Uberti Remington M 1858 Army Conversion .44 Colt

[Long Johns Wolf]

Howdy from Germany. As posted somewhere else gunsmith-friend Klaus Mumme and myself are having above project between us. Technically all major issues are solved, we have have a 6-shot Millington cylinder for the .44 inside lubed cartridges (.429 dia), the thin recoil plate and Klaus got the .44 liner ready to be installed. This is going to be a pistol without loading gate but the right side of the recoil shield shall be slotted for easy loading/emptying the gun IF we agree to add a simple L-shaped ejector assembly.
Except for pictures and scatchy info in the Adler and Pate books we have no hard data ragarding the specs of the ejector and the housing tube. We do not have the McDowell book, or an original pistol or the new Uberti Remington conversion, for measurements.
Can any of you friendly cowgirls and cowboys out there provide the measurements, i. e. length, inside and outside diameter of the tube; length and diameter of the ejector rod plus the diameter of the "knob" at the tip of the ecejtor rod (the part that keeps the rod from sliding out of the tube).
Was dovetailing the ejector housing into the right side of the frame the only way the oldtimers used to fix the ejector assembly to the gun?
Thanks for your advice.
Bootsie

[Fox Creek Kid]

Bootsie, why pay that German "raketewissenschaftler" 100 Euros an hour when you can buy the correct ejector already made for $100.00? 


http://www.riverjunction.com/kirst/konverteracc.html

[Long Johns Wolf]

Hello Fox Creek Kid. We were considering to copy this US $ 98,00 aftermarket ejector soldered to the cylinder arbor at around € 50,00, but were advised that it is not period correct?!
If you tell me it IS period correct indeed and we don't have to go the expensive dovetailing way I would love to go that easy route. However, I still need the specs. Kannst Du mir da weiterhelfen?
Bootsie

[Halfway Creek Charlie]

Though of German descent (Baden Baden) I don't speack german. Dovetailed ejectors were ONLY in the Factory Conversions, very few Gunsmith or Armory Conversions had ejectors. Why go to that expense. Look at my Origianl pictures of mine one is a gunsmith version and the other is an Armory vesrion, neither have Factory Ejectors.

I used Kirsts ejectors and found them to be a PIA. I went back to no ejectors and a Poriginal type cylinder pin and I can pop out the cylinder and drop the cartridges out faster than using an ejector. JMHO.

I do have a copy of Mcdowells Book and I can copy or photograph  whichever pictures you might like . Email me or PM me. I can photograph the page and send it to you by email. It is easy to transliterate the lengeths if the bbl length is stated as a starting dimension. Toobad you don't have the book, because with the book and an over head projector, you can scale the parts perfectly. I used to build ML rifles out of Kindigs book and that is the way I scaled the rifles. Just adjust the picture on the wall to the bbl. Length and everything else is in scale.

Are you doing An Army or Navy?

[Oldelm]

Bootsie......I agree with Charlie that you don't have to have an ejector rod with its housing to be period correct, as many were converted to 44CF without any ejector rods.

If it helps you any, I can show you some pics, and give you details of one of the few '58 Rem conversions made by Ken Howell,...nickel plated, 5-shot , New Model Army chambered in .44-40.


The ejector rod housing is welded into a slot in the frame, rather than dovetailed. The ejector rod housing has a small piece of shaped spring steel with a small protruding pin on one end which fits through the housing and engages a slot in the business end of the ejector rod, to retain it.  That piece of spring steel is held onto the bottomside of the ejector rod housing by a small  screw.  Here's a few pics......

http://img.inkfrog.com/pix/foxlbe/Image37a.jpg 

http://img.inkfrog.com/pix/foxlbe/Image67a.jpg

........here's the  spring steel ejector rod retainer.

http://img.inkfrog.com/pix/foxlbe/Image24.jpg

Here's a few pics showing the ends of the ejector rod housing, just to help get your mind around how everything fits together. Note that the cylinder pin head is cut in half so as to make room for the end of the ejector rod housing........( the cylinder pin head and the ejector rod were done in chacoal blue finish)

http://img.inkfrog.com/pix/foxlbe/Image47a.jpg

http://img.inkfrog.com/pix/foxlbe/Image57a.jpg

...here's the ejector rod, which is 4-3/16" long , and .185" diameter.

http://img.inkfrog.com/pix/foxlbe/Image60a.jpg


The ejector rod housing is 1-9/16" long at its base, and .375" high.

Keep us posted as to what you finally decide to do. That Millington cylinder sounds like a good one.
Would like to see a picture of it if you ever get a chance.
Good luck!   

[Halfway Creek Charlie]

The Cylinder pin having it's right lobe cut off is historically correct for a factory Conversion, be it Remington, Whitneyville, or S & W, the latter two contracted by Remington to do conversions as Remington could not do them themselves due to the Rollin White Patent on drilled thru cylinders.

[Long Johns Wolf]

Thank you folks for the constructive thoughts, the photographs and the specs. That's a quantum jump ahead.
As mentioned somewhere else we are converting my old Uberti Remington Army from the early 70's. Charlie I share your feelings about the Kirst ejector but I would love to have (a period correct) one because it might improve function. But then Clint Eastwood looked cool as the Preacher and he managed the bad guys without ejector.
The conversion should be period correct but it must not be a "factory" conversion. From that perspective welding is an option I need to discuss with Klaus who is the one with the proverbial golden hands.
I'll keep you posted and I will show the pics once the conversion is completed.
Thanks again.
Bootsie

[Steel Horse Bailey]

This sound cool, Bootsie.  Ausgeseichnet!  (I hope I spelled it correctly!)

I'm looking forward to the finished product!

[Marshal Will Wingam]

Thanks for posting the pics of Kenny's conversion. I like the way he did it. I'm looking forward to your project.

[Long Johns Wolf]

These gunsmiths are artists and take their time...but is was worth the wait. There she is Uberti Remington Army from 1971 converted to .44 Colt. Klaus Mumme had to make a new barrel, the front sight is dove-tailed into the barrel. The cylinder was provided by Bob Millington. Will give her a proper workout with smokeless on Wednesday.
Shall I have the ejector blued or leave it "in the white"?
Long Johns Wolf

[Marshal Will Wingam]

That really looks great. I'd probably blue the ejector so it would age the same as the whole thing. Parts in the white really are hard to keep clean.

[Oldelm]

Long Johns,...your gunsmith did an excellent job! Even looks like the grip screw nuts have the little "wings" like the originals. Thanks for showing us the photo.

[Long Johns Wolf]

Thanks Oldelm: most parts are original Uberti from 1971 like frame, grips, internals, cylinder pin. Klaus reshaped the factory hammer to ignite cartridges.
Newly made are cylinder with the thin conversion plate, barrel, frontsight, barrel stud and ejector assembly, of course.
Long Johns Wolf