1851 Navy conversion question

[Stacey Lee]

Howdee.
I have only owned 1851 Navy in black powder cylinder style revolvers, and never in a conversion cylinder style, but I want to turn one of my nicer Piettas into the .38 Colt conversion.
My questions are , is there any problem with the frame-barrel conection working loose on these guns ( Pietta in particular ) while fireing the .38 bullets ?
I am not sure if I will resleeve to do the .357 so I can shoot any .38 special, or just do the cylinder-gated conversion gun?
I know when I use perfectly sized .36 caliber balls in my .36 Navy, it shaves the lead and makes a nice wad-cutter type bullet shape when you back them out of the cylinder , so I know accuracy is going to be hard to beat by any .38 special other than a wad-cutter anyway.
I don't know the ballistics of the .38 Long Colt, can someone please share that with me ? In smokeless please and in BP.
I may never handload anything, so are the Cowboy loads going to be ok in this gun if I shoot the heck out of it as planned? If I go with the .38 Special re-sleeve barrel job too, can I shoot regular .38 special powered bullets too, like LFN's , RNL's, Hollow points , etc etc in normal .38 special velocity rated shells too and not ruin the barrel-frame connection ?

Anyway, I appreciate any comments, concerns, advice, ridicule, or whatever thoughts you may have on this subject.

Cheers, Stacey Lee

[Wild Ben Raymond]

OK I'll give you my thoughts on this, first a 51' navy ball & cap has a barrel made for .375 cal. bullets I believe and the .38 colt/special uses a .357 dia. bullets, unless you would use heel-base type bullets. But I'm not sure these after market cylinders are made to use them. Another option would be to use a deep cavity hollow based bullet, that would upset the skirt to engage the rifling just like the mini-ball's used in the riflied muskets used during the civil war. These work very well with black powder but may not work so well with smokeless. If you want to shoot factory smokeless loads, you should probably sleave the barrel, if you can do that your self, thats great but the cost to have someone else do it, you might as well just buy a already made conversion. Good Luck WBR     

[will52100]

Your money ahead to go ahead an buy a factory conversion, but they lack some of the authenticity of doing one from a cap gun.  The conversion cylinder will only chamber 38 long colt, but will take a 38 special if the bullet is seated down a bit.  I've had no trouble with mine loosing, and I use a 158 grain hollow base round nose flat point bullet.  It works well with smokless or black powder.  R&D has a bit nicer looking conversion set up, though Kirst is looking good too.  I've got both styles and they both work well.

[Stacey Lee]

Thanks for the input, and that pretty much answered all my questions too, cool.
Money not being a real concern, not that I am rich by any means, but I do like the idea of making one from a regular cap and ball pistol , partly by myself, as I can do most of the work am sure.
I do really appreciate the ballstic and velocity info especially. That, I was confused on.

Thank you, Sincerely, Stacey Lee