45 acp conversion

[Will Lynchem]

I posted a more in depth review in the 1873 topic but I just wanted to let those who dont read that segment to know that I just received my Uberti 1873 45 Colt back from a gunsmith in west Virginia known as Cody Conagher. He converted my 1873 from a 45 Colt to a 45 ACP.
All I can say is WoW! What a great gun.  Works like a charm!  Good job Cody, Good Job!       

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

Years ago, I saw a beat up Win '92 that had been converted by a south American government to .45 ACP. Supposedly they were intended for rural police use.

P.S: Quite a while back the NRA RIFLEMAN tech team converted a Marlin to a takedown. At the same time, they chambered it to .45 ACP.

[45 Dragoon]

What did he do?
I fitted a Ruger 45acp cyl to my El Patron Competition and now have a "convertible".  It shoots acp as well if not better than the 45C. !!!

Congratulations  by the way!

Mike
www.goonsgunworks.com

[Abilene]

What did he do?
I fitted a Ruger 45acp cyl to my El Patron Competition and now have a "convertible".  It shoots acp as well if not better than the 45C. !!!

Congratulations  by the way!

Mike
www.goonsgunworks.com

That's the first time I've heard of a Ruger cylinder being used on a Uberti.  How much work was involved?

[45 Dragoon]

Well!,
  It's a blk.hawk cyl. and making sure I kept a good head space, I dressed the ratchet and bushing to fit. Easy really.

Mike
www.goonsgunworks.com

[Coffinmaker]

Well ..... Huff "N" Puff and blow smoke up yer skirt ... 
I had a real nice pair of Cimarron Thunderer, 3 1/2 inch barrels, CCH frame, Checkered grips, 45 Colt.  Really liked em.  Right up till I switched to Cap Guns.  (Another story though)  Anyway, I was shooting Cowboy 45 Special cases in 45 Colt chambers and wondered what the benefit would be to longer Chamber throats to reduce the bullet jump. 
Rather than Ruger cylinders though, I went with a pair of 45 ACP Uberti cylinders sourced from VTI.  Minor fitting and the ACP cylinders worked a treat.
I found the improvement in accuracy to be astounding.  As in unmeasurable.  It least for me.  The only real benefit for me was the ability to use a gazillion 45 ACP cases I had, along with my supply of C45S cases, which also worked a treat in the ACP cylinders.  Now the real fun part.  Dropped those same cylinders into a pair of USFA pistols, with no fitting required except to shim out the Base Pin Bushing for end shake.  Ran perfect.  Nanny Nanny Poo Poo!!
Guns R Fun

Coffinmaker

[Will Lynchem]

Well blow smoke up my skirts! Or Kilts, I never seen a 1873 lever action rifle with any kind of cylinder!       

[45 Dragoon]

Haaa!!

Ain't it grand?!!

I got the Ruger cyl. to use as a tool (a skunkworks project that called for a Ruger cyl ). When I got done with it, it needed to be used so . . . .I did!!! (and it works great!!)

Mike
www.goonsgunworks.com

Sorry, this was posted in reference to Coffinmakers post.(typed while WL was posting)

[45 Dragoon]

Well I'll be!!
Most folks talking "1873" are usually talking Mod P language!

My mistake.

Mike
www.goonsgunworks.com

[Will Lynchem]

My Bad, I guess I should have been more explicit in my post. I saw a post awhile back by Dusty Bottoms about converting a 45 Long Colt lever action rifle to 45 ACP so one could use the same ammo in their lever action rifle as they do in their 1911 pistol.  For shooting Wild Bunch matches this seemed a great idea seeing that it is getting hard to find 45 long colt brass and a typical 45 colt round is costing upwards of a dollar a round.  Im reloading 45 ACP for about 14 cents a round. When you blow off a thousand rounds every other month or so, that adds up real quick. Do the math and I'm paying about $140.00 vs about $1,000 per thousand rounds. That said, I was still real skeptical about converting my Tayler & Co. Uberti 45 Colt rifle to 45 ACP. I decided to give it a try and am glad I did. I sent it to a sass gunsmith known as Cody Conagher out in West Virginia. I took it out last Saturday to Piru Ca to give it a trial run at our monthly Wild Bunch match with the Hole in the Wall Gang. The rifle worked flawlessly!  It is not only a tack driver,  it shoots much better than I do.  No feed or ejection problems and even though I did jack a couple of rounds, it ran the course as well as my 1873 short rifle in 357 / 38 spc. I was shooting with some of the best in the game including the reigning national Wild Bunch and Western 3 Gun champion.  They all gave it a try and all they had to say is WoW, I gotta get one of these!  If shooters of this caliber are that impressed with the rifle, who am I to disagree.  I still am missing one thing, and I promise you that I will not stop looking for the missing cylinder till I find it!  Until then, happy and safe shooting!      Will Lynchem.

[45 Dragoon]

That sounds great Will !!

Didn't mean to hijack your thread but, the good news is - if you can't find your cylinder, you can order one from VTI!! (thanks CM!!)
Lol.

Mike
www.goonsgunworks.com

[Coffinmaker]

Well fellas, we did manage to drift this thread completely away from Willi's rifle.  He was posting about a rifle wasn't he??  It's been so long ago, and my memory is so shot, I'me really not to sure!!  Or was he/we/us talking about modding a '73 SA to take tube magazine??
Sometimes I'm so convused.  I'm still trying to get my head around what to do with the ejector rod assembly once you get the durn due magazine to fit ................   Or are we trying to fit an SA Cylinder to a '73 Rifle??  And why!!!  After all, the Rifle tube magazine hold more rounds, and I was going to mention that the previous idea to fit a '73 SA with a 73 Rifle tube is gonna look awful funny with a 2 1/2 foot mag tube and 4 3/4 inch barrel, not to mention the balance.
Or ..... be we considering converting a '73 rifle to an AUTOMATIC?? 
Sometimes thread drift is so .... so ..... confusing.  An I really like setting up some really different guns.  I'm still trying to work out the "de-linker" so I can Belt Feed an 1866

Coffinmaker

[Will Lynchem]

Don't worry Coffinmaker I'll send you some excedrin if when you get your belt fed 66, you get me one! Oh, can you get 10 round belts? After all, I
am in Ca.   

[Montana Slim]

To make things easy on me, I keep my .45 ACP stuff with my 1914 (and later) impressions. I also load the cartridge exclusively with period-correct smokeless propellants.

Slim