Should I ???

[willy]

I got a Uberti 1851 navy that would blow the caps off into the inards when loaded with a full charge.
After taking you folks advice on here ,about using tresco nipples it solved the problem.
Now the gun shoots 2" groups easy (if I do my part)with no caps tieing up the gun.
Now here's my question--
I want to convert this gun to cartridge.
But I don't want to lose any accrracy.
I would be happy to use round balls loaded over a healthy dose of fffg.
Would it sound do able to get a 38spl. cylinder and have it reamed out to around .380 then fire form 38spl. cases to load a round ball that would fit the barrel?
Or maybe size a 41mag case down?
RCBS will make dies to any case I send them ,so dies wouldn't be a problem.
OR!!!! should I  just get a 1851 RM in 38spl. and hope it shoots as good as my 51 navy?


Willy

[Pettifogger]

You're not going to fire form a cartridge that uses a .357 bullet up to .380.  The cost of a custom cylinder and dies would be fairly expensive, way more than the cost of the gun.  Do what everyone else does.  Get a commercially available cylinder from Kirst or R & D and use readily availble soft lead hollow base wadcutter bullets.  Over a full charge they will expand and be quite accurate.

[willy]

That's what I figured .
But what kind of accrracy can I  get with the hollow base bullet?


Willy

[Flint]

The 148 gr. hollow base wadcutter is plenty accurate for CAS shooting, and up to 25 yards will shoot as accurately, or more accurately than it will as a cap & ball.  You can safely use smokeless powder in the Kirst or R&D, just load it as a typical target load, not as a +P.