Swiss Vetterli .41

[pohill]

I have two Swiss Vetterlis converted from rimfire to centerfire. You can use black powder or smokeless - I use black powder. The cases are formed from Winchester .348 brass, using Lee dies. I use .429 and .430 bullets (I cast my own).
These are great shooters and easy to convert to centerfire. They're big and heavy so there's little recoil. They're fairly inexpensive now but I think they're getting popular.

The top one was sporterized at some point. It came with a box of .41 Swiss rimfire ammo.



This is an M81 (above the Gallagher). Great shooter.

 

[kBob]

Thanks pohill.

You always have neat stuff. Oddly GG Grand Dad's was un modified at least when I last saw it 25 years ago. I am feeling the urge to visit Dad's Cousin's widow when next in town to see if it is in fact still stuffed in a closet somewhere.

All I have seen at shows here in the SE have been more expensive than K98s. and the Mauser 71 and 71/84 were even steeper. Closest thing to luck I have had with the BP breech loaders was being offered a very nice Peabody.....then taking a few days to think about it and it not being there and the guy claim to have sold it for even less than he offered it to me for. Not striking while the iron is hot is one of my two biggest gun buying problems.....the other being grabbing the hot end of said hot iron and not finding out I had the wrong end and was burned until later at home with a piece of junk. Ah to one day hit a happy balance.

-kBob

 

[goon]

Pretty cool. Someone else mentioned converting one of these and I was just thinking about that today.
I know where there are a couple of Vetterli parts guns that could probably have something done with them. Wonder if they'd sell them to me...
They're probably not SASS/CAS legal, are they?

 

[pohill]

Vetterli parts guns would be a pretty good investment if you can get them cheap enough - check out ebay to see what the parts are selling for. If you like antique black powder cartridge guns, you'll like the Vetterlis. Well made, built like tanks, accurate, mild recoil.
The Gallagher .54 is an interesting single shot rifle. Mine is a replica made by Erma in West Germany, using machinegun barrels with a 1:18" twist. They break open like a shotgun. They use black powder cartridges without a primer - ignition is by a musket cap on the nipple. You load the brass cases without dies - pour the powder in, then finger-press the bullet or roundball in.

 

[kBob]

The little Ermas were some what popular in Southern Germany when I first saw them in the mid 1970's. At the time I was very much into modern rifle so despite handling a few, passed on them.....to my regret today.

Oddly my first BP pistol experiences involved a .36 '51 Navy Colt steel frame that got carried on other wise unarmed patrols around a Pershing missile site.

My wife gets upset with my "wishidas" but all crumudgeons need a basket full to carry around with them.

One buddy did not like the idea of owning any Erma as he had the idea that Erma was headquartered in the town of Dachau and that they used slave labor during the war. There certainly was a big blue Erma sign in Dachau at the time but whether the factory or an outlet I could not say. I just wanted one of their little .22LR M1 Carbines.

-kBob

 

[cane]

I remember reading an article in, I think "Shooting Times" back in the '60s about converting the Veterlis to muzzle loaders.

 

[pohill]

They stopped making rimfire .41 Swiss ammo around 1940, so people didn't know what to do with them. Converting them to CF can be done in a half hour or so and costs a few bucks to do it yourself.
Here's a decent video of the rifle in action. The shooters seem to have trouble with the action a few times. They're using smokeless rounds. The cartridges have to be exactly 2.2" overall length to use the mag - too long or short and they won't feed. I shoot mine single shot for now.
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...&mid=6845355B7D8BB237A7456845355B7D8BB237A745