Hi, the Howell 38 Colt/38 Special conversion cylinder just came in the door. It dropped right into my engraved Uberti 1851 Navy and the timing is excellent. This is different than adding a Howell 38 Colt/38 Special conversion cylinder to a Pietta 1851 Navy. With the Piettas an adjustment of the hand is always required, the Pietta hand must be shortened a few thousands. There is only one issue I have to resolve with the conversion cylinder in the Uberti, it is ~0.005" longer than the C&B cylinder that came in the revolver. If you remember, I set the barrel/cylinder gap to 0.005", tap the wedge in too hard and the conversion cylinder binds. There are two potential paths to resolve this issue, either shorten the conversion cylinder a thou or two, or file the forcing cone end of the barrel. Since I probably won't own any more Uberti 1851s, shortening the conversion cylinder may be the better option.
The Uberti replacement screws arrived yesterday. I discovered why the brass handle frame screw was buggered, it's not the correct screw. There are two shorter frame screws, one that fits the front of the trigger guard and the other is for the handle frame. Replacing the long frame screw with the shorter one now has this revolver a perfect Uberti 1858 Navy.
Now if the weather would only improve, I could test out this new (used) revolver.
Regards,
Richard