{"id":67671,"date":"2017-01-06T11:49:55","date_gmt":"2017-01-06T16:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/blog\/?p=67671"},"modified":"2017-01-06T11:49:55","modified_gmt":"2023-08-20T15:11:00","slug":"cowboy-time-machine-mysterious-1860-army-cartridge-conversions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/cowboy-time-machine-mysterious-1860-army-cartridge-conversions\/","title":{"rendered":"Cowboy Time Machine: The Mysterious 1860 Army Cartridge Conversions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Cowboy<\/a>

Against the background of the Richard and Richards-Mason patents for conversion revolvers, this beautifully engraved, nickel plated Long Cylinder model is a handcrafted reproduction done by R.L. Millington using a 2nd Generation Colt 1860 Army.<\/p><\/div>\n

For more information on the Cimarron Richards Type II 1860 Cartridge Conversion revolver, click this link: https:\/\/www.cimarron-firearms.com\/products\/revolvers\/conversion-revolvers\/1860-conversions\/1860-conversions-1860-richards-type-ii.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To purchase an 1860 cartridge conversion revolver on GunsAmerica.com, click this link: https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/Search.aspx?T=1860%20conversion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Cowboy<\/a>

The immediate advantages of a cartridge conversion revolver became apparent to anyone on the receiving end when it came time to reload.<\/p><\/div>\n

The first years after the end of the Civil War were tumultuous as the South reeled from its losses and the Union struggled with the troubled presidency of Andrew Johnson, who had been elected as Abraham Lincoln\u2019s vice president in 1864. A Southern congressman and former governor of Tennessee, Johnson became the 17th<\/sup> U.S. President taking office just a month after Lincoln took the oath of office in March to begin his second term. With Lincoln\u2019s assassination on April 14, Johnson was thrust into the midst of conspiracies surrounding the murder and the beginning of Reconstruction. His one-term presidency was fraught with contention from Radical Republicans and ended with Johnson becoming the first U.S. President to be impeached; through he remained in office until the election of Ulysses S. Grant, who took office in March 1869.<\/p>\n

Grant, who was a military man with no political background, stepped into the Oval Office facing a still divided nation. He endeavored to heal the rifts between North and South, while pressing for the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad at the beginning of the postwar Western Expansion, in the belief it would help unite the country. Here, in the midst of Reconstruction, there was another revolution taking place, this one in the firearms world, as American armsmakers struggled with the postwar economy and a glut of wartime arms pouring into the open market. Many small manufacturers were driven to ruin, others caught up in patent infringement suits that had begun with Samuel Colt in the 1850s, and ended in 1869 with Smith & Wesson. During the war General Ulysses S. Grant had not been a fan of S&W, which through its patents had kept U.S. armsmakers from manufacturing breech loading cartridge revolvers throughout the War Between the States, even though S&W was only manufacturing small .22 short and .32 rimfire caliber pocket pistols, (the latter a favorite backup gun for Union soldiers). In 1865, the Colt\u2019s Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Co. found itself struggling with an inventory of cap-and-ball guns that were fast becoming obsolete, and unable to legally manufacture a cartridge loading revolver or conversion until the Smith & Wesson Rollin White Patent for the bored through cylinder expired in 1869. Since 1857, S&W had litigated almost every U.S. manufacturer of breech loading cartridge revolvers out of business for patent infringement or forced them to pay a royalty and stamp their guns as manufactured under license from Smith & Wesson, as well as bearing the Rollin White patent.<\/p>\n

\"Cowboy<\/a>

A comparison between a Long Cylinder conversion and an 1860 Army percussion model reveals the minor, yet efficient changes made to convert the cap-and-ball guns to metallic cartridges. Aside from modification to the hammer, a change in cylinders, and scooping out the right recoil shield, the 1860 Army retains its original appearance.<\/p><\/div>\n

In 1868, White and S&W tried for a patent extension, just as Samuel Colt had done in 1850, successfully extending the strangle hold Colt had on the manufacturing of revolvers for another seven years. Ironically, White\u2019s application for a patent extension was summarily denied by the U.S. Commissioner of Patents. White then appealed to Congress, which drafted a Bill (S-273) \u201cAn act for the relief of Rollin White\u201d that passed both houses but was retuned unsigned by President Ulysses S. Grant. White\u2019s failure to get an extension opened the door for the development of breech-loading revolvers in the U.S. But it was too little, too late for Colt\u2019s, which would not introduce a breech loading cartridge conversion revolver until 1871, while S&W would start marketing America\u2019s first large-caliber cartridge revolver, the .44 S&W Model Number 3, in 1870, nearly three years before Colt came to market with Peacemaker.<\/p>\n

\"Cowboy<\/a>

Colt\u2019s had experimented with cartridge conversions while the White patent was still in effect. Pictured is a very rare Third Model Dragoon (in the 12300 or 12400 serial number range) converted to fire .44 Thuer centerfire. Note the fine donut style scroll engraving with panel scene on the barrel lug. The gun at the bottom was a factory experimental conversion No. 15703, chambered for .44 caliber rimfire.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Cowboy<\/a>

The C.B. Richards patent dated Jul 25 1871 was Colt\u2019s first \u201cpatented\u201d design for converting the 1860 Army to a breech loading cartridge firing revolver.<\/p><\/div>\n

Behind Closed Doors<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Although it was the largest armsmaker in America, the Colt\u2019s Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Co. had wisely chosen not to butt heads with S&W, at least not publicly. Behind closed doors during the last years of the White patent, a number of experimental approaches had been taken at Colt\u2019s to convert percussion guns to fire metallic cartridges, including one idea that simplified the process to the lowest common denominator. This was known as the \u201cLong Cylinder\u201d conversion, which simply did away with the percussion cylinder, replacing it with a longer, bored through cylinder, channeling the recoil shield on the right side to allow loading and manual ejection of spent shell cases, and fitting the face of the hammer with a firing pin. One might regard it as a simpler version of the Colt 1871-72 Open Top, the first cartridge gun to come from Hartford. The question about the Long Cylinder conversion, is did Colt ever build it using an 1860 Army? The only known experimental models were done using Third Model Dragoons. According to the late R. Bruce McDowell, a pioneering researcher in the history of the Long Cylinder Colt conversions, the design approach dealt strictly with making the 1860 Army suitable to fire metallic cartridges, and there are no known examples of a Colt workroom built Long Cylinder model.<\/p>\n

Making a Long Cylinder Conversion<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In creating the Long Cylinder 1860 Army conversions the original percussion hammers were reused with their noses machined to form an offset rimfire firing pin on the left of the hammer face. The original guns were designed to fire .44 rimfire, then the most widespread metallic cartridge in use. The short-lived Colt 1871-72 Open Tops, based off the 1860 Army frame, were also chambered in .44 rimfire.<\/p>\n

Long Cylinder conversions typically retained their percussion loading lever, plunger, and latch, though they no longer served any purpose. Both three-screw and four-screw Army frames were used in making Long Cylinder models and there are design changes among known examples, which accounts for four variations.<\/p>\n

Among alterations was the addition of a barrel-mounted rear sight dovetailed in approximately 3\/16th<\/sup> of an inch in front of the forcing cone, or at the very end of the barrel address. Some examples, but not all, have a hammer stop, either welded or pinned within the hammer channel; newly manufactured long cylinders without the roll engraved battle scene; and converted cylinders with the rear section turned down to a ratchet stem, then built up with a ring welded to the cylinder (like one of the Colt\u2019s experimental Third Model Dragoons), and re-bored to the size of the cartridge case. There are no known examples with loading gates, though at least one is known to have had a Richards Type I ejector housing fitted. Surviving examples indicate that the majority of Long Cylinder models were also nickel plated.<\/p>\n

\"Cowboy<\/a>

Simplicity vs. complexity; the Long Cylinder design (left) was the shortest route to a conversion by building a firing pin onto the hammer and cutting a hole in the recoil shield for it to pass through. The C.B. Richards patent for Colt used a completely new breech ring\u00a0(right) with an internal floating firing pin. The breechring also shrouded the back of the cylinder and had a loading gate.<\/p><\/div>\n

Considering that the Long Cylinder was a conversion in the first place, it is interesting to note that some of the guns were converted a second time when centerfire ammunition became available. On these examples the hammers were re-machined or simply replaced with a new hammer, and the hammer stop reshaped. There were also several different hammer stop designs which were machined, pinned or welded to the hammer channel. The majority of examples known have original 8-inch 1860 Army barrels, though some have been documented with barrels as short as 4-inches and with the loading levers removed.<\/p>\n

\"Cowboy<\/a>

Many known Long Cylinder conversions added a rear sight dovetailed into the barrel just behind the Colt\u2019s barrel address. Reshaping the 1860 Army hammer did away with the percussion pistol\u2019s hammer notch rear sight.<\/p><\/div>\n

According to McDowell, there were several schools of thought on the origins of the Long Cylinder conversions. One theory is that the majority of the guns were built by Colt\u2019s or outside contractors as \u201cexperimental\u201d models for the Ordnance Department, but that is unlikely as most known experimental Colt cartridge conversions are accounted for and factory experimental models were almost always left in the white (not blued or nickel plated). Other opinions are that they were built in 1868 to compete with the early .46 caliber rimfire Remington Army conversions, which is again unlikely to be true considering S&W and Rollin White\u2019s predilection to litigate any violations of the patent. Remington got around it by paying a $1 royalty for every cartridge conversion gun they built before the White patent expired in 1869. There are, however, two other opinions which have long been considered more likely; one, that the guns were built in the late 1860s and early 1870s in one or more gun shops or factories that had no association with Colt\u2019s (such as B. Kittredge & Co. and Schuyler, Hartley & Graham in New York), or that they were hand built in Mexico from surplus 1860 Army parts. Considering the variations in assembly and serial numbers on many examples, and the variety of finish work from one gun to the next, this remains the most plausible source of the Long Cylinder conversions; but why Mexico? Because a great number of ex-Civil War Colts went South of the Border after 1865 and Mexican gunsmiths were a very talented lot.<\/p>\n

McDowell came to the same conclusions writing that, \u201cThere appears to be no possibility that Colt was involved with the [manufacturing of the] Model 1860 Long Cylinder revolver, based on the following reasoning. One, the stamping dies used for the assembly numbers are larger and of a different typeface than those used by Colt on revolvers or conversions; two, though double-finger rotating arms are used on some Long Cylinder specimens, they were welded parts and welding was not practiced by Colt, and three, the mixing of serial numbers on most, but not all Long Cylinder cartridge revolvers was not a general practice of Colt. Unmatched serial numbers were only found on the U.S. Richards Conversions because of the rush to complete them for the U.S. Ordnance Department, which demonstrated no concern over numbering.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cowboy<\/a>

Hammering down the variations, the percussion hammers from the 1860 were reused and cut to fire metallic cartridges (rimfire and centerfire) for Long Cylinder conversions, and machined flat in the Colt\u2019s Richards patent design, (bottom), which used a floating firing pin inside the breech ring.<\/p><\/div>\n

Further questions arise regarding the general quality of workmanship on many Long Cylinder models, which, according to McDowell\u2019s research, were primarily constructed from old (obsolete) percussion revolver parts with newly fabricated cylinders and not up to Colt\u2019s manufacturing standards.<\/p>\n

So where did the roughly 60 known Long Cylinder Colts come from? They were not built by the Colt factory, but by various individuals between the late 1860s and 1873-1874; whether or not those individuals were in Mexico or the Border States, or New York State, remains one of the unsolved mysteries surrounding the these rare Long Cylinder Colt 1860 Army conversions.<\/p>\n

The two examples shown are not original Long Cylinder conversions but two out of a handful of reproductions built a little over a decade ago by Colorado custom gunmaker R.L. Millington. The guns were all based on original Long Cylinder conversion designs and were done on 2nd<\/sup> and 3rd<\/sup> Generation Colt 1860 Army revolvers. The nickel plated model, in a period style seen on Colt revolvers engraved in Mexico during the 1860s and 1870s, is the only engraved, nickel plated model done by Millington. It is fitted with hand carved Mexican eagle and snake ivory grips by Dan Chesiak and Dennis Holland.<\/p>\n

The Cimarron F.A. Co. Richards Type II 1860 Army Conversion<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The closest anyone can come to getting a Colt 1860 Army conversion that is similar to those manufactured in the early 1870s, is the Richards Type II conversion<\/a> sold by Cimarron F.A. Co., in Fredericksburg, Texas. The Type II is built for Cimarron by A. Uberti, and represents quite a departure from the Italian gunmaker\u2019s tradition of building either Colt black powder reproductions or SAA models. It is based on the second model 1860 Army conversion produced from 1871-72 to the mid-1870s.<\/p>\n

SPECS<\/strong><\/h2>\n