cut down 1858 remington

[mike6975]

did anyone see this article in"guns of the old west" magazine?,it was a 58' remington cut down to a 2" barrel and had it's grips rounded to look like a british bulldog on steroids.i was thinking of making one myself and using this along with a conversion cylinder to make this my carry gun.

[mike6975]

yeah mike it sounds so cool i can't wait to see the pics

[Hawg]

There was a guy used to be at the muzzleloading forum that cut one down( just not that far) and rounded the butt off. Looked pretty good.

[wolfsgrin]

If you look it up on the web there are a couple of sites that show all that is involved in cutting one down. Wish i was brave enuff to cut one down myself but my luck is never work right again

[mike6975]

could you post any of those sites for me if you can remember them?.i've tried myself but didn't have any luck finding any


thanks,

mike

[Oquirrh]

http://www.hobbygunsmith.com/Archives/Jun03/HowTo.htm

[mike6975]

thanks for the site i'll check it out


mike

[rogertc1]

Check out this link and go to the bottom. You seill see a CYLINDER PIN RETAINING CLIP. Picture by it. I have made several conversions however not a shorty. Not cheap when all added up.

http://www.riverjunction.com/kirst/konverteracc.html

[mike6975]

thats the gun i'm talkin about the "rembird" a guy from "guns of the old west" made one and called it a "remington bulldog" after the british bulldog

mike

[1858Remington]

I had an Uberti 1858 Remington with the mellenium finish.

Took a hacksaw.. was the hardest thing to do... and cut the barrel down to 3 inches.

I then took it to a local gunsmith to have the front sight put back on.

Then came the R&D 45colt conversion cylinder, and the Kirst cylinder pin catch.

I haven't rounded off the grip. 45colt is a bit stout in the little beasty, and I figure it might jump a bit more with a birdhead style grip.

All in all, it works like a jem.

here's a picture, see what you think.

[Hawg]

Pretty cool. How did you keep the muzzle square or did the gunsmith true it up?

[Oquirrh]

It will be really cool with the rounded butt.

I've cut the barrels on some rifles. It's always terrifying, but if you do a half decent job truing it and re-crowning by hand, it always works out. Usually factory crowning is iffy on mass-produced guns anyway.

Put a period-correct moderator on it.

If I may ask--what did the gunsmith sight work cost?

[Smokin_Gun]

Here's a couple and Ned Peppers from CAS I think.


Halfway Creek Charlie's aka Gunslinger(cut 8" bbl, .44Rem 6shot conversion





SG

[Raider2000]

Very neat smoking_gun, I especially like the hinged cylinder pin.

[Smokin_Gun]

Charlie made his, it's kinda like a U-Joint..works greatr. when he finnished it we met at the range and gave it a work out. I'd really like to have a .44Rem conversion 6Shot. Told they are hard to get, special order, Kirst. Now this was a couple years ago.
I was askin' my friend that has it ifin he'd sell it to let me know. Can't shoot it anymore, friend that bought it is in Indianna.

SG

[mike6975]

your gun is awesome!,thats exactly what i want to build.i'd like to mod mine even further by porting the barrel and maybe choppin the trigger guard down,any advice?



mike

[6kilo]

I cut one of these down a number of years ago, only tools I had was hacksaw, hand drill, and files. It worked out just fine. I measured the distance I wanted to cut off the barrel and took my hacksaw and whacked it off, then measured where the rammer cantch would have to be and cut a dovetail with hacksaw and files and installed the catch, then took the rammer and uninstalled the springloaded catch and drilled the rammer out deeper so the catch rod and spring wood go back far enough then I cut the rammer end off to match the new position of the mortised solid catch and then formed up the end to except the catch and rod and retaining pin. Took a little fitting but it finally came together and worked just as good as new, next I filed the barrel end off square and used a counter sink to put the muzzle crown on. It was of course much harder to load after this now having a shorter load rammer but it shot just as accurately as it did with the eight in tube on it and was much funner to carry. Wound up giving it to my son some years later, he still has it.

[new4me]

Very cool....I have one of those richland arms 1851s with the super long barrel that might be a canidate for this


Rich

[Erich]

Man, you guys sure know how to get a fellow interested in something he'd never even considered before.

[sundance44s]

I`ve got an old Euro Remington in good shape I`ve been wanting to cut down to 2 inch barrel snubbie ..but I just don`t like the looks of the cylinder retaining latch that RiverJunction sells ...wish someone would come up with one a little more pleaseing to my eye ....
I really like the last one in Smokins pic post ...thats real nice ..I remember reading the post on another forum when the guy made it ...I beleive he said it wasn`t stainless ...just high polished deblued steel model.
If any one comes up with a better way of keeping the cylinder pin in place , please post it ..I really wouldn`t have a use for the loading lever ...I always load my cylinders out of the gun ...

[long rider]

The down side? when you take away the loading lever
from a remmington, it no longer looks like a remmington.
the web on the loading lever is what makes the gun so
appealing ( to my eyes anyway ) you lose the lever you
lose the look, thats just my op, i am not telling you should
or should not.

[mike6975]

check this pick out,i think it's is so different from what were used to seeing,plus it has a practical use of being a defensive weapon, when one is used to using a cap&ball revolver. plus it looks real cool!!!

post replies

mike

[Hawg]

I can see where the short barrels would have some appeal, just not very practical IMHO.

[Raider2000]

I like my 5.5" barrel on my Pietta 58' it's handy, quite practical & very carry friendly & I can see a use for a 4" barrel model like in the pictures that Smokin_Gun has there but to me I have to say that a smaller barrel on a Remington clone doesn't appeal to me in 2 ways both of which have already been stated earlier.

(1)

Originally Posted by long rider

The down side? when you take away the loading lever
from a remmington, it no longer looks like a remmington.
the web on the loading lever is what makes the gun so
appealing ( to my eyes anyway ) you lose the lever you
lose the look,

(2)

Originally Posted by Hawg Haggen

I can see where the short barrels would have some appeal, just not very practical IMHO.

I agree with both posters.

[long rider]

YOU mean to say that some one agrees with me,
i was begaining to think i was black listed.