Palmetto Arms (Dixie G W) Repro Colt Revolving Rifle Cartridge Conversion

[Hondo44]

Has anyone converted the 1855 Colt Root Revolving Rifle to black powder cartridge? 45 Colt/454 Casull would be the simplest to chamber it for as it shoots a proper size bullet at .454 for the bore size and would hold the appropriate recommended charge of 40 to 50 grs. of FFFg in a 454 Casull case.

[Harley Starr]

They did it for the 3:10 to Yuma remake. Right there at the end you can see Campo the Mexican sharpshooter punching out the spent cases.

[Hondo44]

Hey thanks, that's cool. I have to pressume it was chambered for for 5 in 1 blanks which is the same as I planned with 45 Colt but I'll be shooting live ammo. If it's too costly to have a cylinder built I'll just have to buy and indexer and make my own. It's about the simplest conversion there is since the alignment notches are on the cylinder arbor and not the cylinder itself. Much less machining.

Jim

[Harley Starr]

Happy to help Hondo. 

[Long Johns Wolf]

FWIW: my favorite smith in Austria converted one last year to .45-70. That was a major rework affecting cylinder and frame.
But at the end of the day the Vienna Proof house applied their stamp of approval.
Long Johns Wolf

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Wow!  A revolving Colt (repro) 45-70 rifle!

Herr Nedball, I assume?

[Hondo44]

Wow, 45-70. I assume that was for black powder loadings.  I can see where he might have made it a 5 shot cylinder but not sure why the frame re-work was necessary unless it was for strength to shoot smokeless powder loads. I'll use 460 S&W cases because 45 reamers are common and 6 shells fit easily into the cylinder. The longer cases will help mitigate too much freebore jump to the rifling and offer enough case capacity for adequate but safe BP loads. I might even go to 444 Marlin brass blown out to 45 for even longer cases.

The only documentation for original conversions I've been able to find was for Henry 44 Rimfire. Must have been an early conversion before other cartridges were available like 44 Colt, etc.

[Bottom Dealin Mike]

Back in the early oughts when I tested the Root Rifle for an article, Kenny Howell was interested in making a .45 Colt cylinder for it...don't know if he ever did.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

I remember how happy I was when I got one of my (then) new Dixie catalogs.  (Around 2003 or so - I have 4 or 5, now)

Right near the front, on the "new additions" page was this cool lookin' Colt Revolving rifle listed at $200!  I ran to the phone (really!) and called in to order one ... when the nice lady who answered calmly and patiently explained that the printer had inadvertently left off the 1 between the dollar sign and the 2 and said, "No, I'm sorry that we can't sell this $1200 rifle for $200."

Sooo sad am I ... still!