Mill 1861 barrel for open top ejector

[Cheyenne Logan]

Any body got a suggestion for a smith who can mill a groove and drill an 1861 barrel for an open top ejector? Trying to make a more correct 1861 conversion

[45 Dragoon]

How about a Kirst 1860 Army ejector?

Mike

[Abilene]

Since he said "more correct" I think he is trying to approximate the Richards-Mason ejector since Colt never did the Richards Conversion or ejector style on the '61.  Of course, to be "more correct" you would also have to re-contour the underside of the barrel.

[Coffinmaker]

  Cheyenne

Actually that is a pretty tall order.  As mentioned by Abilene, The Barrel Lug would also ned to be filled in and re-machined to the Richards/Mason contour.

Contrary to some popular belief, Colt DID convert a number of 1861 revolvers.  those guns were NOT converted for the civilian market but were converted for the Navy's few (thousand or so) existing stocks of 1861s.  Very few original sample examples are found.

The possibility of warping the 1861 barrel assemble is very real.  Original Richards/Mason conversions were done with entirely new barrel assembles that were made without the "crawler" slot for a loading lever.

I don't know how the Navy disposed of their converted '61s but those that have survived are super scarce.  I don't even know for positive what caliber the Navy guns were converted to.  I would suspect they were converted to the original .38, being a 375 bore.  Dunno.

My initial thought mimes 45 Dragoon.  I've even considered it, using Kirst Konverter parts for Conversion Ring, Cylinder and Ejector which would be sorta close.  If real authenticity is desired, first the barrel lug would need to be re-contoured, then a filler piece made for the crawler slot.  Then milled and drilled for an Open Top ejector assembly.  Twould still require a Kirst Konverter for .38 and would still leave the problem of the .375 bore size.  Atz a whole bunch of "converting" for a One-Off example.

Back to your original question, I don't know any one who would be willing to do it.  The cost could also be quite excessive.