Good price for gated 1851 conversion

[ShotgunDave]

This is great news. I was looking forward to your conversion of Old Silver and was a little bummed when you were considering the blued gun instead. I'm watching with great interest.

Are the ejector parts blued steel too? If so, maybe you could strip and polish those too.

[ssb73q]

Hi Dave, I'm going to fit everything up with the cylinder and ejector blued. See what the two-tone revolver looks like. If it looks weird, I will strip the bluing and polish the cylinder and ejector steel. I'm into my afternoon scotch so will gouge out the loading port with my Dremel tomorrow morning. Will then take and post some photos.

BTW, when I removed the screws of the "Old Silver" I noticed that all of the screws are blued, but the face of the screws are in the white. When drilling the holes in the "Old Silver" I didn't detect any hardness on the frame. It was like free machining steel. I think the surface treatment is just a high polish. IMO hardened steel is just Pietta BS.

Regards,
Richard

[ShotgunDave]

"I'm into my afternoon scotch". A man after my own heart. 

I'll be interested to see the two tone effect. I don't usually like it, but I'll keep an open mind.

[ssb73q]

Hi, I started to gouge out the gated cylinder loading port. I have a lot more to go and will do the finally gouging with the cylinder back plate installed. That gives a smooth path for the cartridges. The initial gouging:



The cylinder back plate mounting holes drilled and tapped 6-32:



The back of the frame showing the drilled and reamed hole for the Ruger handspring mod:



The Kirst Pietta 1851 ejector fitted to the barrel:



It's scotch time, so no more port gouging until tomorrow.

Regards,
Richard

[ShotgunDave]

Coming along nicely Richard.

[Dellbert]

Boy Richard, I like that Colt 51 Old Silver. Can't wait to see the gun when you get it all put together.

[Captainkirk]

Looking good, Richard.

[ssb73q]

Hi, thanks guys.

Second to a warm gun is a warm Dremel. 

It will be a couple of days before the Howell gated conversion cylinder arrives so that the loading gate opening can be finished. The loading lever latch dovetailed into the barrel still needs to be ground down.

Regards,
Richard

[ShotgunDave]

I am going to build one of these conversions for myself. When I do, I'm going to lop the end of the barrel off and do away with the dovetail altogether. It just makes the gun's lines flow better to my eye.

[ssb73q]

Hi Dave, the dovetail loading lever latch was ground down and polished:



I like to keep my conversions as unmodified as possible if someone in the future would like to return the revolver to C&B. The increased in size loading port could then be considered an enhanced cap loading port. 

These are my already converted revolvers:



IMO those filled in loading lever dovetails don't look too bad, I even like the look as it balances the tall sight.

Regards,
Richard

[BOOMSTICK BRUCE]

Dang Richard! Those are some beautiful shooting irons!!! Good job!!!

[ssb73q]

Hi, fitting a Kirst ejector can be a royal PITA. Many times the main mounting hole doesn't line up. The other issues are that it is difficult to get the ejector parallel to the bore and having it stay put. Assuming you can get the ejector mounted, a solution to the other problem of keeping the ejector parallel and having it stay put is to put a couple of push/push set screws into the ejector. This photo shows the ejector with 6-32 push/push screws, 3/16" long forward, 3/8" aft:

The Kirst instructions suggests using shims. IMO that's a terrible solution that makes rigidity and disassembly for cleaning difficult.

Howell instructions says that mounting the gated conversion cylinder requires that the hammer face be shortened and the hammer safety slot filled in with JB Weld. That has been done. Tomorrow the gated conversion cylinder should arrive. A couple more days and the "Old Silver" will be ready to shoot.

Regards,
Richard

[ShotgunDave]

Simple, yet ingenious. Go Richard, go!

[Captainkirk]

Richard, you are a true craftsman.

[ssb73q]

Hi, thanks for the kind comments. The loading port of the Old Silver has been completed. The port has been polished to look similar to the outside of the revolver:



The conversion cylinder back plate was fitted to the frame and tested to see if cartridges could be easily loaded and ejected. It's perfect. The only remaining issue is that the cylinder binds when the wedge is hammered in tight. The cylinder length needs to be shortened by a  few thousandths to provide a correct cylinder/barrel gap. I could just shorten the forcing cone end of the barrel, but want to keep the revolver reversible to C&B.

Regards,
Richard