Special Interest Arms - FAQ

http://www.specialinterestarms.com/index.php?page=faq

Special Interest Arms Home Gardner Gun Enfield Conversions Enfield Accessories NFA Weapons - FAQ Politics Contact Us

FAQ's ---------------------------------------------------

Gardner Gun
Our second and final prototype has been fired! Minor adjustments to be made ASAP. Once the necessary engineering notes are completed we will be producing the Gardner Gun as a full-time production item. Please E-mail to be added to our contact list. The FAQ and manuals for the new 1885 Gardner Gun are being written, please check back for updates. We discontinued the "K" so that we may have more time for the Gardner Gun. Enfield .45 conversion's.
Most details of the .45 conversions are essentially the same as the "K". We will be writing a new build manual for it soon.

_______________________________________________ Enfield "K" 7.62x39 is now discontinued! Leaving this up for a while to help with unfinished builds.
Assembly of the "K" is very straightforward, but will require a couple of steps that may be somewhat difficult for individuals who are not trained gunsmith's. 1. Due to inevitable minor variances in Enfield actions we cannot fully head space the barrel and bolt before delivery to the customer. Final head space has to be done after the barrel is trial fitted on the buyers original receiver. For the new style lock-nut barrels the chamber is fully reamed to size. 2. The extractor notch will have to be cut in the chamber end of the barrel. This can be done on a milling machine, or by hand using a Dremel tool or sharp square file. 3. The magazine well in the fore-end wood may have to be relieved to make room for the front end of the magazine adapter. This is pretty easy with a Dremel tool and burr or a small wood rasp. 4. An Enfield receiver vise and barrel wrench are STRONGLY recommended for use in building the "K". Poor quality improvised tooling can easily ruin the Enfield action! S.I.A. cannot take responsibility for any "K" conversions that we do not fully build, as we have no control over the quality of work performed by others. * There is no need to send us your old barrel, we supply one of our Match Grade replacement barrels as a standard component. How do I get my old barrel off? It's REALLY stuck! Seven out of ten Enfield barrels are extremely hard to remove, we find that the easiest way to get them off the action is as follows. If you do not have a lathe, a local machine shop or gunsmith can handle this for you at a nominal cost. A. Strip the action of the stock, rear sight, and all small parts which might come loose while the action is spinning in a lathe. B. Strip the bolt assembly, you will need a firing pin removal tool. C. Insert the bolt body into the barreled action. D. Mount the barreled action in a lathe with a "swing" of 9" or larger. E. At the receiver end place the firing pin hole in the bolt body on a live center mounted in the tail stock. F. Chuck the barrel in a self centering three jaw chuck. G. At very low speed turn-off the barrel shoulder (Chamber area just in front of the receiver) to 1" diameter using a thin blade parting tool. Wear safety glasses! H. This will relieve pressure on the barrel shoulder and threads, the barrel should now unscrew easily. Since the barrel shoulder has been machined back the barrel is now scrap, and will never be usable in .303 again. Why use the Enfield No. 4 as a donor? The Enfield is reasonably inexpensive as a donor gun, it has a strong and well proven action, and originally used the same bore diameter as our conversion. It also has a factory detachable magazine, so converting to our AK Mag. adapter is relatively simple. Where should I look for an Enfield No. 4 to use for conversion? The Enfield No. 4 has been imported in large numbers over the last few decades. Many of them can be found already "sporterized" at gun shows, pawn shops, or garage and estate sales. Recently imported guns are currently available from several wholesale outlets, but prices are rising and condition is often less than desired. Many gun shops will have a couple of Enfield No. 4's on hand, try to buy a gun you can examine in detail before purchase. Since you intend to replace the barrel you may get a gun cheap if it has a poor bore. Why not use another gun, like a Mosin-Nagant or Persian Mauser? Those guns are more difficult to do, and would end up being more expensive. The Mosin-Nagant has no magazine well, the Mauser has a floor plate and internal magazine. Besides, I like Enfield's! Aren't you destroying valuable collector guns? No, the guns to convert have little or no collector value. They are usually previously modified, sourced from foreign military surplus, or they have been "FTR" and then sold to third world countries by the shipload. Why is the converted Enfield more accurate than an SKS or AK-47? Mostly due to the bolt action, heavier and strait barrel (you should see an AK barrel rotated between centers, they are curved!), and careful setting of head space. The better fitting stocks do not hurt either. What made you decide that there is a market for these guns? We had a retail gun store, several customers came in looking for a bolt action rifle in 7.62x39. The only guns available were Ruger and CZ rifles, with high retail prices and fixed magazines. These prices defeated the purpose of many of the customers, they wanted a gun that was inexpensive to buy, accurate, cheap to shoot, in a center fire caliber suitable for deer hunting, which also used detachable magazines. Can I change my gun back to .303 British? Not easily. The receiver is not modified, but the barrel would have to be re chambered, the bolt head replaced, trigger guard alterations are permanent. How powerful is 7.62x39, how far can I shoot accurately with the converted gun? The 7.62x39 is very similar to 30-30 Winchester, it is excellent on game up to deer size, it is very accurate to 150 yards, and reasonably accurate to 300 yards. It will

1 of 3

3/18/2013 1:51 AM

Special Interest Arms - FAQ

http://www.specialinterestarms.com/index.php?page=faq

reach much further, but hitting a target at long range will take more skill. Can I put a scope on my Enfield K? All standard Enfield accessories will work with the "K". We suggest a 2.5-8, 4X or 6X scope in 32-40mm objective lens. What magazines fit the Enfield K? We use the Romanian AK single stack "WASR" mags. 5 and 10 rounds mags fit, due to the varied dimensions and quality of the mags some minor fitment is sometimes required. These mags are usually available for $15-$25 each. It has come to our attention that there are two Romanian magazine designs on the market, the correct "WASR" mag. for the "K" is noticeably narrower at the front than the main body. Why not use the 30 rd. double stack AK mags, or a 100 rd. drum, that would be cool! That is possible, we built one action with a 30 rd. mag. as an experiment. . We were not satisfied with the amount of metal that had to be milled away for the magazine to sit high enough for reliable feeding. Removing so much metal from the receiver potentially opens us to an unacceptable level of liability, some one could claim that we had weakened the receiver by that modification. Many states also limit hunters to a 5 rd. magazines, others have bans on magazines holding over ten rounds. Using 5 or 10 rd. mags saves us from having to keep track of which states allow the mags we want to supply with each gun. Are you planning to make the Enfield K in any other caliber's? Not really. Most other caliber's do not work well with the Enfield action, and there are plenty of guns available in those caliber's. We do guns in 45-70, but since we need to work in batches these conversions will require a significant number of orders before we can pursue them. They would perhaps be good candidates for several people to cooperate in a "Group Buy". What scope mount works best? Our own, of course! ;-) The lowest possible mount, featuring a "Picatinny" rail and a "U" notch so that original sights may be used witout removing the scope base. Available for No. 1, Ishapore 2A, and the No. 4 or No. 5 Enfields. These mounts allow the rear vernier site of a No. 4 or No. 5 Enfield to remain on the gun during use! There are several other scope mounts available, but most of the "No-Drill, No Tap" mounts are not steady enough for our standards. We tried out an "S&K" mount, finding it to be much better than several other "instant" mounts, at a reasonable price. The Cad-Technik mount is also very popular and is a quick detach design. The "William's" #71 scope mount screws directly to the receiver, it is very solid, and allows the scope to be used as a "Quick Detachable" type so that scopes may be interchanged, or iron sights may be used if desired. Is the completed conversion still a C&R gun? Under our understanding of the law it is not. _______________________________________________________________ Terms of sale. All sales will comply with all state and federal laws. Shipping usually cost about $30.00 on most guns, insurance on more expensive or NFA firearms may be more. Payment by Money order or Bank Cheque is strongly preferred, personal check are accepted but may delay shipment while they clear our bank. We no longer take payment by credit card, since we suspended storefront operations the credit card fees got too high to tolerate. All modern (post 1898) guns can only be shipped to a federally licensed firearms dealer. Dealers FFL must be on hand before shipment will be made. After verifying availability, send FFL and payment to,

Special Interest Arms 1422-A Industrial Way Gardnerville, NV. 89410

Please do not send an order without contacting us first!

E-mail to: sia@pyramid.net Kit or Gun smithing order form.

It is important that your order is clearly defined so that we may send the correct configuration. _______________________________________________________________________________

Special Interest Arms

1422-A Industrial Way, Gardnerville, NV. 89410 Gun smithing work order, ALL fields must be completed! Full name. _______________________________________________ Physical address (ATF requirement any time a receiver is sent, No P.O. Boxs) ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Soc. Sec. or Drivers License #______________________________
(Not needed for kits) FFLs, send signed copy.

Description of firearm. Make (Enfield, Fazaketly, etc.) ________________________________ Model (#4 Mk. 1, #5, etc.) ___________________________________ Serial Number ____________________________________________ Caliber as sent ______________ New caliber? _________________ Type of work to be done. (Check all that apply) Enfield .303 Restoration ____ Cost as negotiated $_______ Enfield .45 acp conversion ____ Basic kit $300.00, & assy. ____$100.00 Thread barrel for suppressor or flash hider _____ X ____TPI $50.00 Other? ______________________________________________ $______ Stock options. None (leave as delivered) ____ Sporterize original stock ____

2 of 3

3/18/2013 1:51 AM

Special Interest Arms - FAQ

http://www.specialinterestarms.com/index.php?page=faq

Synthetic Sporter stock $75.00 ____ Refinish a wood stock, $100.00 ____ All of our conversions or restorations use ONLY new barrels. Our standard metal finish is Grey or Black parkerize. A Moly-Teflon baked on finish can be applied over the parkerizing in Black, Green, or Brown, for $50.00 additional. Sight options. Retain original ladder peep sights. ____ S&K scope mount. ____ Williams receiver mount. ____ S.I.A. scope mount. ____

No. 1 or 2A $75.00

____ No. 4 or No. 5 $85.00

Other accessories. Enfield to CAR-15 Stock adapter. $_________ Additional magazines #_________ X $ ________ = $_________ Moly-Teflon finish, Black ___ Brown ___ Green ___ $ 50.00 Additional custom modifications at $60.00 per hour. $ _________ Total of all parts and work to be done. $___________ Most orders should be completed in about six weeks or less. Less popular conversions may take longer as we wait produce one-off parts. I am over 18 years of age for Rifle work, 21 years of age for any Hand-Gun work. I am not prohibited from possessing firearms for any reason. I am not seeking any work or accessories that may be prohibited by federal, state, or local law in my area of residence. I have read and understand the above. Name ________________________________ Date ______________

Due to the SPAM we get, it is important that you put wording related to this site in your subject line. "Silent Carbine", "Enfield K", ".45 Conversion", etc.

My personal Ishapore .308 folding stock "Un-Assault" Scout rifle, This was my first custom Enfield project.
All contents displayed here are copyright 2001 to 2013 inclusive, by Special Interest Arms.
Ruger, CZ, Winchester, Boyds, William's and Montana Rifle Co. and any others are the trademarks of those respective companies.
Special Interest Arms

3 of 3

3/18/2013 1:51 AM