I love cowboy guns. I love 'snubbies.' I live in a place where all of the convenient shooting ranges demand that I use jacketed ammunition. I don't do my own reloading, so traditional cowboy calibers like .45 Colt and .44-40 are prohibitively expensive to shoot. Hell, I don't even know if jacketed ammo is available for .44-40. Sure, I could have gotten an SAA in .38-.357, but all the extra metal in the barrel and cylinder make those feel wrong to me.
Years back I reluctantly parted with my .45 Colt SAA replicas. I simply couldn't afford to shoot them anymore. My wife eased my heartbreak that Christmas with a Cimarron 1851 Navy Richards/Mason conversion revolver in .38 special. Proper handling in an affordable caliber with jacketed ammo readily available. This gun became an instant favorite.
Before long I was envisioning a project:
This is an 1861 Navy Type II conversion with a bobbed barrel and a Lightning grip-frame and grip fitted. Caliber is .38 special.
The other night however I was browsing and discovered that Kirst makes some interesting products, which led to this concept based on an 1858 Remington percussion revolver:
This uses a Kirst Conversion cylinder and gate holding 5 rounds of .45 ACP with a shortened barrel, remounted front sight and rounded 'bag' grip. This has the advantage that the percussion cylinder can be dropped right back in if I ever decide that I want to shoot black powder
Both are effectively five-shot guns; the .38 has a six-shot cylinder but the hammer needs to rest on an empty chamber. The Kirst .45 cylinder holds five rounds but has a special gap between two of the cylinders for the hammer to rest, allowing all five chambers to be loaded. In booth cases my meager skills are up to any gunsmithing and refinishing needed.
I have to admit, right now I'm leaning towards the Remington .45. What do y'all think?
Years back I reluctantly parted with my .45 Colt SAA replicas. I simply couldn't afford to shoot them anymore. My wife eased my heartbreak that Christmas with a Cimarron 1851 Navy Richards/Mason conversion revolver in .38 special. Proper handling in an affordable caliber with jacketed ammo readily available. This gun became an instant favorite.
Before long I was envisioning a project:
This is an 1861 Navy Type II conversion with a bobbed barrel and a Lightning grip-frame and grip fitted. Caliber is .38 special.
The other night however I was browsing and discovered that Kirst makes some interesting products, which led to this concept based on an 1858 Remington percussion revolver:
This uses a Kirst Conversion cylinder and gate holding 5 rounds of .45 ACP with a shortened barrel, remounted front sight and rounded 'bag' grip. This has the advantage that the percussion cylinder can be dropped right back in if I ever decide that I want to shoot black powder
Both are effectively five-shot guns; the .38 has a six-shot cylinder but the hammer needs to rest on an empty chamber. The Kirst .45 cylinder holds five rounds but has a special gap between two of the cylinders for the hammer to rest, allowing all five chambers to be loaded. In booth cases my meager skills are up to any gunsmithing and refinishing needed.
I have to admit, right now I'm leaning towards the Remington .45. What do y'all think?
