History
This
page is (with permission) largely based on a chapter of
the
"Blue Book of Modern
Black Powder Values™"
Second Edition. By Dennis Adler
There is an undeniable romance about Colt and Remington cartridge conversions that seems to fascinate more collectors, enthusiasts and filmmakers today than the legendary 1873 Colt Single Action Army, regarded by many as the gun that won the west. While history loves that story, and filmmakers love it even more, the truth is that cartridge conversions of Colt and Remington percussion pistols, either built by the factory or rebuilt by a gunsmith, represented the majority of revolvers that went west in the early 1870s.
During the three years that S&W was waiting for the Colt patent to expire, they acquired the rights to the Rollin White patent for the bored through cylinder. Thus beginning in 1857, Colt's could not produce a breech loading cartridge-firing revolver for more than a decade, until 1869 when the Rollin White patent expired. Nor for that matter, could any other gunmaker in the United States. Nevertheless, there were countless patent infringements during the Civil War by small gunmakers, particularly Manhattan Fire Arms Manufacturing Co., of Newark, New Jersey, which produced several cartridge-firing models in the early 1860s. These, among others, either made in the U.S. or imported from Europe (where the S&W and White patents had no legality), put thousands of cartridge-firing pistols into the hands of both Union and Confederate soldiers during the War Between the States.
However, neither Colt nor Remington infringed upon the S&W
and White patent until it expired on April 3, 1869. They did however experiment
with several designs. The cap-and-ball cartridge conversion was a significant
step forward for Colt (if one discounts stumbling over the Alexander Thuer conversion)
in the post-Rollin White era. Beginning in 1869, Colt, Remington, et al. were
in the cartridge conversion business, a transitional period that lasted only a
few years but produced some of the most desirable and collectible guns of the
19th century.
Colt's first new model was the 1871-72 Open
Top, which was essentially a factory-redesign of the 1860 Army, followed in 1873
by the legendary Colt Peacemaker. 1n 1873 the price of the new Colt SAA was in
the range of $12.00, much mote than the average western pilgrim could afford.
In contrast, for less than $5.00 a Civil War issue percussion revolver could be
sent back to Colt or Remington and converted to fire metallic cartridges. And
a local gunsmith could probably have done it for even less. (This was brilliantly
portrayed in Tom Selleck's film Last Stand at Saber River).
The 1858 Remington New Model Army appears to have been the first percussion revolver
converted to fire a metallic cartridge, produced by Remington in 1868-69 (while
the White patent was still in effect) and converted to chamber five .46 caliber
rimfire cartridges. Later versions were converted to six-shot .44 caliber centerfire,
and the New Model Navy to .36 and then .38 caliber.
These factory
conversions remained in production until the new Remington Model 1875 Single Action
Army was introduced, the gun that would give the Colt Peacemaker and Smith & Wesson
models their greatest sales competition throughout the 1870s and 1880s. After
White's patent had expired, Colt's was quick to enter the field of bored through
cylinder metallic cartridge revolver manufacture. Contrary to popular belief,
conversions of percussion arms to the bored through cylinder were not the first
of the post Rollin White cartridge arms to be made by Colt's. Although the Cloverleaf
and Open Top revolvers were marketed initially in 1871, Colt's did not complete
any quantity production of the bored through cylinder conversions until 1872,
the first being the C.B. Richards alteration of the Model 1860 Army," [followed
by the improved Richards Type II, and newer Richard-Mason versions].
Cartridge conversions were available for most Colt percussion models produced
from 1860 on. Field conversions by individual gunsmiths also accounted for a considerable
number of cartridge firing cap and ball models seen in the last year of the Civil
War and throughout the 1870s. Says Wilson, "Colt's records indicate a total of
46, 100 pistols having been converted by the factory...thousands more were done
in the field by gunsmiths. In the 1870s, there was a growing demand for cartridge
conversions following the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869
and the post-Civil War opening of the Wild West. The Colt [and Remington] revolver
in the hands of sheriffs, marshals, outlaws, gunfighters, Wells Fargo agents,
cowboys, ranchers, miners, sodbusters, and Indians was quickly enshrined in American
folklore."
Today, Colt and Remington cartridge conversions
are as popular among collectors, shooters, filmmakers and re-enactors as they
were among frontiersmen in the 1870s. In particular, demand for reproductions
of the Colt 1851 Navy, 1860 Army, and 1858 Remington cartridge conversion has
risen in the last five years. Though less likely to get a shooter into the top
categories in Cowboy Action Shooting, (the SAA is simply better suited for most
SASS events) the cap-and-ball conversions still have a respectable presence at
shooting matches. Moreover, collectors are drawn to them because cartridge conversions
appear more often in period westerns, both on television and on the big screen.
Much of this newfound admiration can be attributed to the appearance
of cartridge conversion pistols in movies starring Clint Eastwood and Tom Selleck,
both of whom have a penchant for accuracy in their period firearms.
Unlike Colt conversions, the early Remington ejector rod was not spring loaded, and it had to be retracted manually after pushing each shell casing out of the chamber. This little oddity adds even more authenticity to some of the best custom conversions, although the majority of factory conversions were delivered without the ejector rod until Remington started producing the .44 caliber conversion, . The time that elapsed between the original Colt's design and the first Remington revolvers of 1858 allowed for improvements in the design of the frame, loading lever, and cylinder.overall, a Remington is easier to load, and easier to convert to fire metallic cartridges.
Why Remingtons Make The Best Cartridge Conversions
The folks in Ilion, New York, knew what they were doing when they designed the Remington 1858 New Model Army. It was stronger and better built than the Colt open-top design that had been around since the 1830s. The fixed barrel was an improvement, the topstrap made it more durable, and the cylinder could be changed out in a matter of seconds without taking the gun apart. That made the Remington .44 a better sidearm during the Civil War than a Colt. When it came to making the first cartridge conversion, Remington also had a better solution-a replaceable two-piece, bored through cylinder with a I removable backplate. These were offered for the smaller-caliber Pocket, Police and Rider revolvers, which could be easily converted from cap-and-ball to rimfire metallic cartridge by changing the cylinder. A number of British patents for similar designs also appeared in the 1860s, principally those of J. Adams in 1861 and W. Tranter in 1865. Eli Whimey Jr. also patented a two-piece cylinder design in 1866, but Remington went to market with a two-piece cylinder of their own design in the early 1870s, allowing their percussion models to be loaded either way.
The author of the article goes on to compare The speed of the Kirst Konverter , another manufacturers and a conversion revolver
Another Manufacturer, builds a somewhat unusual Remington conversion based on the early rimfire designs, which provides for a two-piece cylinder with an indexed backplate, containing six floating firing pins for centerfire cartridges.This conversion design also allows any Remington cap-and-ball pistol to be switched to .45 Colt in a matter of seconds. The drawback is that you must remove the cylinder to load and unload the gun, but compared to ejecting six rounds from a Colt and reloading, the two-piece cylinder change takes a fraction of the time. Even reloading the same cylinder takes less than half that of a Colt. How long? We timed it. To drop the loading lever, pull the cylinder pin, drop out the cylinder, remove the backplate, dump the empty casings, drop in five new rounds (always leaving the sixth chamber empty as a safety measure), replace the backplate, drop the cylinder back in, slide the pin home and slap the loading lever back in place takes an average of 20 seconds. To unload and reload a Remington or Colt conversion takes a total of 34 seconds.
Designer Walt Kirst of Kirst Company in , Minneapolis, Minnesota, has developed his own variation of the Adams and Tranter two-piece. cylinder to fire five .45 Colt rounds, six .44 Colt, six .45 , ACP or six .38 cal. The Kirst Remington conversions are even faster to change than the other manufacturers because of their unique breech ring design, which is flat on the bottom, immediately locking the cylinder into the frame. And since the Kirst breech ring has a single firing pin, it does not have to index with the cylinder. You simply push them together and drop the cylinder into the frame. On the average, a reload takes 16 seconds. With two cylinders, you can cut that to seven seconds.
Why five rounds instead of six in the .45 colt? "The answer lies in the original Remington New Model Army conversions," says Kirst, "Insufficient space between the chambers for six .45 caliber rounds."
The other manufacturer tackles the problem by boring the chambers at a very slight angle, thus increasing the clearance between the cartridge rims and allowing six rounds to be loaded. Bored from the rear to the front, the chamber (if viewed as a cutaway) has the cartridge slanting downward so that the bullet strikes the forcing cone (back of the barrel) at a slight angle. Howell explains that this has virtually no effect on the gun or bullet. For Cowboy Action shooting one needs to have an open chamber, so the sixth (empty) chamber, indicated by a silver firing pin, brings this cylinder up to SASS safety standards.
Kirst's .44 cylinder loads six, so there is no problem with SASS, except that a .44 slug is .429 inches, whereas the barrels on .44 cap-and-ball revolvers measure .450, (thus the reason a .45 ACP is a better choice). A .44 caliber lead bullet barely touches the rifling and tends to tumble, which greatly effects accuracy beyond 50 feet.{Unless a "hollow base" or "heeled bullet is used"} (The original .44 Colt and .38 Colt slugs used what is known as a "heeled" bullet, which had a smaller base to fit the case, but a larger bullet diameter to engage the rifling. The first Colt .44 cartridges were made in 1871 and remained in production until 1939. The .38 Colt cartridge was produced from 1874 to 1900.)
Both the Other manufacturers and Kirst conversion cylinders functioned flawlessly in our test guns and delivered acceptable accuracy at 25 feet, grouping 10 shots all within the 8, 9, and 10 rings.
Kirst Konverters are available in .45 LC, .44 Colt and .45 ACP from River Junction Trade Co., in McGregor, Iowa, and retail for $249.95. A Kirst Remington conversion is the least costly way to have what is essentially the "best of both worlds," a black powder percussion revolver and a cartridge conversion revolver in one. It worked for Remington in the late 19th century, and it still works more than 130 years later.
In the Television program "Bonanza", Adam had an 1860 Army Richards cartridge conversion, Little Joe had an 1851 Navy cap-and-ball, Ben and Hoss both carried Remingtons. In Dr. Ouinn, Medicine Woman, a number of the characters carried Richard-Mason Colt conversions.
Taking things one step further, Kirst now offers a channeled breech ring and instructions for cutting a channel in the 1858 Remington recoil shield. The process requires only basic tools and takes about 8 hours. This costs far less than a custom conversion, and there is the personal satisfaction of doing the work yourself. Says Kirst, "It is easy enough for anyone to do." The author, an avowed lout in all things requiring tools, completed the conversion in one afternoon.
This page is (with permission)
largely based on a chapter of the
"Blue Book of
Modern Black Powder Values™"
Second Edition. By
Dennis Adler
