bullet dia. for 58 conversion?

[will52100]

What do you all use for bullets for a Uberti 58 with R&D conversion cylinder?  I normaly use .454 in my 73 and Henry, not sure what would be best for the conversion.  I can always size the bullets down as I cast my own.  If I remember rite the 58 is suposed to have a .451-.452 dia. bore, just wondering if squesing a .454 bullet through will cause undue stress and wear.

Thanks

[Flint]

I use .452 dia. as I use it in other guns as well.  I doubt .454 would hurt the Remington.  It looks like the Uberti cap & ball 44 groove diameter is .458.  Uberti's 45 Colt groove diameter is .450

[will52100]

Thanks Flint.  I just got the rig in today, my .454 loads fit the R&D conversion cylinder just fine.  That was one of my worries, I've heard that the R&D had tight chambers.  I have yet to slug the barrel so I'm not sure what the grove dia. is.

I've got to say that I've never been a big fan of the Remmington, partialy due to haveing a couple of pietta's, but this uberti realy fits my hand and the quality is very nice.  Good fit and finish(for an itialian), and the action is crisp and clean with no creap.  I've learned my leason, no more pietta's.  The real test will be test firing it this after noon.

Thanks

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Will, were your Piettas older models?  I had one made about 15 years ago that wasn't far from being good only as a 44 cal. paperweight!  It's different now, 'tho.

I don't know for sure, but the word "on the street" says that Pietta has pretty much turned 180 degrees in the last 5 years or so and now makes some FINE Italian guns.  It's a when the gun was MADE, NOT when you owned it. 

The Piettas are, by account, bigger in the hand than the Ubertis or the ones imported by Interarms, so that may explain why the Uberti fits ya better.

Personally, you probably won't go wrong with Uberti.  I have a Colt by Uberti and the Rem is Pietta.  Even now that the NMA is a "changed gun" the Uberti still beats it, hands down - but I really can't compare it fairly to the new Piettas.  (But the Uberti "Colt" is over 30 years old, too. 

[will52100]

Well, I bought a pietta about a year ago from cabela's.  I had one pietta I bought about 3-4 years ago at a gun show used for a good price.  The newest I bought when I heard they'd cleaned up there act.  It was better than the older model and I didn't need to do as much work to it, but the internals were still way too soft, fit and finish were poor and both guns had a clunky feel to them, the new one's barrel was noticably turned out of square with the flats.  The newer pietta I plan on doing some welding and reconfiguring to the grip and such, soon as I get my shop built.

I've had several colt clones from pietta and uberti, the uberti's have always had less issues.  I do have one pietta that I wouldn't trade for anything, but I've had several that were boat anchor quality.

I'm impressed with the R&D cylinder, and the uberti remmington.  It doesn't feel quite as natural as my opentops or 73's, but not bad and a lot better than the grips on the pietta 58's.  Good enough in fact that if all I had a choice was cap and ball colt or the 58 with the R&D I'd pick the remmington.  Soon as I can get rid of the polly finish and maybe thin the grips a hair and put an oil finish I think they'll be even better.  I did get out and manage to put around a 100 rounds through it.  Seems to like the lighter loads best, though none were shot on paper or from a rest.  Very good accuracy with everything tried, including black powder.  The cylinder was a little stiff at first but has loosened up some after firing.  The bore is pretty decent, though I'll lap it a bit with JB bore compound, that always seems to improve accuracy a little, and help with clean up a lot.  It shot point of aim with both 7 grains of unique and 5.5 grains of trailboss under a 250 grain bullet.  .454 or .452 dia. didn't seem to make a differance.  I'll know more when I get a chance to rest it and shoot it on paper.

The one improvement I think the R&D needs is a half notch to rest the hammer on like the percussion cylinder, otherwise there's no point in having six chambers.  I'll probably mill one on the cap, shouldn't be hard to do, even with nothing more than a file, just a notch to lock the hammer between chambers.

[Silver Creek Slim]

I use .454 sized boolits.

Slim