The center fire conversion of the
Vetterli M1881 Stutzer
In
the winter 2003 I purchased a beautiful Vetterli M1881 Stutzer. The overall status is very good. The bluing is like 80%. The
bore after cleaning is in very good conditions – it seems to be that this
rifle wasn’t used often at the shooting range.
The
center fire conversion of this rifle was the next step of this project. To
do this job you need approx. 3-4 hours of work and some appropriate tools.
Prerequisite for doing this job is working precisely!
The
following tools and the following material are needed:
-
Drilling tool with steel drilling bit of 2mm.
-
Dremel-Tool with different milling stones.
-
piece of metal in the dimensions of: 30mm length, 20mm width and 4.5mm
thickness.
-
steel pin in the length of 30mm and 2mm thickness.
-
metal saw
-
metal rasp.
-
empty case 10.4x38R.
Make sure the rifle is unloaded then remove the screw from the left side of the receiver. Remove the cartridge elevator assembly from the bottom of receiver. The assembly is composed of two components. Use a flat head screwdriver to push the receiver lug to the left. Note: the lug it's not supposed to come out of the receiver, so don't try to force it. Then remove the bolt.
To disassemble the bolt, unscrew the knurled knob at the end of the bolt. Remove the bolt cover and spring. The striker rod and bolt handle can be removed by pulling them towards the rear of the bolt. The firing pin can be removed by pushing it sideways out of the slot in the front of the bolt.
How to do the center fire conversion without altering the original striker or firing pin? Simply and fast. Drill the hole in the bolt face with a steel drill bit somewhere about 2mm. Make sure every think is in center. A little off-center is OK but not more that 0.2mm or so. Afterwards take off any burrs on the bolt face around the hole with the Dremel-Tool. Caution: don't chamfer or take any material off the face.
Now
the tricky bit of the conversion job is the next step in the agenda: The
build of the new firing striker. The new striker can be build from brass or
metal. I took a piece of metal. The thickness should be 4.5mm. With the
metal saw it is an easy job to get the following form of the new striker.
The dimensions of the striker are about: 30mm length, 16mm width and 4.5mm
thickness.
Drill a hole thru the face of the new striker with the steel drill bit of 2mm as well. Then take a steel pin in the length of 23mm. Cut the end of this pin to the appropriate length. Please check the length of the pin with the overall length of the original rim fire striker. Make a nice rounded end by trimming and rounding the tip of the pin by using the Dremel-Tool.
At
the end put the new firing pin together with the new striker. Take an empty
case of 10.4x38 and put a primer into the empty case. Load the empty case
into the rifle and check if the primer gets fired.
If
you are doing the center fire pin assembly as mentioned above, please be
sure there is no condition under which the assembly can wedge against the
cocked striker with the pin protruding from the bolt face. Such a condition
could result in firing out-of-battery.
This
condition can be easily avoided by making sure the completed assembly is no
more than 22.8mm long and that with the striker in cocked position there is
clearance between the flat end of striker and the center fire pin assembly
when the front of the pin is positioned flush with the bolt face
Conception & Realisation: Collani Interactive