Well, I don't know about all that "correct" and other bs, but I'd sure like to have me one of those 7.5" .45's.....
Now don't get your undies in a knot, I wasn't criticizing you or anybody else. Merely saying that I'm not as concerned about every little detail of a reproduction firearm being as close or accurate to the original as possible.Sorry you think presenting historical information about calibers and other things is 'BS'.
I never said there was anything wrong with modifying an old design for modern cartridges, Uberti has been doing that for many years. I just wanted to add some clarity to Bob Wrights understanding about the dimensions of some of the Uberti replicas.
I sincerely hope you enjoy your 7 1/2" 45 Colt Open Top.
Some guys demand unpractical degrees of accuracy in details, I'm one that's just happy reasonable reproductions are even available. And if they're affordable, even better! I just wish I could afford the ones I'd like, it's already quite a list and now this one is on it too.
Well it seems that we were having a friendly back & forth on a subject many of us find fascinating before you referred to it as "BS".Now don't get your undies in a knot.....
Thanks for the update on how things went.Have fun and be safe. Please tell us how it went.
Howdy
Nice Pistol.
I suspect Uberti fudged the dimensions a little bit in order to chamber the 45 Colt cartridge.
I have been keeping it under wraps for several months, but my project for spring, when the weather gets warm enough, is to cast up some heeled bullets for the Colt Richards conversion I bought a few months ago. This revolver was chambered for the 44 Colt cartridge, which was a centerfire cartridge designed to be fired in revolvers with the chamber and barrel dimensions of the 1860 Colt Cap & Ball revolvers. Using a heeled bullet with the same outside diameter as a 44 caliber ball, the cartridge case was the same diameter as the bullet. About .451. When the 45 Colt cartridge was developed it used a more conventional .452 to .454 bullet that slid inside the cartridge case. Case diameter for the 45 Colt cartridge is on the order of .474 to .480.
Here is my Richards Conversion with four original 44 Colt cartridges that I am not going to fire.
As you can see in this photo, there is just enough room between chambers for the 44 Colt cartridge, it is not big enough for chambers big enough for the 45 Colt cartridge. That's why I suspect Uberti fudged the dimensions a little bit to make their version of the Open Top big enough to be chambered for 45 Colt.
When I bought my Richards conversion I invested in R. Bruce McDowell's extensive book about Colt Conversions.
He states that the Richards Conversion revolver and the Richards-Mason Conversion revolvers both used up existing supplies of percussion parts, modified for the cartridge conversions. When they ran out of original percussion parts, new parts were made. But with the Open Tops, they were made from new parts, not converted parts. Technically, the Open Tops were not a cartridge conversion revolver, they were manufactured as a metallic cartridge revolver.
According to McDowell, the Open Top revolvers were chambered for a 44 Rimfire cartridge. There is some confusion over exactly what the cartridge was, it was the old 44 Henry Flat, but there was a patent issued to George R Stetson for an improvement to the design of the bullet, using a swaged bullet instead of a cast bullet. Some Open Tops were later converted to 44-40 centerfire after they left the factory.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy shooting your new Open Top.
You're going to shoot it with Black Powder, right?
Just kidding.
The one thing that never made sense to me was the Richards Conversion revolver and the Richards-Mason Conversion revolvers were chambered for centerfire cartridges where the new Open Top was chambered for a rimfire cartridge. Always seemed like a step back as rimfire cartridges are not reloadable in an era in which a lot of reloading went on. Allthough it is not impossible to reload rimfire(a lot of native americans did) it is much easier in centerfire. Of course after the US Army rejected the Open Top and it's redisign was the famous Colt Single Action Army in .45 Colt centerfire the Open top was relegated to the backwaters of gun history as not that many were ever produced. It endures as being collectable because not that many were ever made.
The idea behind chambering the Open Top for the .44 rimfire was to make it ammunition-compatible with the Winchester 1860/1866 repeating rifles, which Colt thought was the future of the Army.
The idea behind chambering the Open Top for the .44 rimfire was to make it ammunition-compatible with the Winchester 1860/1866 repeating rifles, which Colt thought was the future of the Army. Wasn't so. After trials, the Army rejected the Open Top, wanting a top strap (like the Remington) and an inside lubed (like the .44Russian), .45 caliber cartridge. William Mason designed the Single Action Army .45 in just a few short months and the rest, along with the short-lived Open Top model, is history.
The Army had rejected the S&W No. 3 because it was a rimfire, in .44 Henry/Colt caliber, wanting a centrefire. S&W's answer was to change the gun to centerfire without changing any cartridge/chamber dimensions, hence the .44 S&W American cartridge.