Kirst vs BP cylinders in ROA?

[AbitNutz]

There may be just too much variation to get a general consensus on this. Has anyone seen an overall improvement or degradation in accuracy when using a cartridge converter vs a BP cylinder?

MY ROA has proved pretty accurate with almost anything I put through it. Some better than others but for the most part, it's better than I am.

If, for example, I get a Kirst cylinder, do you think there would be any noticeable difference in accuracy?

To further muddy the waters...is it a general rule between BP revolver manufactures? Meaning that all BP revolvers are more accurate (or less accurate) with a cartridge converter? Or would an ROA differ in overall results from a Uberti?

 

[flibuste]

One point is to be considered : the caliber of the bullet out of the cylinder and before entering the barrel ; When using a 45 Colt Kirst converter, the bullet is # 0.452 before entering the barrel ;
When using the percussion cylinder of Italian clones, the bullet is usually quite smaller after been ramed into it : as small as 0.448 in some Pietta.

The consequence is that the bullet / ball outing from the Kirst converter cylinder will be larger than the one outing the percussion cylinder ; the bullet will fill the grooves more efficiently and accuracy might improve ;

I have mainly observed that with Colt and Rem 44 from Pietta : better accuracy with conversion than percussion ; however, maybe the solution would be to ream the percussion cylinder chambers to 0.450 to get similar accuracy ?

Regards

 

[madcratebuilder]

The ROA has larger diameter chambers than the Italian clones. They run .453 on the two I have. Spec for the ROA barrel is .004 deep rifling, 1/16 twist, 6 lands at.443 and 6 grooves at .451.

 

[unspellable]

I have an R&D cylinder for my ROA. Accuracy seems to be fine.

 

[scrat]

It all depends on who does the work. the Kirst cylinders are not drop in cylinders. they need some slight machining to make them work. So with that in mind it all depends on who does the work for you. If you have it done right then it will be ok. I have an R&D on my Walker and a Kirst on my 1858. The 1858 i did all the work myself. It came out very very good but it took some time to get it right. If you can not dedicate the time to do it then have it done at a shop i believe they charge about $90 for the machining and rebluing.