After investigating the installation and use of a 45 Colt cartridge conversion cylinder for a Cap & Ball revolver, I decided that the price of one did not justify getting one to make a half-baked 45 Colt revolver when, with just another one hundred dollars, I could purchase a 45 Colt revolver of the 1873 SAA variety. The economics of it simply put me off. The “38” conversion cylinders were always (and still are) marketed as being capable of handling 38 Special ammunition and to a point they are. It’s not the regular ammunition they can shoot accurately however but the Hollow-Base Wad Cutters that can be used. With the “38” conversion cylinder, the issue is that most folks will ignorantly purchase commercial 38 Special ammunition with .357” bullets and shoot them in a Cap & Ball revolver with a .375” groove-to-groove barrel diameter. Obviously the bullet will bounce its way down the barrel and come out the muzzle in some configuration other than aligned. If a “belly gun” is what you need, that’s what you have with this arrangement.
Around 1870, the age of cartridge guns dawned and they were rapidly becoming the replacement to Cap & Ball revolvers. In 1872 Colt introduced their first true cartridge revolver, the 1872 Open Top, designed to fire cartridges from its inception. In 1873 of course, Colt introduced their 1873 SAA and the rest is history. Know however that from the mid 1870’s until 1890, it was definitely less expensive to have your Cap & Ball revolver “converted” to fire cartridges than purchasing a new cartridge revolver. Many gunsmiths cropped up to perform these conversion services and several styles of conversions were available to the consumer wishing to use the more convenient cartridges of the day.
The owners of the converted 1860 Army Cap & Ball revolvers could easily use the new 45 Caliber cartridges since the groove-to-groove diameter of the Cap & Ball guns matched the bullet diameter of the newly introduced 45 Colt ammunition. Even though the 1860 Army was listed as a 44 caliber revolver, in actuality it had a 44 caliber bore (lands) with a 45 caliber groove diameter.
The 1851 and 1861 Navy converted percussion revolvers with their 36 caliber bores and 38 caliber (.375”) grooves necessitated the manufacture of “38 Caliber” cartridges using heeled .375” bullets in cases. These were outside lubricated .375” bullets which fit the barrels nicely. The original cartridges were named 38 Long Colt and utilized the heeled .375” bullets. As the gun industry rapidly tooled up for the newer ammunition being developed and produced, guns were manufactured with smaller bores to utilize bullets of .357” and enclosed within the brass cases. This avoided the messy outside lubricated bullets and the associated issues with them.
The 38 Long Colt was released initially with a .375” heeled bullet to be used in converted Cap & Ball revolvers but within a few short years the cartridge was modified to use a .357” hollow base bullet enclosed within the case which could be fired fairly accurately in the original Cap & Ball revolvers and the newly manufactured firearms using the now smaller (tighter) bores.
Since the modern 38 caliber conversion cylinders have a true .375” chamber mouth and can fire 38 Short Colt, 38 Long Colt and 38 Special HBWC ammunition, I decided to get the 38 caliber cylinder and shoot original 38 Long Colt ammunition. These cartridges would need to be made since no commercially available 38LC ammunition is available. Even the single source of 38 Short Colt which is Remington now uses .357” inside case bullets. I just don’t want my bullets wobbling down the bore.
Fortunately I already cast 36 caliber (.375”) heeled bullets since Mark Hubbs of Eras Gone Bullet Molds contracted with Lee to produce a mold which is an exact replica of the 36 Colt Cartridge Works conical bullet for their 1851 and 1861 percussion revolvers. 38 Special brass can be trimmed to the correct length for either 38SC or 38LC ammunition. I trimmed the brass to 1.020” for 38LC rounds. It became obvious that a crimp on a heeled bullet was going to be difficult but, low and behold, a company called Old West Bullet Molds makes a heeled bullet crimp die for the 38 Colt family of cartridges. Looks like I had all the pieces needed to generate my original 38LC cartridges!
The conversion cylinder arrived and I am one of the fortunate customers whose cylinder dropped right into my Pietta 1861 Navy revolver. Whew. I have read horror stories about this and frankly that was my biggest concern. I was not looking forward to working the action parts to make the cylinder work correctly in the revolver. I dodged the bullet there (pun intended). The crimp die arrived the same day as the Taylor’s conversion cylinder and so after dinner I headed to the loading bench to see how things would work. I trimmed a few cases and started.
When SLIGHTLY flaring the case mouth to accept the heeled bullets, I used my newly acquired Lee die set for the 38SC/38LC cartridges. Unfortunately their new mouth flaring/charging die has a sharp, small, almost full diameter pilot and it just kept eating cases. I switched to my RCBS expander plug and we were off to the races. I will have to address this significant design issue with Lee at some point in the immediate future. I may just return the whole set for a refund since truthfully, every step for the 38LC except crimping can be done with a 38/357 die set. Since the 38LC cartridges with the Eras Gone 36 Navy heeled bullet fit in the cylinder, I have no desire or need to generate 38SC cartridges.
After flaring the case mouths, I filled the cases with 20.5gr by weight of Graf & Sons FFFG black powder. I applied a little glue to the heel of the bullet and seated it to the base driving band. I then used the Old West Bullet Molds crimp tool to apply a crimp. It all worked just fine and my first 5 cartridges are ready to shoot! I’ll put some homemade Paul Matthews Formula #1 bullet lubricant on them, chamber them and off we go to see how they shoot.
Making these cartridges is rather time consuming at this point since trimming 38 Special cases down takes some time. Once the trimming operation is complete and I have a hundred or so shells, that whole step is eliminated and the operation will be smoother and faster. The bullet nose is just about .0005” too long and is easily scraped off during cylinder rotation but that is rather annoying. I will have to trim the remainder of the cases that much shorter and adjust the crimp die accordingly.
All in all this has been a great project so far and will continue to be one into the future. I just can’t wait to get these to the range and see how they shoot!
Old West Bullet Molds
https://oldwestbulletmoulds.com/
Eras Gone Molds
https://erasgonebullets.com
Taylor’s & Company Firearms
https://taylorsfirearms.com
A completed original 38 Long Colt cartridge with a heeled .375" bullet for use in 36 caliber Cap & Ball revolvers converted for use of cartridges. Notice the bullet diameter is the same as the case diameter.
Attachment 277557
Top is a 38 Special cartridge with an enclosed inside lubricated .357" bullet. Bottom is a 38 Long Colt cartridge with an outside lubricated heeled .375" bullet for use in converted Cap & Ball revolvers.
Attachment 277558
Left is a Lyman 358311 158gr .357" 38 Special bullet. Right is a Eras Gone Molds 126gr Colt Cartridge Works heeled .380" bullet for use in unmodified Cap & Ball revolvers or used in 38 Long Colt cartridges in converted Cap & Ball revolvers.
Attachment 277559
The Taylor's & Company 38 caliber conversion cylinder for 36 caliber Cap & Ball revolvers with 38 Long Colt dummy cartridges inserted. Parent brass is 38 Special which has been trimmed to 1.020".
Attachment 277562
A small batch of authentic 38 Long Colt black powder cartridges with .375" heeled bullets.
Attachment 277560
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Originally Posted by AntiqueSledMan
