Keep a loaded spare cylinder handy for an additional six shots without having to reload. Fits only the 1851 Confederate Navy .44-Caliber Sheriff black-powder revolver.
The Pietta 1851 Confederate Navy .44-Caliber Revolver Spare Cylinder is a must for the serious black powder shooter. Spare cylinder allows for less ware and use on just one cylinder. Also allows for reloading using bench loader and switching cylinders at the range. Outstanding workmenship and tooling on this item..... exact fit.
You can't tell the difference between this spare and the one that came with the pistol. It works and fits as advertised. I'm amazed at how difficult it must have been for Civil War Soldiers/Officers to change out the cylinder in the middle of a fight, then cap the cylinders and start over. You won't be disappointed in this extra cylinder. Besides, you'll need one for your spare cylinder pouch.
I honestly don't know how to rate this product. The cylinder itself is of excellent quality and fits my Pietta 1851 replica perfectly. I have no complaints about the product itself. But it's not as useful to me as I'd hoped it would be, so read on ... I bought my 1851 replica in Sep 2011, so it's only 3 months old right now and everything still fits extremely tight -- which means it takes me a long time to swap out a cylinder because the wedge is very tight and the barrel assembly is tight. Right now, I can actually reload the revolver faster than I can swap out cylinders, so I get very little advantage from having the spare. Maybe after more use things will loosen up enough to make swapping quicker, but for the moment it's not much use to me. So the bottom line is that it's really a 5-star product that I perhaps should have waited to buy until my pistol was broken in a little more.