Are multipin conversion cylinders for cap and ball revolvers safe to carry holstered?

People carry them holstered in Cowboy Action Shooting with no trouble at all.

Howdy

I have not shot my Remmies in a match in a long time. Maybe I should bring them to my next match.

The firing pins on six shot conversion cylinders with multiple firing pins each sit in a recess in the cylinder cap. The recess would prevent most falling objects from striking a firing pin.






Once holstered, only two of the pins are exposed.






It would take a pretty determined gremlin to get a falling object to strike a firing pin.






Before you ask, if a loaded cylinder is dropped, the cap will most likely part company from the body of the cylinder before they strike the ground. There is nothing fastening the cap to the cylinder. A pin on the cylinder fits into a hole in the cap to keep them aligned. The only thing holding them together is the frame. When removed from the frame, the cap comes right off the cylinder. If a loaded cylinder was dropped, the cap would most likely come loose and no longer be aligned with the body of the cylinder. That and the recesses around the firing pins would pretty much prevent a round from firing if the cylinder was dropped.

My Howell conversion cylinders have intermediate locking notches, so that the gun can be carried with the hammer between chambers. As for the "exposed" firing pins, as Driftwood said, they're pretty well protected.

I've seen a few of those cylinders dropped at cowboy matches and no problem, the pins are recessed enough that even if the cap stays on the chance of impact firing is very remote, and I've seen it at least 3 times in matches with only time delay results.

AlexanderA said:

My Howell conversion cylinders have intermediate locking notches, so that the gun can be carried with the hammer between chambers.

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Mine has the same notches. Unfortunately, the hammer nose of my EuroArms Remmie, which I bought back in 1975, is too wide to fit into the slots. We are only allowed to load five in CAS, and the hammer must be down on an empty chamber, so it is not an issue.

robhof said:

I've seen a few of those cylinders dropped at cowboy matches and no problem, the pins are recessed enough that even if the cap stays on the chance of impact firing is very remote, and I've seen it at least 3 times in matches with only time delay results.

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Sheesh. What's the matter with those guys that they keep dropping cylinders?

Are they doing reloads on the clock?

I cannot remember the last time I had to do a reload on the clock, challenging enough with a conventional single action revolver. I sure would not want to be doing one in a hurry with one of my cartridge conversion equipped Remmies. I actually have two of them. My old blue EuroArms Remmie at the bottom of the photo, and an Uberti stainless one at the top. I bought the stainless Uberti Remmie used a bunch of years ago. It came with the blue conversion cylinder along with the standard C&B cylinder. I got it for a really good price with the included conversion cylinder. Yes it does look a little strange with its blued conversion cylinder, but the price was right.

Driftwood Johnson said:

Mine has the same notches. Unfortunately, the hammer nose of my EuroArms Remmie, which I bought back in 1975, is too wide to fit into the slots. We are only allowed to load five in CAS, and the hammer must be down on an empty chamber, so it is not an issue.

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I have 5-shot Howell conversion cylinders on both my Uberti and Euroarms (Armi San Paolo) Remmies. (My Euroarms is about 10 years newer than yours.) On the 5-shot cylinders, the intermediate notches are on the side of the cylinder, so they engage the bolt rather than the hammer nose. This works without a problem. I figured that this arrangement (loading all 5 chambers and carrying the gun on an intermediate notch) is about equivalent to loading 5 in a 6-shot cylinder. And, the chamber web thickness is considerably beefier in a 5-shot cylinder than in a 6-shot. In fact, the increased web thickness is probably what allows the intermediate notches to be machined on the side of the cylinder.

And BTW, the Uberti Remmie itself is beefier than the Euroarms version. (This is especially evident in the top strap.) The strongest combination would be an Uberti gun plus a Howell 5-shot cylinder.

AlexanderA said:

And BTW, the Uberti Remmie itself is beefier than the Euroarms version.

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Yes, I am aware of that. I do have one of each.

By the way, the reason your cylinder only has five chambers is because Ken Howell sold his patent on his six shot cylinder to Taylor's. It is not possible to make a six shot 45 Colt cylinder the size of the 1858 Remington because the cartridge rims will over lap. So Ken Howell patented the idea of angling the chambers out less than 1/2 of one degree at the rear so there is room for six rims without interfering with each other. As a matter of fact, if you look at one of the photos I posted earlier, this cylinder will also accept six 45 Schofield cartridges, which have wider rims than 45 Colt. Anyway, at some point Howell sold his patent to Taylor's so he is not legally able to make a six shot 45 Colt cylinder of his own design.

And no, the tiny angle of the chambers does not impact accuracy at all. Because the tolerances are so tight on these cylinders, they are more accurate than any of my other 45 Colt revolvers, Colt, clone, or Ruger.

Regarding strength, my conversion cylinders are plenty strong enough for my full house Black Powder 45 Colt loads.

Driftwood Johnson said:

Mine has the same notches. Unfortunately, the hammer nose of my EuroArms Remmie, which I bought back in 1975, is too wide to fit into the slots. We are only allowed to load five in CAS, and the hammer must be down on an empty chamber, so it is not an issue.




Sheesh. What's the matter with those guys that they keep dropping cylinders?

Are they doing reloads on the clock?

I cannot remember the last time I had to do a reload on the clock, challenging enough with a conventional single action revolver. I sure would not want to be doing one in a hurry with one of my cartridge conversion equipped Remmies. I actually have two of them. My old blue EuroArms Remmie at the bottom of the photo, and an Uberti stainless one at the top. I bought the stainless Uberti Remmie used a bunch of years ago. It came with the blue conversion cylinder along with the standard C&B cylinder. I got it for a really good price with the included conversion cylinder. Yes it does look a little strange with its blued conversion cylinder, but the price was right.

View attachment 866513

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Yes, both matches were reload on the clock. that seems to have stopped, maybe because of that or even a few dropped rounds from the cartridge guns causing delay and long times for usually fast shooters.