Driftwood Johnson
Member
You raise some very good points. I guess what was holding me back from getting a Howell conversion was that I wasn't sure if I would be able to carry 6 rounds safely with the hammer in the safety notch. In my 1858, the percussion cylinder has safety notches, but if I try to turn cylinder with my hand without bringing the hammer back, the hammer will move to a live round. I just don't want that to happen with a conversion.
Howdy Again
Let's not confuse apples and oranges. Ken Howell does not offer a six shot 45 Colt conversion cylinder for the 1858 Remington. 44 Colt yes, 45 Colt no.
The only six shot 45 Colt conversion cylinder on the market is the one marketed by Taylors. This is the one Ken Howell designed and patented, with the slightly canted chambers so the rims do not interfere with each other. Howell sold his patent to Taylors, for what ever reason I do not know, and the only company that is currently offering a six shot 45 Colt conversion cylinder for the 1858 is Taylors. They are having somebody else make them.
Anyway, to answer your question, I have an Uberti 1858 in hand that came used with one of the six shot Taylors (R&D) cylinders. No, the safety notches cut between the firing pins on the cylinder cap do not positively capture the hammer and prevent the cylinder from rotating by hand. Probably with a little bit of surgery to the hammer nose, this could be corrected, but as the cylinder comes from the factory the hammer nose does not sink deep enough into the notches for the notch to completely capture it. This has never been an issue for me as I only use these revolvers in CAS and we can only load five, so I simply leave the hammer down on an empty chamber.
As I believe I stated before, the reason I went with this style cylinder is not the fact that it has six chambers. I went with it because I did not need to cut a loading gate slot on the side of the frame. With this style of conversion cylinder that would be pointless anyway, since the cap revolves with the cylinder. The reason I went with this style of conversion cylinder is because it is so easy to pop the cylinder out to empty it and reload.
To pop the empties out, I keep a small length of brass rod in my gun cart. If I could I would simply pop the empties out with the end of the loading lever, however the latch at the end of my old EuroArms Remington is slightly too wide to fit into a chamber. The end of the Uberti loading rod does fit. I suppose I could file down the width of the EuroArms latch slightly, but have never bothered. It is no big deal to keep a brass rod handy.
I will say, that my R&D Cylinder equipped Remingtons are the most accurate 45 Colt revolvers I own. More accurate than my Colts, clones, or Rugers. I have always believed this is because the chamber dimensions on the R&D (the six shot ones) are tighter than the chamber dimensions of any of my other 45 Colt revolvers. In fact, when I load up a batch of 45 Colts, I always keep one of the R&D cylinders handy to use as a cartridge gauge. Experience has shown me that any of my reloads that will drop right into the R&D cylinder will automatically chamber in the looser dimensions of any of my other 45 Colt revolvers. Any rounds that have a slightly 'bulgy' crimp that will not drop right into the R&D cylinder get run through the crimp die again until they fit.
In this photo I am set to load a batch of 45 Colts, and the R&D cylinder is standing by, ready to be used as a cartridge gauge. Yes, I get a little bit anal when I am loading.
A few historical photos. Here is an 1858 Remington converted to fire cartridges. Notice a loading 'gate' has been carved into the side of the frame to allow cartridges to be loaded.
Here is another one that has had a loading gate added, not too different from the Kirst idea.
Here is a Colt Richards Conversion. One of several designs that Colt came up with to convert Cap & Ball revolvers to shoot cartridges before the advent of the 1873 Single Action Army. Pictured are a few original 44 Colt (not 45 Colt) rounds that used a heeled bullet. The round that was developed for these revolvers.
The original cylinders were cut down to get rid of the C&B nipples, and a 'breech plate' was attached to the frame behind the cylinder.
The breech plate had a loading gate attached to it.
The breech plate also had a spring loaded firing pin mounted in it.
Regarding bullet choice, I usually load 45 Schofields for my Remingtons. I use the very flat, stubby Big Lube bullet I designed, the 45 J-P 200. Second from the left. No problem with them in any 45 Colt cylinder. The round on the far left is one of my 45 Colt reloads with the Big Lube 250 grain PRS bullet. When seated in one of the R&D cylinders, the nose of the bullet is about 1/16" short of the front face of the cylinder. I only load Round Nosed Flat Point bullets for all my Cowboy guns.
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