Cimarron's .38 Special 1851 Navy conversion: reproducing one of the handier Old West collectibles in a modern caliber

Guns Magazine, July, 2008 by Jeff John

Cartridge conversions of percussion revolvers are a fascinating study. Colt and Remington, principal suppliers of handguns during the Civil War, were faced with large inventories of now mostly obsolete parts as the metallic cartridge made arms loaded with loose powder and ball obsolete.

Originals are now quite expensive and, if in shootable condition, accurate ammunition must be crafted using bullets cast in custom molds and black powder is a must. Fortunately, the interest in Western arms caused by cowboy action shooting has led to a plethora of reproductions including cartridge conversions.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

While the .44 Colt 1860 Army Richards and Richards-Mason conversions are the most well known, Colt also converted the 1851 and 1860 Navy revolvers to shoot .38 Colt. Personally, I find the 1851 Navy the best balanced of the percussion revolvers and the most fun to shoot.

Cimarron offers the civilian 1851 Richards-Mason conversion (US Navy Models had a steel backstrap and triggerguard), made by Uberti of Italy and chambered for smokeless powder in .38 Special. The Cimarron version is similar to ones made originally as cartridge guns by Colt and are identified by no plugged hole in the barrel extension where the percussion rammer was once fitted or the cutout for the roundball to be dropped over the chamber.

Once Colt had used up all the original percussion barrels, new barrels were simply milled without these now superfluous extra mill cuts. Even with the odd looking add-on cartridge ejector, I find the classic lines and octagon barrel of this model quite appealing. Like its percussion brethren, it balances and points very nicely. Since the Navy Model was made for the .38-size cartridge from the get-go, it is smaller overall in dimension than the SAA and I prefer its handling qualities to the SAA .38 Special.

Sights were rarely a strong suit of 19th Century handguns and the Uberti is made closely to the original. It differs in the size of the front sight, which in this case is a. 135" brass bead with a rounded top mated to a considerably narrower notch in the hammer. It sort of looks like a setting sun sitting atop the rear sight. Colt sights were considerably smaller and generally of small use, too, delivering their shots high and sometimes wide.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

These revolvers come from Italy slathered in a medium weight preservative oil and I find it beneficial to give them a detail strip and cleaning. First, I loaded the chambers with dummy rounds and measured the barrel/cylinder gap. It was set for .006". The next trick was just getting the barrel extension off because it is fitted tightly by the factory.

Being a "know-it-all," I ignored the instructions and proceeded to tap out the barrel wedge without turning the wedge lock screw to its fiat spot. Having taken apart dozens of cap-and-ball revolvers over the years, I "knew" the screw was there to keep the wedge (normally with a long trough milled in the upper surface) from being lost once it was free of the cylinder base pin.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

As gunsmith John King likes to remind me, "Stupid should hurt," and I snapped off the head of the lock screw because the short trough in this wedge is designed to trap the wedge deep in the base pin. The instruction manual clearly states this. (What my old ma always said. "Do as I say, not as I do," applies here. Read the instructions.)

A friend who was forever taking his percussion revolvers apart to the last screw always replaced ones damaged by his screwdriver with new ones, so I have a plethora of Italian revolver screws at my disposal. I polished one up, filed a new flat and am good to go, marginally wiser than before.

I tightened the frame in the neoprene jaws of my Panavise and used a hardwood dowel and rawhide mallet to gently tap off the barrel.

Close Tolerances

I slugged the bore with a Speer .380" roundball and found the rifling to be evenly done with no tight spots or roughness. The recovered ball measured .359" across the grooves and the bore measured .347", so rifling is .006" per side but the forcing cone looks rather generous. I used a dial micrometer to measure all the chambers and slugged one with a roundball to confirm all were .359" as well.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

I took the rest of the gun apart and found no burrs inside the action or on the principal parts. I thoroughly cleaned it inside and out with Prolix (I use it exclusively on my cast-bullet guns) and reassembled the revolver. It went together as it came apart and the screws and small parts seemed well hardened. The barrel extension had to be gently tapped onto the frame with the rawhide mallet.

Having now read the instructions, I was warned not to tap the wedge in too far or it will pull the cylinder against the barrel too tightly and prevent cylinder rotation. I gently tapped in the wedge until I achieved the .006" B/C gap, stopped and turned in my new wedge screw.

The clean, freshly lubed action felt smoother and less gritty and the trigger pull measured two pounds with just a hint of creep. It was somewhat rainy and blustery, so I grabbed a few boxes of Black Hills amino and headed for the indoor range. They only allow cast bullets or FMJs at this range and 50' is the limit.