CONVERSION CYLINDER FOR 36 CALIBER REMINGTON REVOLVERS

[DAVE FRANCE]

How do conversion cylinders to 38 special from percussion perform for the 36 caliber Remington revolvers sold by Uberti and Cimarron? I am surprised that a cartridge that uses .357 bullets can shoot well in a barrel that has a groove diameter of about .375. Does anyone have personal experience with this?


Thanks for any response!

David

[William H. Shuey]

FWIW: I have seen such cylinders for .44 cal. but not .36. Are you sure they are made??

Bill Shuey

[dml1296]

I have no personal experience, but I have read about them. For them to work you have to use hollow base bullets that will expand into the over size bore. Going from .357 to .375 is a lot of expansion. I don't know what kind of accuracy to expect.

[DAVE FRANCE]

Thanks,

I'm sure they are made. They are listed on websites by Cimarron and by others.

The hollow base bullet requirement is a turn off for me. I asked one company about them and the person I talked to said they work well with no explanation.

Thanks again!

David

[R. McAuley 3014V]

Uberti makes a Richardson-Mason conversion of the M1851 Navy Revolver in .38 Special that is imported by Cimarron. Since these new-made revolvers are manufactured as "conversions" the barrels are likely bored and rifled for .38 rather than the smaller .36 that would be the case had they converted a percussion revolver. But also, many of the original production 1872 Richardson-Mason conversions had new-made barrels.

http://www.buffaloarms.com/browse.cfm/2,278.html

Now, I have one of the .38 S&W conversions by SWD, Inc. (Sylvia and Wayne Daniels of Smyrna, GA who were in business 1983-86, afterwards sold to Cobray) in a Model 1851 Colt repro (brass frame). Conversion worked very well, and because of the caliber and barrel length the report was almost like the revolver was "suppressed". Interestingly, SWD, Inc. was primarily engaged in the manufacture of Ingram M-11/9mm SMGs (full and semi-auto) along with silencers and suppressors.

Perhaps had SWD remained in business longer more of their conversion kits would have been made. The kit consisted of a new replacement 6-shot cylinder chambered for .38 S&W, and a steel backplate that had to be atatched to the frame with machined hex screws, so included both the three screws, a proper size drill bit, a bottom tap for the correct threads, and an Allen wrench to secure the screws, and further required the lower hammer face to be filed or ground back about 1/8-inch (without removing the sighting notch). Altogether, it took about an hour to install the conversion. There was an open loading port on the right-hand side like some of the early Colt conversions but without an swinging gate, and as it had no plunger to extract the spent cases, it was a little slow to reload. Unlike the current high-cost cylinder conversions, SWD sold their conversion kit for $40 each. With inflation what cost $40 in 1983 would cost about $85 in 2010.

Although its been more than 20 years since I last shot the revolver, I recall that it shot a respectable group at a social distance. However, because it was so much slower to reload than the handgun that I often carried then, I never bothered to carry it concealed. I carried a Ruger Redhawk in .44 Mag as my regular carry gun, especially when I was bounty-hunting. I never had to use it-- as it was intimidating enough just to be unhoisted-- even the police often remarked "God, what a hog leg!"

[R. McAuley 3014V]

I have no personal experience, but I have read about them. For them to work you have to use hollow base bullets that will expand into the over size bore. Going from .357 to .375 is a lot of expansion. I don't know what kind of accuracy to expect.

If I'm not mistaken, don't you have that reversed? A Model 1851 Colt Navy revolver is nominally .36 (.357) and whether you use round ball or cartridge, the bullet diameter is .375 (nominally .38), so regardless, the bullet diameter is larger than the bore. There would be no need to use hollow-based bullets.

[DAVE FRANCE]

Thanks for the information!

I have a 357 mag Ruger Vaquero revolver and the groove diameter is .357.

David

[dml1296]

I have no personal experience, but I have read about them. For them to work you have to use hollow base bullets that will expand into the over size bore. Going from .357 to .375 is a lot of expansion. I don't know what kind of accuracy to expect.

If I'm not mistaken, don't you have that reversed? A Model 1851 Colt Navy revolver is nominally .36 (.357) and whether you use round ball or cartridge, the bullet diameter is .375 (nominally .38), so regardless, the bullet diameter is larger than the bore. There would be no need to use hollow-based bullets.

As I said, I have no personal experience with either the Colt Navy or the Remington, but everything I have read states that the bore diameter of these revolvers is .375, not .357. Maybe someone who has one could measure the bore and see what it actually is.

http://www.kirstkonverter.com/shopconte ... e=coltnavy

[Ken Hansgen, 11094]

I'll bet that somebody somewhere the line has transposed 2 numbers and it's really .357, not .375. Go ahead -- mike it again -- you'll see that I'm right.

[P.Altland]

Sorry, but the 36 cal. percussion is .375 in diameter. Despite its name, the .38 Special caliber is actually .357–.358 inches (9.0678 mm), with the ".38" referring to the approximate diameter of the loaded brass case. This came about because the original .38-caliber cartridge, the .38 Short Colt, was designed for use in converted .36-caliber cap-and-ball (muzzleloading) Navy revolvers, which had cylindrical firing chambers of approximately 0.374-inch (9.5 mm) diameter, requiring heeled bullets, the exposed portion of which was the same diameter as the cartridge case.