Kirst converter for Uberti 1860

[Sherod Hunter]

Howdy.

I just bought a Kirst Converter for my Uberti 1860.
When I got it and tried it on the gun, there is a gap between the bottom of the conversion-ring and the frame. This makes the ring wobble back and forth. It looks like the ring is too small for the frame.
It says in the fitting-instruction that material should be removed from the bottom of the ring to make it fit, and nothing about the ring being to small.

I was thinking that I could have gotten a .45 cylinder and a conversion-ring for an 1861 (.36 cal).

Does anybody know if the frame of an 1861 is a bit smaller than the frame of an 1860, and that this could be the reason??

I have sent a mail to Kirst about it, but I`m waiting for his reply.

[Pettifogger]

There's two different size converter rings for the 1860.  One for Uberti and one for Pietta.  You may have the wrong one.  You can't have a .45 cylinder for an 1861.  The frame isn't stepped (the only difference between an 1860 and 1861 frame), the cylinder isn't stepped, and there is no way you can fire a .45 down that .36 bore without some big problems.

[Sherod Hunter]

Yes I know, but I know Kirst sells conversions for both 1860 and 1861, and my thought was that I had gotten the right cylinder but with a 1861 ring.
Do you know if the Pietta ring would be the smaller or bigger one of them?

[Pettifogger]

To tell you the truth, I can't remember.  They are supposed to be stamped with, I believe, a U or a P so you can tell them apart.  The problem with mine was it had no marks.  Mr. Kirst said the rings are the same except for the flat part on the bottom of the converter.  How loose is your ring and did you measure this with the cylinder installed?


I just pulled one to double check.  The Uberti ring is shorter than the one for a Pietta.  On my Ubertis there is just a tiny bit of rock with the converter and cylinder installed.  In other words you would have a huge gap putting a Uberti ring on a Pietta and a Pietta ring should not go on a Uberti.

The 60 Army and 61 Navy have the same dimensions at the rear of the frame as they are both based on the 51 Navy.  The only difference is the 60 Army frame has a step in it for the larger cylinder.

[Sherod Hunter]

Hi again.

The ring is actually stamped with a big U, but I still have a "wobble" that measures about 1 mm from one side to the other. This also causes the hammer to hit the side of the well for the firing pin.
I think that the 1 mm wobble is too way much and I get the impression of poor production.

The cartridges also don`t have a straight through line through the loading gate without hitting the loading gate hinge.
The cartridge rim gets through the gate only with a twisting motion of the cylinder. This also is why I think this ring is for a .38 cartridge and not a .45.

Today I was in the local gunshop and we measured the difference between the 1860 and the 1861 to be 0.6 of a millimeter.
If I could reduce the gat down to 0.4 of a millimeter, I would have a perfect fit for the ring.

On the fitting instructions I got with the converter, there are also a cutting-templates to glue on the frame. This template does not fit. It is actually to small, and has the marking " 1851/61"