Wanting a .41 Long Colt - Cimarron? Ruger Single Six conversion?

[MatthewVanitas]

@HarryO: so the most accurate bullet you're saying is the Old West one they call ".41 Colt 200gr .403dia heel target type mould"? Makes sense with the long bearing surface and just slightly overbore size.

Thinking out loud to myself here: all things being equal, even though clearly lacking the historical value, would a tuned-up Cimarron Lightning be mechanically as good or better than any revolver previously made for the .41, and with somewhat better modern steels? And even a custom Single Six in .41LC (if such is even possible) is unlikely to be any more accurate or in many ways "better" than a Cimarron given that you don't need that Ruger ruggedness since nobody looks to hot-rod a .41LC? The Cimarron doesn't look *exactly* like an 1877 in terms of having the exact same subtle contours of frame and hammer, and of course it's SA only, but broadly speaking an 1877 "pretty much" is a small-frame Peacemaker roughly along the same lines, it's not like it's a totally false facsimile...


I guess at the base of it I'm just looking for a cool sixgun to own for pride of owning something unusual and firing a couple hundred rounds a year, tops. Fundamentally, I like small frame guns, I like big bores (and I cannot lie), and I like unusual cartridges with a backstory. .41LC seems to be about the fattest cartridge you can fit into a Single Six-sized frame (38-40 and .40 S&W would require going to a 5-shot cylinder), and it's certainly unusual. I haven't fully gotten to the "mind made up" stage, and I am prioritizing my re-acquisition of a 6.5 TCU T/C Contender to be my "pocket rifle", but that aside I'm leaning heavily to calling up distributors maybe next month to see if I can have a 4-5" .41 Lightning waiting for me at my LGS when I return to Austin from West Africa.

[Harry O]

MatthewVantis: That is the one. It is on their DC heel-base mould page 2 almost all the way down on the page. I also have the mould just above it, the 160gr one. It is the same except for a slightly shorter heel and it is not as accurate. Stick with the 200gr one. No other heel-base mould I have tried is as accurate.

I have never been able to compare my "Model P Jr" side by side with an original 1877 Thunderer. I have handled them separately, many years apart. However, the Model P Jr does feel much like what I seem to remember about the Thunderer. I have looked at a number of Thunderers through the years. Most were in poor shape or broken -- a lot of them were broken. The very, very few that were in decent shape and working had collectors prices on them. And, they have gotten rarer over the last 30 years or so. That is why I never actually bought one.

If you do decide to get a Model P Jr, you will have to do some work. Not a lot, but know that in advance. The mainspring is WAYYYYY to heavy. There is no lighter spring available for the small frame, however, I did find that the lighter spring for the full-sized P Model will work. It is readily available. Very little fitting is needed and it improves the trigger a lot. While I was in there, I also changed the trigger/bolt spring to a wire one. The leaf spring that Uberti uses is not up to CAS shooting. I had two of them go within the first couple of years of CAS shooting on a full sized P Model. I have not had a failure with the wire springs since then.

Then there is the problem with the chambers. I only have a sample of one to draw from, but I think that when Uberti made these, they were using a bad reamer. If I am right, you will need to polish them to get the cases to eject. Getting a longer barrel will help a little bit, but it will not solve the chamber problems by itself. Expect to polish them. Time consuming, but not difficult. The barrel is 0.401" groove diameter, so you have that going for you.

The Uberti Model P Jr was available pretty cheap back when I bought mine. I have no idea what they cost now, or if they are even available. It was also available with regular "hogsleg" grips. I wanted mine to mimic the Thunderer, though. There can't be too many of them out there. Remember that the Lightening looked the same, but was in .38 Colt caliber.

[Wayne Smith]

Harry, mine has smooth chambers. It is late production and is a Cimarron, fit and finished by them. They have discontinued the model, I don't know if Uberti has.
Remember the Uberti is an undersized P model and is internally as strong as the P model. There is no real comparison with the original.