1872 open top 44 or 38 special options........

[fortyshooter]

Well finished the 38 Special swap project on my 1872 Colt 44 Open Top and took it to the range yesterday and results were good.

Took some fitting to get the 38 Special cylinder and 4 3/4 barrel to fit with proper clearances but it all worked out with a nice .005 cylinder/barrel gap and enough rotating clearance without binding or end play slop....about .0015 nice!

Had two 38 Special loads I wanted to try with the MB 158 gr. RNFP Cowboy bullet. 5 gr, of Power Pistol and 3.6 gr. of HP-38 powders.

From 10 yds. the Power Pistol load had a wide spread around the outside of the target area and shooting low. The HP-38 loads are in bulls eye area and just to outside of that but much tighter in groups and still shoot low. Had to hold just above 12 o'clock to try and hit center so with the HP-38 load will file down the front blade a touch. The sweet spot for Power Pistol is in the 5.6 gr range for +P level performance but too hot for this pistol. Will be loading HP-38 for this revolver.
Really was a fun no recoil target shooter and a great time hitting the steel along with some 40 yd. big gong hits! Much less roll back than shooting the 44 special loads with the 3 inch barrel. Really nice shooting the upper level but not +P 38 Special loads. No leading in barrel after shooting and I credit that to honing out the 38 cylinder for a slight push thru of the coated MB bullets. Without that the fit for the coated bullets was a bit too tight scraping off the coating trying to force them thru the cylinder throats.
Nice having the option to shoot 44 Special with long or short barrel and being able to swap over to 38 Special with same revolver!

[Rifletom]

forty, that seemed to come together rather well. Nice work and good shooting.

[GaCop]

Excellent set up! What does a conversion like that cost?

[fortyshooter]

Excellent set up! What does a conversion like that cost?

Well you start out with what caliber you like in the Open Top along with what barrel length you want. Then you can buy a replacement cylinder and barrel for what other caliber you want to try. Around 300 bucks or so for cylinder and barrel. But you will have to carefully fit the barrel and cylinder to the frame for best cylinder gap and rotating clearance. Usually the cylinder arbor hole in the barrel will need a bit of honing to get the fit right and you will have to fit the wedge lock to it also. I just buy another wedge and fit it to the new barrel.