawed it out.

My first attempt had the pipe’s seam right in the section that needed to be used, so I made one that did not. Then, I filed down the edges and kept them parallel until it fit into the re-

ceiver. On this particular gun there are flats in the receiver that needed to be filed into the insert to make it drop in deep enough. Once it was in place, I tested feeding with a dummy round. I found that I needed to cut the ramp on the receiver a little deeper so that a shotshell would not hang up on it. After this, I polished the feed ramp, cleaned up the insert and the inside of the receiver where the insert sits. Bead blasting the insert with very fine glass beads gave it a finished look.

To keep it secure, the insert was silver soldered into place. After cooling down, I touched it up with cold blue, then tested. I was able to do this work in less than an hour. The customer left happy with a functional gun, although it was not a repeater. But it worked, and you normally don’t need a quick second shot for treed squirrels. AG