Which 1858 Conversion Revolver?

Driftwood Johnson said:

I respectively submit that is not the same gun the OP was talking about. You say the hammer on that version is made to fire the Cap & Ball cylinder. Which means to me the hammer has a flat face to fire percussion caps. I have not examined the current Uberti 1858 conversion in a long time, I had one in hand when they first came out. But I suspect this version has a firing pin on the hammer to fire cartridges. I could be wrong, it has been a long time since I handled one.

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I don't know if it is the same model the OP asked about. The model I'm talking about is called Uberti 1858 Conversion New Army and no, it has no firing pin on the hammer. This was back in June 2014. Sorry Armi Magazine staff, this was intended for informational reasons only.

Thanks for the great photos. Too bad I can't read Italian. I wonder what the screw is on the side of the hammer. A safety device? Now I am going to have to get a closer look at the factory conversion revolver Uberti is selling to see what the story is about a firing pin on the hammer. Perhaps it is the same, with a C&B hammer and a firing pin mounted in the conversion ring.

Driftwood Johnson said:

Thanks for the great photos. Too bad I can't read Italian. I wonder what the screw is on the side of the hammer. A safety device? Now I am going to have to get a closer look at the factory conversion revolver Uberti is selling to see what the story is about a firing pin on the hammer. Perhaps it is the same, with a C&B hammer and a firing pin mounted in the conversion ring.

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Thank you. Really, I can post all the article with all the text but I don't know if it is legal. I can post the magazine pics with at least their legends but they really say nothing more than I said.
Yes, the screw on the hammer side activates a safety device, a sort of a two positions block. When engaged the block prevents the hammer to touch the firing pin.
I really don't know if Uberti still build this model as reviewed in the magazine I posted. Maybe it has been a total fiasco or it failed under heavy duty usage, so they quit it. Again, I really don't know. Or maybe they still build it like this. It seemed to be a nice and smart solution to have a "double-fuel" gun.
Probably it's a good idea to mail Uberti and ask them.

Driftwood, you're more than welcome! I discovered this when I was allowed to "open" an 1863 produced '60 Army (owned by a local customer) that had, at minimum, 1st gen parts. It reinforced the tuning principals of what a "modern" tuner would do to "tune" a modern SA revolver (many thanks to Jim Martin, teacher/mentor)! Next time you have that revolver open, notice how thin the bolt arms are compared to what is normally seen in most Colt type actions.

As far as the R/M thing, my info comes from a Dennis Adler book that includes a chapter on the '71-'72 Open Top. You may be right.

Mike

I forgot to mention one thing: the screw on the conversion shield, which can be clearly seen in the second pic, is to hold the conversion shield on the original gun shield (so I suppose a threaded hole is drilled on the gun shield). The tool in the pic can be used to do that.

Driftwood Johnson said:

I respectively submit that is not the same gun the OP was talking about. You say the hammer on that version is made to fire the Cap & Ball cylinder. Which means to me the hammer has a flat face to fire percussion caps. I have not examined the current Uberti 1858 conversion in a long time, I had one in hand when they first came out. But I suspect this version has a firing pin on the hammer to fire cartridges. I could be wrong, it has been a long time since I handled one.

Click to expand...

Howdy Again

Well, I was wrong. I attended a match today and one of my friends was shooting a pair of the1858 factory conversion models. I took a look, and sure enough, they have percussion style hammers just like the hammer on my 1858 in the photos in post #19. I took a peek and there is a spring loaded firing pin mounted in the conversion ring.

Learn something new every day.

I just saw this mentioned in a video for the Taylor's "Lawdawg" 1858 conversion. I still think it's silly.