1873 s.a.

[whughett]

At a gun shown in Charlotte County Saturday a dealer had a Pietta made 1873 Single Action Revolver for sale. Cased with two cylinders, all matching serial numbers. Never been fired, no rotation marks on cylinders, Looked NIB as he claimed.

The rub, both cylinders were 44 caliber but were percussion cap front loaders .

No cartridge cylinder, no way to load cap and ball on gun.

Dealer claimed Pietta made and sold this configuration for a time.
As I type this can't recall if the loading gate was present or not, but the typical spring loaded extraction rod was.
Anybody have one of these. If the cartridge cylinder or 45C could be fitted that would be a switch, cartridge back to cap and ball, and I would be interested. He wanted to sell but at what price I don't know as it wasn't posted.

Same guy may be at Sarasota next weekend.

 

[Tommygunn]

Those guns are primarily made for european countries where people want to shoot the S.A.A. but the government prohibits cartridge guns.
Unfortunatly, the way they're made, you just simply cannot change out the cylinder. The hammer is also a special-made design for the percussion gun and the "firingpin" is offset.
In the end you are better off buying a SAA that is designed for .45Colt or .44-40 (or similar cartridge) from the start.

 

[Fingers McGee]

What he ^^^^^ said.

 

[Malachi Leviticus Blue]

I snagged a deal on an Uberti version I couldn't pass up. Uberti calls it the Cattleman. The Uberti does have a loading gate, and the useless ejection rod. I think it is pretty cool, but new they go for the same price as the centerfire versions. It seems like it would be a lot of work to try to convert the percussion revolver to centerfire. If that is your goal definitely avoid the percussion versions.

 

[whughett]

Thanks guys almost bought the piece Saturday may still if he is at the Sarasota show. It was a nice looking piece and I do load off gun on occasion. He had several Armi San Marco pieces in both Colt and Remington styles. His was the only table out of a hundred+ with any bp stuff.

 

[shunka]

It was deliberately designed, for the disenfranchised in the UK, to be as difficult as possible to convert to cartridge.
the nipples are "off-center" in each cylinder chamber,

and the flat-nosed firing pin is offset as well.



The spare cylinders are hard to find and rather costly when you do find them.

Dixie has the pistol here
http://www.dixiegunworks.com/product_info.php?products_id=879

and this fellow had the whole shebang , pistol, 2 additional cylinders, and loader

http://www.armslist.com/posts/77132...attleman-percussion-cap-and-ball-revolver--44


hope this helps
shunka

 

[whughett]

shunka:

Good info, thanks for that. That price listed on Armslist at least gives me a base line. Fellow wanted to move gun so if I can locate him at a gun show again and he still has the piece, well it was really a nice looker and all the numbers did match so odd ball or no would be another shooter to own.