Ah man, often fun guns are ridiculous in a lot of ways. Stuff like the Draco AK pistol, the Mossberg Shockwave, and any non F/A MAC pistol isn’t designed for a serious purpose. They are ridiculous fun guns that turn money into noise. Guns are like cars, rarely can they be conservative and fun. However, the C. Mason conversion revolver is a fun, but conservative gun. This little six shooter is designed to bring a smile to your face. It doesn’t have much of a practical purpose. It’s not powerful enough to really hunt with and it’s not small enough for concealed carry or modern enough for home defense.
What it happens to be is fun, a whole lot of six shootin, cowboy inspired fun. The revolver is a replica of the ‘conversion’ guns that were coming out in the time between the cap and ball revolvers and guns like the Single Action Army. Conversions were the more affordable, and more common revolver of the day. This particular model comes from the minds of Charles Richards and William Mason, and I covered it’s history here. To be specific it’s the C. Mason Revolver – 1860 Army.
Looks that Kill
Man the look on an open top revolver is a beautiful thing. Taylor and Uberti did an excellent job in the finish and fit of the Taylor’s C. Mason Conversion revolver. The deep and rich bluing looks absolutely amazing. It’s a rock solid gun and the smooth wood grips feel fantastic. The case hardened frame is also just fantastic. It’s simple and sexy.
The C. Mason Conversion revolver On the Range
This little gun is chambered in 38 Special and as far as I can tell is not rated for +P. Why you’d ever put +P in a non-defensive gun is a mystery to me, so this wasn’t an issue I was concerned with. This thing is heavy, I have the smallest version and its 2.55 pounds unloaded. This means it eats the recoil of the mild-mannered 38 Special without issue. It’s such a pleasant shooting gun that a two-handed grip just feels unnecessary.
Like any single action revolver, you are going to get nice short and crisp trigger pull. It’s extremely light and easy to touch off. This obviously lent itself well to excellent accuracy. I’m no single action aficionado but I shot this gun extremely well, even with its limited size sights. At 35 yards I would go 6 for 6 on my favorite Shoot Steel 21-inch popper.
Speaking of sights this is not a traditional revolver. As you can see from the pictures in there is no top strap. So you don’t have a rear trench to act as a sight. So what is a shooter to do? Well, true to history there is a rear notch carved into the hammer that’s actually pretty handy. It’s not perfect but I could hit what I was aiming at.
Reliability wise I had zero issues in our short time together. Every round went bang when fired, and I stuck to Armscor and Remington 38 Special. The gun is so easy to fire and fire accurately I’d honestly suggest the weapon for training new shooters. It has almost no recoil, and is accurate, easy shooting, and forces shooters to slow down and take their shot.
For Fun and Pleasure
The C. Mason Conversion revolver is a fantastic cowboy gun. It’s great if you just want a handful of the old west, or want to get involved in the single action shooting society. The open top design makes it stand out among a world of Peacemaker wannabes. Stand out, be bold, and shoot straight.
