1858's & Pietta Undersized Chambers

[nkbj]

Measuring Pietta .44's chambers I've generally gotten 0.446" / 0.447" diameter.
Then it becomes a matter of reaming to get closer to the barrel's groove diameter.
And the walls on the chambers get thinner and I get nervous...

So, why not just get a barrel blank made with 0.445" groove diameter (and maybe a twist rate to suit all those .45 molds), chop it up and fix a number of revolvers?

Loading lever length barrel on one, 10" barrel on another...
Golly, wonder what kind of velocity I could get with a 225 grain hollow point!

 

[nkbj]

Playing with the numbers.
0.445" groove diameter and 0.433" bore diameter looks about right.