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Normal Topic Converting a rolling block to .22 Rimfire (Read 144 times)
rnnhntr
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Converting a rolling block to .22 Rimfire
Yesterday at 11:59am
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I have gotten a wild hair and am considering building a No. 1 roller into a .22 LR, because I can. There are two ways I have considered doing this; either bush the breech block or make an offset threaded bushing for the barrel shank. Since I will have to modify the extractor anyway, either seems like it will work. The advantage of the bushing is that if I get tired of it I can easily turn it back into a centerfire, but the firing pin bushing is the more elegant approach. Decisions, decisions. Anybody done one, and if so what did you do and what problems did you run into?
  
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ssdave
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Re: Converting a rolling block to .22 Rimfire
Reply #1 - yesterday at 12:13pm
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The best of both worlds is to have a large bore centerfire in the rolling block, and make an insert liner in .22 lr.  You can insert the liner and change the extractor, and breech block and have a .22 in your centerfire rifle.  You can generally get spare breech blocks for the conversion from Kenn at rolingblockparts.com

I have two of them done that way.  One, I had an original .22 rf block and I just used it, although I had to make a bushing to repair old primer erosion anyway.  The other, I had John King bush and rework for .22 rf.  I made the liners myself, by turning a steel case the size of the cartridge, and then bored it out and soldered in a liner.  

I use teflon tubing from McMaster Carr to center the liner in my rifle barrel.  Cut the tubing into about 1 inch pieces, and space them at unequal distances along the liner.  Move the spacers to tune the barrel; by trial and error you can find the configuration that shoots best.  My liner in my rolling block is capable of similar accuracy to my Lilja barreled Ballard.

  
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marlinguy
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Re: Converting a rolling block to .22 Rimfire
Reply #2 - yesterday at 2:59pm
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Simply have the new barrel turned off center by about 1/8" to get the CF firing pin to strike the rim of the .22RF case. I have two old custom single shot rifles that were done by talented gunsmiths back in the era this way. Both are offset down so the firing pin strikes at 12 o'clock. One is a #1 Rolling Block, and the other a Zettler Bros. #6 Ballard. I think the Zettler was a switch barrel as it's pinned to allow easy swaps of barrels, but I only got the .22 Short barrel with it.
My #1 in .22LR also has a T slot milled into the bottom of the barrel and an extractor fits into the slot that's operated off the breech block to pull the case straight back cleanly. Best extractor for a .22RF I've ever seen.
  

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