.38 S&W Cartridge Conversion Cylinder for .36 Cap and Ball Info Needed

[BlackPowderBen]

Hi,
I recently saw this .38 S&W conversion cylinder for sale that converts .36 cap and ball revolvers to shoot the .38 S&W cartridge. It was made in 1978 by Legal Defender inc. I was wondering if anyone had any info about these and if any of you still use these conversions? pic's below. Any info would be great.
Thanks.

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[Winger Ed.]

It's not new idea.

Those conversions were around back in the day when the .38 S& W hit the street.

Same thing happened when percussion caps came along and flintlocks could be converted to them.

I'd be a little cautious with it in a old revolver, and do the timing and cylinder gap right.

[Outpost75]

Back in the day .38 S&W ammunition had a deep hollow base and black powder would slug-up the undersized bullet to take up the rifling. Modern .38 S&W ammo has a flat-based bullet, normally .357-.358" diameter, if you actually pull the bullet and measure it.
I don't know what the barrel dimensions of modern .36 cap & ball guns are, but I wouldn't depend on modern smokeless ammo upsetting much. You could, of course, cast your own bullets which fit and a heeled bullet with full diameter front driving band, like those of the black powder era, would do fine with a light load of about 2 grains of Bullseye for 600 fps. If you don't cast your own, buy 148-grain hollow-based wadcutters, load with 2 grains of Bullseye and seat the bullets out to 1.2" overall cartridge length.

[curator]

B-P-Ben:

The .38 S&W case makes a good "conversion" cartridge for .36 cap & ball revolvers with slightly over-size bores. Many reproduction .36 revolvers were made with .378 to .385 groove diameters instead of the original "standard" of .375. Conversion cylinders for revolvers that have not been re-lined to modern .357" groove diameter rifling have no chamber throats (bored straight through) To make cartridges that shoot accurately you will need "heeled" bullets that have a rebated base of .360" and a bearing surface diameter of .385" or so. Conversions that are made to shoot .38 S&W Special cartridges can only be loaded with heeled bullets of .357 heel/.375" bearing surface diameter and do not shoot all that well in the larger bored revolvers. The .38S&W case also holds less powder and produces less recoil with is favored by Cowboy Action shooters who value rapid shooting over power down range.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

BPBen, You said you saw it, but you didn't say you bought it. So why not go with one made in .38 Special? Made by 2 or 3 manufacturers.

[arcticap]

See post #13 by Jim Watson.--->>> https://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=543921

He has one and installed it.
But he couldn't obtain good accuracy until he relined his barrel.
However he does give a good description about how well it functions and was installed.

Another informative thread here about it but no one had installed one yet:--->>> https://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php?topic=27083.0

[BlackPowderBen]

Ok thanks for this info everyone, I appreciate it.