For the last several years I'd been meaning to purchase a percussion single action sixgun. My first handgun had been an open top Colt replica in .44 caliber. I guess I never lost appreciation for the sweet anticipation that accompanies the lengthy loading process (by today's standards that is…) or the satisfying roar and roll of smoke generated by the things. Anyhow, I had been eyeing the Ruger for a long while for all of the great reasons that anyone considers an "Old Army" and finally broke down a few months ago and purchased one. I have to admit that as messy as black powder can be, I've enjoyed the purchase as much, and maybe more then any of the other guns in my collection. Little did I know that shortly I would come across a product that would open new worlds for the Old Army (And most other steel framed Remington derivatives) and I.

One late night, while thumbing through a new product supplement to the Brownell's catalog before bed, a new item caught my eye that I knew I had to investigate. The product, "R&D Gunshop's Cartridge Conversion Cylinder", jumped up at me from the page I was reading. The hook in the ad stated "Switch from percussion to .45 colt by changing cylinders" and a photograph displayed the rear view of an unusual looking cylinder with 6 built-in firing pins. Reading further, Brownell's description stated:

"Six-round conversion cylinder, chambered for the .45 Colt cartridge, converts steel framed cap and ball revolvers to modern center fire. Patterned after an original Remington design for a drop-in fit. Cylinder and back plate fit together without screws. To reload, just drop the cylinder, pull the plate off and dump the fired cases. Use in steel frame guns only with black powder equivalent loads. No FFL required to purchase."

At first I was in disbelief, center-fire cartridges fired from a percussion revolver? The ability to conveniently switch back and forth between percussion and center-fire in the same gun? The use of smokeless powder for less painful clean-ups when time is tight? That such a thing would even be legal to own much less use? Barely able to sleep that night with the questions and possibilities flying around in my head, the next morning I immediately purchased two of the devices from Brownell's.

The following are my findings and experiences with the units.

Having ordered from Brownell's I purchased 2 copies of the blued model. As it happens bright and polished nickel cylinders are also available from R&D but not from Brownell's. The nickel option will be discussed a little further along. I bought two because I honestly thought R&D might not be in business very long after the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) got wind of their product. As it turns out the ATF is well aware of the device and seems to have (According to both Brownell's and R&D) blessed it.

The cylinders came packaged in a somewhat "plainish" manner which at first I found slightly disturbing. I had paid $200 dollars a piece for the cylinders and was expecting a lot for my money. What I found upon opening the shipping carton from Brownell's was two non-descript, plain brown boxes with a photocopied picture of the cylinder taped to the outside of each. Opening the boxes I discovered a cylinder inside each, buffered by old newspaper, and enclosed in a standard sandwich "baggy" which also contained liberal amount of light weight oil. Somewhat Surprised, I was determined not to "read a book by it's cover" or to jump to any quick conclusions just because the pieces weren't packaged in some fancy manner. To be honest most packaging just gets thrown away and is a waste of resources, and/or is harmful to the environment, so in retrospect I totally approve of R&D's packing material choices. Anyhow, as soon as the cylinders were out my concerns about the packaging were history, lost to the amazement I was experiencing at the marvel I held in my hand.

Each cylinder was uniformly and nicely blued and consisted of two parts, the actual cylinder and a second part referred to as the "back plate." The cylinders are unfluted, have the typical cylinder latch notches, and looked for all of the world like those of a modern revolver. That is except for a single post, measuring .125" inches wide and .117" inches tall, protruding from the base.

The back plate gives the unit its distinctive appearance, mainly due to the six individual firing pins. It attaches to the backside of the cylinder by means of a circular protrusion that fits into an enlarged area of the base pin hole. The connection is "keyed" by means of a single hole to match the post described above. The back plate can be described as a knurled circular "cap" containing the six case hardened firing pins. Each pin is held in place with a slotted, thread-in retainer. Each pin is angled slightly inward and floats free in its respective channel. The back plate also provides the same functions of the rear of a standard cylinder with both pawl holes and hammer notches. The notches were included to allow the safe carry of a fully loaded cylinder with the hammer resting between two of the firing pins. The top plate was stamped with the characters R, &, and D, and the cylinder was stamped with 6 star (*) punches as proof firing marks for each of the chambers.

This brings us to my one and only criticism of the entire product, one that was surely an honest mistake, but which probably shouldn't have made it through a final inspection. On one of my cylinders the proof mark punch was off center and "landed" on the edge of one of the chamber mouths. This created a small bur that protruded into the area that would normally be occupied by the case rim, and precluded the ability to load all six rounds. It was nothing that a second with a Dremel tool couldn't have taken care of, but which was bothersome none the less.

Onto the second and only other problem, my drop-in cylinders wouldn't drop in. According to Kenny Howell, owner of R&D, my Ruger was manufactured "over-sized" and that they hadn't run into the cylinders not fitting a Ruger before. As it turned out even Ruger had to fit my percussion cylinder to the frame as shown by the file marks they left behind. Evidently, this is considered a very rare event and not one that should trouble most Ruger owners. Mr. Howell offered to fit the new cylinders free of charge and paid for half of the return shipping. His commitment to good customer service more then satisfied my irritation about the bur.

Shipping the pieces back also allowed me the opportunity to have the cylinders nickeled and brushed to match the stainless steel of my pistol. Initially, when I ordered from Brownell's, I assumed that since they only carried a blued finish I would just have to settle for an ugly stainless gun/blued cylinder combination. During my first conversation with R&D I was informed of their nickeling option which I found to be fairly priced and very quick. For an additional $30 dollars apiece I had the option of a standard bright or hand brushed matte nickel finish with a one to two week turn around time. Mr. Howell explained that all finishing was sent out but I believe he said the brushing is done in-house. True to his word, less then two weeks later I had everything back in my possession.

While he was working on my Ruger I contacted Mr. Howell to briefly discuss a few matters and ended up talking with him for almost an hour. During our discussion he addressed several questions I had regarding the design, manufacture, and legality of his product. The questions, and my best recollection of his responses are as follows:

Can I fire non-cowboy (a.k.a. Standard factory .45 Colt loads) in the conversion?

According to the documentation packaged with the cylinders: "Warning: Any use of other then black powder, black powder replicas, or Black Hills Cowboy ammunition voids any warranty…on the cylinder." The Brownell's ad admonished: "Use only in steel frame guns with black powder equivalent loads." Based on these statements my first big question was how far can the cylinders safely go? After re-explaining his warranty policy to me, Mr. Howell stated the cylinders are proof fired using standard .45 Colt SAAMI proof loads and that all regular (as opposed to Cowboy, but not including Corbon) .45 Colt ammo would be OK. Evidently they started publishing the "cowboy" clause because they had several cylinders returned destroyed after very heavy handloads had pushed them to far.

Can I polish the firing pins for a slicker and therefore smoother and more reliable functioning?

I noticed that several of the firing pins seemed "sticky" and did not move freely in their channels while others did. I even wondered about positive ignition since some of the pins seemed so tight. Being a tinker, I asked Mr. Howell about removing and polishing the pins. He informed me that I should absolutely not polish the firing pins. It turns out that the pins are case hardened because the tool hardened pins kept shattering from the combination of the hammer strike and the angled channel in which they travel. Polishing the pins would remove the case hardening and lead to battering of the pin-heads. He further explained that even with the case hardening the pins would eventually batter and need to be replaced.

Can I get replacement firing pins?

Yes. Both the firing pins and the retainers can be purchased, or installed for you. I believe the prices are: around $5.00 dollars (or slightly less) for the firing pins, and about $2.50 for the retainers.

Why only one "key" post and not two or three?

After a lot of R&D (No pun intended) it was determined that there needed to be a certain amount of "play" between the two pieces which was removed by more then one post. The additional play eliminated cylinder binding with early prototypes.

Why are the cylinders so expensive?

According to Mr. Howell the cylinders are manufactured from "ordnance" grade steel and are very tough on tooling since they are machined from the hardened bar stock.

How is this device legal? Why hasn’t the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms tried to ban or reclassify it as they attempted with past conversion products like the Thompson/Center carbine kit or the #209 shotgun primer black powder rifles?

According to Mr. Howell they submitted the cylinder to the ATF for approval prior to selling it. He said that the ATF classified the conversion as a "part" which is totally legal to sell, own, ship, and transfer all without a FFL. I also received word from the order representative at Brownell's verifying the ATF's "part" classification as well.

I then asked him about what happens to the "non-gun" classification of the black powder pistol after the cylinder is installed. He stated that upon installing the cylinder you have, according to the law (or at least the ATF), manufactured a firearm. He stated that it is totally legal to manufacture a modern firearm for private, lawful use by yourself, but it is illegal to sell that same firearm without the proper licensing. His final comment was to use common sense and, if selling both the gun and the cylinders, to insure compliance with the law by uninstalling the R&D and replacing the Ruger percussion cylinder prior to the transaction. Then the purchaser would be free to install the unit and "manufacture" his own private firearm.

Let me now note that I don't think Mr. Howell or the representative from Brownell's are lawyers, and I'm certainly not. Please verify this information for yourself and comply with the applicable laws and regulations.

 

Shooting the conversions was as easy as one would expect. Remove the back plate from the cylinder, insert the cartridges, install the cylinder, cock the hammer and fire. The cylinders were tested at an indoor pistol range. I fired 50 rounds of 3-D Cowboy loads at distances of both 15 and 25 yards. At 15 yards the Old Army shot as accurately as with the percussion cylinder, which means all shots touching or at least inside a two inch group when fired offhand with a two-hand hold. At 25 yards the groups opened to a little over three inches, again offhand with a two-hand grip. Unloading the empty cartridges was very easy and required little or no force. I had expected to need to use a wooden dowel to push each empty out. Instead, typically 3 to 4 empties would fall out while the others would require a slight "tap" from the front. The spent cases each had primers that showed full, well placed pin hits of proper depth. As important, I never had a round fail to go off on the initial strike. Further inspection of the primers showed circular "ridge" marks pressed into them by contact with the back plate. The back plate had similar marks left from machining.

I fully recommend the conversion cylinders to anyone owning an Old Army or other Remington replica including: Army San Marrco, Pietti, Uberti, and Rodgers and Spencer. The cylinders are available in .45 Long Colt (for bore dia. .452), .44 Russian (for bore dia. .429), .44 Colt (for bore dia. .451 and.429), and .38 Long Colt (for bore dia. .357 and 375). The cylinders cost $235 dollars for the blued model with an additional charge of $30 dollars for the nickel plating. Additional cylinders without back plate are $105 dollars apiece.

Kenny Howell and the R&D Gun Shop can be reached at:

5728 E. County Rd. X
Beloit, WI 53511
608-676-5628
608-676-2269