Reproduction 1861 Eli Whitney Revolver, Navy in 36 caliber

[Midmichigun]

I think I found a cylinder but it is $$$ especially for BP.... And well towards the cost of a chromoly steel cowboy action cylinder.
A hammer could be burned out of plate, or convert a typical cheap CVA. But I would prefer to not fabricate to hard.
I was thinking the same thoughts on the loading/ ramrod system.
If you can imagine, I already look like Tuco from the Good, Bad and The Ugly swapping out parts to get that magic combo!

[Salt Flat]

I think I found a cylinder but it is $$$ especially for BP.... And well towards the cost of a chromoly steel cowboy action cylinder.
If you can imagine, I already look like Tuco from the Good, Bad and The Ugly swapping out parts to get that magic combo!

Midmich, I cracked up when I saw this about Tuco. That is one of my favorite movie scenes of all time and reminds me of when I was a kid in the 60's. We used to go into the Pawn shops down in the skid road district of Seattle and scope out all the old guns in the display cases. We were about 14 and they would kick us out on a regular basis. We were lucky they didn't give us a Pulp fiction type tour of the basement!The thing I remember most is in the old Central Loan they had a Gatling gun and cases full of lugers and Civil War era Colt's . Salt Flat

[RCS]

My father bought this Whitney revolver around 1950 (paid $5) Many years ago we fired it a few times, everything worked. The serial number is 10267 H.A. and this number is close to known units. There appear to be two types of of the loading lever design, this one is the more common type.. There is also a website for owners of original Whitney revolvers, believe there are around 250 members.

I have seen some photos of early Whitney cartridge conversions in a older American Rifleman article, not many were converted. I did not know there were any repro kits available years ago, thanks for the information.Attachment 42271Attachment 42272

[RCS]

Sometime ago, I bought two smokeless 38 S&W cal 1851 cylinders from a gunsmith, these were from a company called Legal Defender and used to convert the '51 Italian repros to use the 38 S&W cartridge. Over the next few years my friend in FLA found two 36 cal revolvers at
the gun shows, both were abused and missing the loading levers, one cylinder and a pair of grips, the bores were alright. One was an 1861 and the other 1851. I converted both to use
the 38 S&W cylinders, bought new internal parts, made the ejector housings, recoil plates and loading gates. You have to use the Colt 1873 mainspring too.
The balance on the 1851 is excellent and I would say better than the Colt 1873 and I could understand the gunfighters preference for the '51 conversion.Attachment 42283Attachment 42284Attachment 42285Attachment 42286Attachment 42287Attachment 42288Attachment 42289

[Midmichigun]

RCS,
That is truly Epic!
And that is basically what I am interested in doing for perhaps one of the eli whitneys. I know that in the US thousands (former pistols) were converted from BP to centerfire via the Fed govt as a stop gap measure.
Thanks for sharing this "transition" in history!
Nice "bringing back" a few pistols.... as you all can note, these usually languish since they have little collector value (as repops)... and the cool factor wears off.
I have a buddy who recently bought the kit to convert his Army to a centerfire configuration. He does note that the cost is rather high to convert these..... I put him onto the sources for the kits....

[RCS]

I am not familiar with the new cowboy action conversion kits with the firing pins located for each cylinder chamber, they are expensive. The original Remington revolver conversion was not as simple as the Colt conversions (Richards - Mason) and I think the Whitney is very much like the Remington.

I think that rather than have a cowboy action conversion kit, that I would rather just save-up and buy a Navy Arms Colt 1872 conversion or a 1860 conversion in 44 Colt.

I changed grips on my 51 conversion (photos) to repro ivory 51 grips. When you remove the loading lever from the 51 you really improve the balance Attachment 42303Attachment 42304

[RCS]

Target was almost 30 feet and smokless Unique powder was used (could have use black powder too) Different type and bullet weight will change the point of aim, oneAttachment 43008 thing I forgot to do that was done on original conversions - was to make a dovetail front sight for adjustment