FINALLY scored a Type 2 repro, just a quick question

[Flatlander55]

Good evening,

After being on a product notification list for nearly two years, I was finally able to order one of the last few available 5.5" .38 Special Cimarron 1860 Richards-Mason Type 2 conversions

It should arrive here in a few days, but the one singular thing I would absolutely *love* to change is the backstrap and trigger guard. On every original example I have seen, they all appear to be brass, not steel. Am I misunderstanding the use of brass on the original models? I'm not going for 100% historical accuracy, but the brass just looks right in my eyes.

How much of a pain is it to swap these parts out? When I had a few cap and ball pistols in the past, I tried to swap out pieces here and there and things just flat out didn't line up. One side would be very proud of the other, and there wouldn't be enough material on the opposite... It was irritating to say the least.

Currently I have three other "cowboy" pistols, a Uberti 1858 that I have done nothing with but smooth out the burrs, a Pietta made four click Cimarron frontier that I swapped out springs on, and a "old model" Uberti Cattleman that I swapped out the hammer for a four click unit and changed the grips out for a set of repro "double eagle" grips. The grips were, quite frankly, a royal pain to fit but it turned out ok. I'm not incompetent with these guns, but should I expect to have to order a new grip as well and fit it to the frame? I get that Pietta parts don't work with Uberti, but are Cimarron open top replacement parts plug and play?

These pistols sure look sharp as-is, but IMO if they came with brass like the Uberti 1851 conversions they would be just about perfect.

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

[nativeshootist]

Originals were like the percussion revolvers, steel back strap and brass trigger guard. there might be some that were steel both ways. I have a 60 army civilian model and that had brass back strap and trigger guard. I bought a steel back strap from cimarron and fitted it to my revolver but there's still like a few mm of space from the frame and back strap matching up. What you're going to have to do when you get the new trigger guard is fit the wood to the new piece or buy a set of replacement grips and shape them.

[Abilene]

If you could go with brass b/s and t/g, then maybe you could find someone who would trade their brass gripframe with grip for your steel with grip.  No fitting required.  But, historically, most of the Richards type 1 and 2 were brass triggerguard and steel backstrap.

I hope you realize that it is not going to look "right" anyway as far as being an 1860 conversion.  When Uberti makes the 1860 Richards Type II and 1860 Richards-Masons in .38, they use the navy frame and cylinder.  The pictures online and in catalogs do not show this.  I was actually happy about this, because by changing the Army grip to Navy on my .38 Type II, it automatically becomes an 1861! 

[Flatlander55]

Thanks for the input all! As I thought may be the case, I did not know what I thought I did and ended up assuming... It happens... I thought both the trigger guard *and* back strap was always brass since every single example I have observed in person were all brass. Glad to know that wasn't always the case, as that simplifies things a significant amount. Fitting the back strap is a huge pain, whereas the trigger guard seems to be somewhat less troublesome. I'm not so concerned with proper grip shape between Army and Navy, as quite frankly the Navy frame fits me a little better. I'll be ordering a brass trigger guard shortly from Cimarron and try my hand at fitting that and see how it goes. Thanks again!

[Abilene]

Here's the topic when I put a Navy grip on mine to make it a '61:
https://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php?topic=58772.0

The pictures don't show up any more, but if you right click and tell it to open the image in a new tab then you can see them.

If you decided to go that route, you could fairly easily swap your Army grip frame and grip for a Navy set from someone who has Navy and wants Army.  I did that twice with members here on CasCity.

[Tascosa Joe]

McDowell's book states a very small percentage of the Type II's were all steel. I changed my trigger guard to brass and had to reshape the grip to fit.  The steel guard is a bit taller where it mates to the frame of the pistol.

[Coffinmaker]

   Ah well, an Aside 

Just for clarification, the 1851, 1861 and 1860 are ALL built on the same frame.  The original sample examples from Colt were also ALL built on the same basic 1851 frame as was the Open Top.  Flash Forward

Some Lustrum ago, Uberti standardized.  Standardized everywhere.  By so doing, they (Uberti) made it possible to play mix and match, Plug and Play (sorta) with Grip Frames.  Even so, they may still need minor fitting.  It is also possible to go to VTI and purchase a completed "Set" of Grip Frame and Wood, completely finished.  VTI has in the past, also provided completely finished Brass Sets to include Square Back.

The Type II doesn't look right because Uberti scaled it "UP" to chamber 45 Colt.

Be Safe Out There

[Graveyard Jack]

I'm about to do the same thing but to create a pseudo 1861 Navy Richards-Mason but in steel. If you want to make your money back, I'll offer to buy the original grip frame.

The Open Top wasn't built on any sort of percussion frame.