.38 lc conversion on pietta 1861 navy?

[Deadguy]

Anyone try using a .38 lc/.38 special conversion cylinder on an 1851/1861 Navy with hollow base bullets?  How did it work out?  I am considering doing so with an 1861 of mine that has a bad cylinder.  I'd prefer the hollowbase over the heeled bullets because they will load and size with the equipment I already have, and I can still use them with my Marlin '94 if I choose to.  Any thoughts?

[Pettifogger]

Well yeah.  Other than heeled bullets hollowbase is the only other solution.  I use commercial swaged soft lead hollowbase wadcutters.  They work fine.  Can't use them in a Marlin cause they won't feed.  Finding an inexpensive source of hollowbase .357 diameter bullets with a standard round nose flat point isn't easy.  There are a few custom casters, but not many.

[Deadguy]

I have found a semi-wadcutter hollowbase mold.  My Marlin feeds semi-wadcutters just fine, so that is not an issue.  Glad to hear they work OK.  I'd be loading them with BP, of course.

[Montana Slim]

My Pa has Pietta 1851s & a 1861 with conversion cylinders.
I helped him test fire and work up some loads with HBWC. With BP, we pack the base with BP lube, then load. I recommend filling just up to the base with no compression. We loaded them a bit long to expose some lead (per SASS req.). Accuracy was pretty good. The 1861 was the most accurate, possibly due to the non-authentic 8" barrel and thus extended sight radius. Shot the same loads in original 1861 Colt RM with good results as well.

I'd be interested in details about your mold, including the source.

The advantage I see to a heel-bullet is that they have been made in multi-cavity molds.

Regards,
Slim

[Deadguy]

I was all set to sniper off a Lyman 358431 hollow-based semi-wadcutter on ebay, but my wife *distracted* me (very well, I might add) at the final hour and I got outbid at the last minute.  Drats!  Oh well, I see that mold pop up fairly regularily, so I'm not too worried.  If worse comes to worse, I'm sure that Bernie at Old West molds can whip one up for me.  I would have done the .357 barrel sleeving from R and D, but they are so far backed up that they aren't taking on any more personal business at the moment.   

[Flinch Morningwood]

I shoot the 38 LC HB out of my 1851s...I bought a hollow base mould from a guy out west (I can look up the contact if your interested...he does semi-custom so he could make what you need...mine was about $125 or so). 

I like them A LOT!  They are easy to cast and load....the only downside is you have to cast them individually because of the hollow base so it takes a while...

[delfitz]

I bought a pietta 36 planning to convert it to a 38lc.  Did all of the reading about heeled and hollowbase bullets. Bought a 38-55 factory crimp die , cast hollobase and heeled bullets. after all this i bought krist konverter and installed it.
   
  Then I miked the bore 0.360, Lee 125gr and 158 grain cast 0.361 bullets, loaded 38spcl cases to 1.45in with HP38 according to hogdon chart shoots as accurate with lee bullets as with the Gad custom hollow base.

  It seems that all information uberta and is not fully correct for Pietta.  Can hit a 6" circle at 100yrds with conversion.

[pony express]

If you're going to get a mould from Bernie anyway, it's easy to get his heel base mould and the modified crimp die he has, with those all you need is regular .38 dies for sizing/priming/expanding.