Welcome, in case you are a newcomer to this enjoyable bi-weekly phase of AllOutdoor.com! The final time round we wrapped up 4 components protecting the Nagant M1895 revolver – history, variations, dating, specs, aftermarket, and range time all included. As we speak we’re doing one thing a bit completely different for Curious Relics. I do not need an unique instance of a Richards-Mason Conversion. What I do have is a reproduction within the type of the Uberti Outlaws and Lawmen “Wild Bill” 1851 Navy Conversion. Relatively than focus purely on the reproduction, the actual topic right here is the conversion it represents – the Richards-Mason cartridge conversion. It’s a chapter of American firearms historical past that doesn’t get practically sufficient consideration. Let’s dive proper in!
Curious Relics Protection on AllOutdoor:
Welcome to our recurring sequence of “Curious Relics.” Right here, we need to share all of our experiences, information, misadventures, and keenness for older firearms that one would possibly categorize as a Curio & Relic – any firearm that’s at the very least 50 years outdated in response to the ATF. Hopefully alongside the way in which you may garner a higher appreciation for older firearms like we do, and concurrently you may train us issues as nicely via sharing your individual experience and ideas within the Feedback. Understanding the firearms of outdated, their significance, and their improvement which result in lots of the arms we now cherish as we speak is extremely fascinating and we hope you take pleasure in what we’ve got to share, too!
Historical past Abridged: Richards-Mason Conversion
If you recognize something about Wild Invoice Hickok, you have already got the image. A pair of ivory-gripped 1851 Navy Colts worn butt-forward, cavalry draw. That picture is generally proper. By his years as a lawman from the mid-1860s into the early 1870s, these factory-engraved .36 caliber cap-and-ball revolvers had been his weapons.
“Useless Man’s Hand: Wild Invoice Hickok’s Deadwood Revolver.” Rock Island Public sale, www.rockislandauction.com/riac-blog/dead-mans-hand-hickoks-deadwood-revolver. Accessed 26 Apr. 2026.
So did Hickok truly carry a Richards-Mason conversion? Sure and no, relying on while you’re asking.
Joseph Rosa – the foremost authority on Hickok’s life, and the person who did essentially the most severe biographical work on him – documented that by 1875 Wild Invoice was reportedly carrying .36 caliber Colts transformed to fireplace .38 metallic cartridges. On the time of his loss of life in Deadwood on August 2, 1876, he owned a Richards-Mason transformed 1860 Military revolver, a truth verified via household letters, with that gun at the moment on show on the Adams Museum in Deadwood after being acquired in 2006. A .32 rimfire Smith & Wesson Mannequin 2 was additionally discovered on his individual on the scene. He was completely making the shift to cartridge firearms towards the tip of his life.
“Useless Man’s Hand: Wild Invoice Hickok’s Deadwood Revolver.” Rock Island Public sale, www.rockislandauction.com/riac-blog/dead-mans-hand-hickoks-deadwood-revolver. Accessed 26 Apr. 2026.
What he didn’t carry was a Richards-Mason transformed 1851 Navy. The Uberti “Wild Bill” is a tribute gun. A what-if constructed across the concept of what Hickok may need ultimately settled on had he lived longer. That’s a superbly honest premise for a reproduction. Simply value understanding the place the documented historical past truly lands earlier than we go any additional.
The Downside Colt Couldn’t Shoot Its Means Out Of
To grasp why the Richards-Mason conversion exists in any respect, it’s a must to return to 1855 and a patent Samuel Colt himself handed on shopping for. A person named Rollin White had developed the idea of a revolver cylinder bored fully via from entrance to rear to simply accept metallic cartridges. White took it to Colt. Colt declined. White then went to Smith & Wesson, who bought the patent and enforced it aggressively for the following fourteen years. Any American producer that attempted to supply a bored-through cartridge revolver received sued. Colt was left holding the preferred cap-and-ball revolvers within the nation with no authorized path to modernizing them.
S&W made full use of that window. Their small-frame Fashions 1 and a pair of in .22 and .32 rimfire bought steadily all through the Civil Conflict period, after which in 1870, one yr earlier than the White patent expired, they launched the Mannequin 3 – a large-frame, top-break, single-action revolver in .44 S&W American that the Military adopted instantly. The Mannequin 3 grew to become the primary standard-issue cartridge revolver in American navy service, a full three years earlier than Colt had a comparable purpose-built cartridge gun available on the market. Additionally they bought roughly 41,000 Russian-contract variants to the Imperial Russian Military. Not sitting nonetheless.
“Useless Man’s Hand: Wild Invoice Hickok’s Deadwood Revolver.” Rock Island Public sale, www.rockislandauction.com/riac-blog/dead-mans-hand-hickoks-deadwood-revolver. Accessed 26 Apr. 2026.
Remington was shifting too. In 1868 they paid S&W royalties and transformed roughly 4,500 of their New Mannequin Military revolvers to fireplace .46 rimfire, getting cartridge revolvers onto the civilian market earlier than Colt might legally do the identical. After 1869 they expanded that conversion work and saved at it nicely into the late 1870s. Colt was watching two of its greatest rivals promote cartridge weapons whereas it sat on warehouses filled with percussion components.
“Authentic U.S. Civil Conflict Remington New Mannequin 1863 Military Revolver Transformed to .44 Centerfire for Frontier Use – Serial 53220.” Worldwide Navy Antiques, ima-usa.com/merchandise/original-u-s-civil-war-remington-new-model-1863-army-revolver-converted-to-44-centerfire-for-frontier-use-serial-53220?variant=40550347178053. Accessed 26 Apr. 2026.
Colt’s Workaround
Colt did strive one factor earlier than the patent expired. A Colt worker named Alexander Thuer developed a conversion in 1868 that used a proprietary tapered cartridge loaded from the entrance of the cylinder quite than the rear. The authorized argument was that front-loading didn’t represent a “bored-through” cylinder the way in which the White patent outlined it. Intelligent reasoning. In follow, the cartridges had been fully proprietary, the entire association was fussy to function, and it by no means caught on in any significant manner. Useless finish.
Richards Will get His Patent: The Richards-Mason Conversion
The Rollin White patent expired April 3, 1869, and Colt moved quick. A Colt engineer named Charles B. Richards had been engaged on a respectable conversion design, and on July 25, 1871, he was granted his patent. The Richards Conversion did what it feels like – it took present Colt percussion revolvers and reworked them to fireplace metallic cartridges. Loading rammer eliminated, ejector rod put in. A conversion plate was fitted on the rear of the cylinder with a loading gate and spring-loaded firing pin, and the cylinder was modified to simply accept cartridges from the rear.
“Colt Mannequin 1860 Military Richards Cartridge Conversion Revolver.” Rock Island Public sale, www.rockislandauction.com/element/4096/1199/colt-model-1860-army-richards-cartridge-conversion-revolver. Accessed 26 Apr. 2026.
It bought. The Military adopted the Richards-converted 1860 Military in .44 as an interim service sidearm whereas a brand new purpose-built cartridge revolver was being developed for navy trials. One persistent downside, although. The spring-loaded firing pin within the conversion plate fouled with black powder residue and brought about reliability points, and on prime of that Colt’s provide of surplus 1860 Military barrels was working low.
Mason’s Enchancment: The Richards-Mason Conversion
The repair got here July 2, 1872. William Mason – Colt’s armory superintendent, and a person who had beforehand labored at Remington the place he designed a swing-out cylinder mechanism that S&W would later use on their hand ejector revolvers – was granted a patent for an enchancment to the Richards design. Mason’s adjustments addressed the fouling downside immediately. He eradicated the spring-loaded firing pin within the conversion plate and moved to a hard and fast firing pin riveted onto a modified hammer. No separate spring mechanism, nothing further to foul. He additionally redesigned the barrel to get rid of the plug that had been required to fill the outdated rammer gap, and cleaned up the general ejector association within the course of.
The outcome was the Richards-Mason conversion. Cleaner, extra dependable, and really higher wanting than the Richards alone. Each males would go on to proceed working collectively at Colt, and the mixed patents that they had developed for these conversions served as a basis for the mission that got here subsequent. That mission was the Colt Single Motion Military.
One fast clarification that comes up pretty typically – if in case you have seen the “C. Mason” conversion listed by different reproduction producers/importers, that’s not a separate or distinct design from the Richards-Mason. It’s merely the model title chosen for his or her model of the identical gun. Identical conversion, completely different label on the field.
What and How Many: The Richards-Mason Conversion
The conversion system was utilized to a number of Colt fashions. The 1860 Military in .44 acquired each the Richards and Richards-Mason therapies. From what I’ve learn, roughly 9,000 Richards conversions had been produced with round 2,100 Richards-Mason conversions following, all chambered for .44 Colt centerfire.
The 1851 Navy in .36 acquired the Richards-Mason conversion solely. Sources put manufacturing at roughly 3,800, made in each .38 rimfire and .38 centerfire. The 1861 Navy received the identical therapy, roughly 2,200 produced.
Probably the most quite a few conversions had been truly the smaller 5-shot 1862 Pocket Navy frames. In keeping with Flayderman’s Information to Vintage American Firearms, Colt produced round 25,000 of these between 1873 and 1880 in each rimfire and centerfire .38. Not precisely the romantic frontier picture folks affiliate with these weapons, however the numbers don’t lie.
Folks additionally despatched their privately-owned percussion Colts to the manufacturing facility for conversion, even after the Single Motion Military was already available on the market. A manufacturing facility conversion was cheaper than shopping for a brand new gun, and that made good sense for lots of parents. So a few of what you see on the market had been unique weapons despatched in by civilian house owners, not weapons that had been produced as manufacturing facility conversions from the beginning.
A Quick Run: The Richards-Mason Conversion
The Colt Single Motion Military arrived in 1873 and the writing was on the wall nearly instantly. The conversions had a business window of perhaps two or three years as a front-line product earlier than Colt’s personal purpose-built cartridge revolver made them yesterday’s information. The Richards-Mason was the comma between two chapters, percussion revolvers on one aspect, the Peacemaker on the opposite. The lads who carried them had been dwelling in each worlds directly, which in hindsight makes them among the extra attention-grabbing weapons of all the period.
Finish of Half I: The Richards-Mason Conversion
Effectively, women and gents, we’re closing out the primary a part of this Richards-Mason Conversion sequence. Half II will take a better have a look at the Uberti Wild Bill replica, run via the specs, and get it out to the vary with each .38 Particular and .38 Colt hundreds. Until then, maintain an eye fixed out for it!
In closing, I hope our Curious Relics phase knowledgeable in addition to entertained. This all was written in hopes of continued firearm appreciation and preservation. We didn’t simply understand how weapons had been purported to look and performance. It was an extended and tedious course of that has formed the world we reside in. So, I put it to you! Is there a firearm on the market that you simply really feel doesn’t get a lot notoriety? What ought to our subsequent Curious Relics subject cowl? As at all times, tell us all your ideas within the Feedback beneath! We at all times respect your suggestions.
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