RD conversion cylinders

[navygunner]

I have an Uberti .44 army colt with the fully fluted cylinder (early war) also issued to the western gunboat flotilla which became the Mississippi River Squadron. Enuff history. Does the
R&D  Uberti conversion cylinders fit all th uberti models?

[coyotejoe]

I can't exactly answer your question but I do have a Kirst Konverter, five shot gated conversion on a Pietta 1860 Colt repo. It fit well on my gun but not on a friend's Pietta 1860. The instructions state that on some guns a bit of work may be needed for proper functioning and they explain exactly what and how to do it. On my gun the conversion ring with loading gate was a sloppy fit and would wiggle from side to side enough to cause misfires so I filled the excess space between the frame and the bottom of the conversion ring with JB Weld to take up the slack. It is still removable so I can still switch back to the percussion cylinder. I found accuracy with .45 Colt 250 grain bullets to be very poor but with 185 and 200 grain bullets it gave groups under 3" at 25 yards and with .457" roundballs over mild smokeless loads in the .45 Colt case shot as well as it had from the  percussion cylinder, around 2" at 25. I think the 32" twist of the percussion barrel is just not fast enough to stabilize the longer bullets.

[navygunner]

Thanx Coyote. I've heard from others about the inaccuracies with the heavy projectiles.

NG

[Flint]

The accuracy problem most likely lies with the bore being rifled for a round ball.  The lighter (shorter) the bullet you load in a cartridge, the closer it will be to a round ball.

All the Ubertis are the same, the fluted cylinder is the same in dimensions as the full round, they just look very different because of the full fluting.  I have a 2nd Gen Colt (made of Uberti parts) and an Uberti both with full fluted cylinders, they both fuction perfectly with standard round cylinders.

One of my 6 1860's works with the R&D conversion cylinder without overtravel on the cylinder when cocked fast.  Certainly, the overtravel issue could be cured in the other revolvers with some spring or timing adjustments, but I left the conversion cylinder in the revolver it worked best in for the sake of being too lazy at the time to take the others apart and tune them for the R&D.

So, an R&D cylinder will fit your revolver, no problem, timing may need to be adjusted.

[navygunner]

Flint,
    Thanks for the info, it's greatly appreciated. The R&D will be the household defense weapon along with the shotgun .

NG