Thinking about 1851 conversions

You can shoot either the hollow base .357 target bullets or the "heeled base" bullets. Whether or not you get good accuracy is unfortunately an unknown until you try them. It is pretty certain that you won't get good accuracy from .357 lead bullets of other shapes. Part of that reason is, I think, that since a lot of the folks who have tried lead .357 bullets in a .36 conversion, have used mold meant to cast the hard lead alloy bullets for modern revolvers. With the all lead that you may want to be using, it shrinks more when cooling than does the alloy. So a mold designed to cast .357 bullet from lead alloy may be giving the caster .355 bullets from all lead.

The problem with the cartridges is the rims. IF you want 6 shots, you are stuck with .38 Long Colt. IF you wanted .38 Special, then you're looking at a five-shot when working with a Colt copy. A .36 1858 Remington will accept 6 rounds of .38 Special. I think all you can find these days is a 5-shot .38LC "drop in" cylinder, or a .38 Special Krist conversion.

LD

Kirst can reline the barrel for .357 bullets:

https://shop.kirstkonverter.com/?product=000-001-colt-1851-1861-konverter-assembly-uberti-38-lc

Regards,

Jim

That’s a route I’d really consider if I wanted a 38 Special Colt. Two cylinders, two barrels. Center Fire and Cap and ball in one package. Wouldn’t that look cool as heck in a nifty presentation case of black walnut lined with green felt with the Rampant Colt engraved the top lid.

A better solution is to chamber the cylinder for the 41 Long Colt using inside lubed bullets. To make the conversion work, the forcing cone is recut to swags the lead bullets to groove diameter.

More info can be found here.

http://cartridgeconversion.com/site...p://cartridgeconversion.com/SERVICES.php#2965

Kevin

TTv2 said:

I've seen this conversion mentioned in the past. Are dies, brass, and bullets easy to obtain? Where can I get a .41 Long Colt conversion cylinder and who can cut the forcing cone?

Click to expand...

Follow the link.

Kevin

I couldn't get the link to work. Try http://cartridgeconversion.com/SERVICES.php

whughett said:

That’s a route I’d really consider if I wanted a 38 Special Colt. Two cylinders, two barrels. Center Fire and Cap and ball in one package. Wouldn’t that look cool as heck in a nifty presentation case of black walnut lined with green felt with the Rampant Colt engraved the top lid.

Click to expand...

Responding to my own comments.
Priced it out. Not gonna happen in this life time.