If it is a basic-quality Belgian revolver, as the great majority of small pinfires are, you can be close to certain that it is just mild steel, which was adequate for its intended purpose. I am fairly sure there never were smokeless pinfire loads, and even with black powder the loads were never heavy.
I have a .38 rimfire factory conversion of the open frame Colt New Police, and the metal over the rear of the chamber, which used to be over the nipple threads, is frighteningly thin. I forget which of the factory conversions, though I think not that one, was supplied with a spare cylinder, and I suspect that a blowout wasn't an uncommon event. It was probably harmless if the gun was held in any conventional position, but you wouldn't want a friend holding it sideways like movie gangsters. I doubt if it would even prevent firing the rest of the shots in an open frame revolver. But I agree that a complete new cylinder is the best way to go, and using anything but low pressure loads isn't.
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Originally Posted by Multigunner
On closer inspection of the old gun I came to the conclusion that any attempt to make it into a repeating revolver was out of the question. Barrel/ cylinder alignment would have been the major problem with the open frame design of this beat-up 1858 Lefaucheux but there were other problems as well.
