Old Style Kirst

[Patrick Henry Brown]

Just a though. I saw on SCORR's Home Page Gallery where French Jack converted an old style Kirst without the gate to accept rear load cartridges. This got me to thinking, so I dug into the gunsafe and found a very old and forgotten H&R 622 from the sixties. It had a loading gate cut in the shield as well. My questions about doing this on an 1858 are: 1. Would the Kirst ring still be strong enough with the cutout? 2. Would I risk losing cartridges or jams of the action since there would be no gate?

I've PM'd French Jack, but thought I'd ask here while waiting. Thanks!

[Skinny Preacher 66418]

If you don't take our too much material, it should be safe. When hammer is down, your case heads are going to be partially behind the shield (not directly in line with the groove you cut). As the cylinder rotates, the spend cases rotate to the right, and won't fall out of the chambers very easily (they've expanded). At half-cock, the case head will line up with your groove, and you can pop the case out with a pushrod. They used to mention this conversion in the instuctions of the the standard backplate.