Percussion Cap Grooves or not?

Uberti's do appear to have that channel as a standard feature. My Pietta 1851 Colt navy doesn't, though.

Now for it being safe to add that to your own pistol, or just to file away some metal, the answer is yes. The recoil shield isn't anything that takes any abuse or pressure of any kind. I think it is just there to keep the rear part of the cylinder covered up so you don't knock caps off, or to smooth the pistol out to stop it from snagging on clothing. When you modify a cap and ball Colt to be a cartridge conversion (Kirst Konverter to name one) you modify the frame by grinding it down with a dremel tool and sanding drums. You grind a full channel out on the righthand side so you can insert bullets into the rear of the cylinder through a loading gate (the loading gate is a stationary part of the cylinder slipped on the arbor rod before the rotating cylinder itself goes on the arbor).



Filing a small channel down the "ramp" cutout on the righthand side of the recoil shield is a lot less steel removed than that, so if you want to cut one yourself I don't have a problem with it.

The real question is how to re-blue the steel again to keep that filed part from rusting?

The real question is how to re-blue the steel again to keep that filed part from rusting?

Click to expand...

I just used Birchwood Casey's SuperBlue.

As I was looking at some original Navy Colts I came across this one with a groove in it. Never seen one like it before, Mike
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ASM did that groove thang also, but I have only one frame like that.
I been thinking about doing that very same thing as some frames have really shallow cut outs. Same brand guns, one capper, one will and one won't.

It is funny. I got myself a Traditions starter set because it had all the tools I wanted. The inline capper that came with it didn't fit into the revolver far enough to get a cap lined up with the nozzles on the chambers.

The good news is that the problem is just some extra length of the brass frame of the capper. Since it wasn't doing anything to help hold the cap on the tip of the tool, I just nipped it off with a wire cutter I have around my house (I have millions of used wire cutters from work at my aviation job). That did the trick, and I have it loaded up with 12 caps right now waiting for Wednesday when I can go shooting again.

The Uberti Colt Navy revolvers have it as a standard feature I believe. I got this image off their website, and cut it down to just show the cylinder. It has that "cap flute" cut into the frame and cap loading area.