The Goose
NES Member
So this post is about reloading, but it is also a bit of a review of the R&D conversion cylinder for cap n ball revolvers. A few years back I acquired a Uberti 1858 Remington stainless .44 percussion revolver. Supposedly it had been owned by a cowboy action shooter who had it tuned. Sure seems like it to me. I also picked up an R&D conversion cylinder in .45 Colt to try out. The conversion cylinder just dropped in without adjustment. The manufacturer recommends either "cowboy" level smokeless loads or black powder (or substitute). Initially I fired smokeless loads mostly Trailboss under a Lyman 250 gr. cast bullet. Accuracy was absolutely excellent, arguably this converted revolver is as accurate as any handgun that I have ever shot. The Trailboss loads were very mild with negligible recoil and almost a pop instead of a bang. I wanted more so I tried black powder. WOW, what a difference. It went from pop to BOOM with belches of fire and smoke and a pretty hefty recoil, but the accuracy stayed the same. I was hooked. I picked up a 6 cavity Big Lube .45 mold that throws about a 255 gr. flatnosed boolit. I size it to .454 and lube it with either SPG or Sagebrush lube. I load it over 32 grains of 3F blackpowder with a 030 Walters wad and a little help from a compression die. My set of reloading dies are Lee and I use the factory crimp die as the final step. To date I have shot well over 1000 rounds through this revolver and it still functions perfectly and looks almost new. The picture below was taken today. For those of you who like to complain about black powder clean up it is a piece of cake on a stainless revolver. I use a diluted solution of Windex with Vinegar (not ammonia). Just drop out the cylinder, spritz the whole thing. A couple of swabs through the bore and a wipe down and it is clean. Compare that to what smokeless powder does to a stainless cylinder. The only drawback to this set up is that the cylinder has to be removed to reload and the spent brass is poked out with a punch. There are some conversion cylinders with loading gates and on some revolvers you can install an ejection system. I'm OK with mine as it is. Great fun to shoot and accurate as all get out. Also it hammers steel plates.
The Uberti with the conversion cylinder installed
The original percussion cylinder next to the R&D
A loaded cylinder
A loaded round and the Big Lube bullet with and without lube
The Uberti with the conversion cylinder installed
The original percussion cylinder next to the R&D
A loaded cylinder
A loaded round and the Big Lube bullet with and without lube