So I made a replacement extractor for a Stevens mod. 101 chambered for .44 shot.  I think this caliber is the predecessor of the .410.
Now I need cut the case head rim groove.  My thought was to deprime a .410 hull and attach a suitable shank to chuck it in my hand held drill.  Then I thought I might try to attach a cutter to the .410 rim.   

Assuming my idea is sound, what would you use for a cutter and how would you attach it to the brass rim?  Or am I completely off on the wrong track?

I assume you don't have a Lathe.   Can you get a Drill bit the same Diameter as the Rim?  If so then you could grind a Pilot the same dia.  as the Chamber making sure it has no sharp edges.  Grind your cutting lips to 90° and go slow as your doing a interrupted cut and it will want to catch as it hits the extractor.  Your going back in time, how it was done with the tools on hand, and few of them to boot.  Good luck,  David

With the extractor being proud and the breech block out. Take and file off one side of a case to where it will now go past the extractor. Blacken the face with a Marker, install the extractor using just the screw. Now slide the case up to the face of the extractor and scribe a line around the rim. That will give you the outside rim diameter cut on the face of the extractor to be removed. Trying to do it and the rim recess cut with a hand drill would be extremely challenging to say the least. But an end mill of the proper diameter would be a better choice to use as it will not drift if you can some how keep it very well centered. Maybe someone on here who is close to you has the proper equipment to do it for you as it really needs to be a very ridgid setup. Or possibly the right piloted chambering reamer you can borrow and then you can just turn the reamer by hand. The depth of the rim recess also establishes your headspace. The more I think about it I am not so sure that it could actually be successfully done by using your approach there is just not any room for the slightest amount of error. That is if my understanding of what you are needing to do is correct.

If your Stevens model 101 .44 shot has been rechambered to a .410 shot shell, with safety in mind I wouldn’t fire it. In fact I would be nervous firing a .44 shot shell loaded with black powder in one. The barrel wall thickness in the chamber area is awful thin, and the barrel is a slip fit held in place by one take down screw.

I might have miss-understood it and if so a Dremel tool can also be used.

rgchristensen wrote on Aug 31^st, 2021 at 5:10pm:


I've simply filed the rim cutaway in any number of extractors for Model 44s and Favorites.  I used to do them with a mill, but the setups were too much trouble.

Powderhead what process did you end up using and how did it turn out.

Bottom line is not how it might look but that it actually serves its own purpose!