1851 Navy conversion

[Bisley]

Hello, about a year ago, I decided to finally shoot the 1851 Navy remake I bought new in 1972. Couldn,t bring myself to use it before, & kind of got out of the black powder game, for revolvers anyway. I had a new Kirst
Kartridge Konverter cylender & loading gate, which dropped right in with no fitting. Loading gate is just for looks, as I didn,t want to grind frame for ctg. clearance. I had a few boxes of Win. .38 long colt brass, but no bullets. That summer, nobody had components. What to do? After 30 some years, when I decided to use it I couldn,t! Or could I? Looking over my inventory of soft-cast bullets, I came across some Ideal #358477 150gr. These measured as cast .360". Pushing them in .359 sizer die until base was flush with die mouth, die was chucked up in wood lathe & using a 5/16" ball end mill (available at industrial supply house..used in milling machine...cutter has perfect radius on end). this was fed into base .1".
Bullets lubed & loaded with light charges of Bullseye. At 25yd. gun shot high but gave 2" groups! This with hammer notch rear & bead front & 56 plus year old eyes! Later in fall, hollow base wadcutters were tried, but did not shoot as well. Rapine hollow-base mould arrived, but too late in season to try. All in all a very enjoyable experiance..though making those bullets was a mind numbing experiance! Just thought I would let you know to what lengths an old shootest will go to get something to go bang!

[Ken S]

a year ago bought an 1851 Colt reissue, unfired in the box.
I shot it once.
then I bought an 1860 Army Colt reissue, unfired in the box.
I shot it too.

So what....value is lower, but NOW the guns are Mine!

Go shoot it and enjoy it. Ken