Well..... I bought a 5.5" PIETTA 1851 IN .44 during the Cabela's blow out sale as a Kirst Konverter platform. I contacted Walt, got a 5 shot 1860 Gated Konverter (which fits the .44 Caliber 1851), and an 1851 ejector rod assembly. My thought was to have something "A little different" to pair up with my Uberti 1860 Colt Type II Richards. Life is good. I figured I would cut the loading channel myself, since I did it once, 12 or 15 years ago on both an 1860 and an 1858 for Kirst Gated Konverters.
I put the Konverter in and it actually indexed perfectly right off the bat. Then the problem surfaced. I loaded the cylinder with 5 .45 Schofield empty cartridges, and I could not get the wedge in even a little. After much fussing, I found the clearance between cylinder face and back plate was .010" too close to allow the rims to fit. Not only did that prevent the barrel from from seating enough to set the wedge, it moved the indexing star forward, .010" away from the hand. That made the hand hit the face of the star. Even Milling .010" off the front of the cylinder (not too terrible) would not fix the problem because the indexing star is too far forward.
I got ahold of Walt, and his 100%, no BS guarantee kicked in. I sent the Konverter and the pistol back to him. He confirmed my assessment 100%, and on further checking discovered the subcontracted machine shop had apparently messed up that particular clearance on this entire batch. He is working with Gary (Hoof Hearted) on a fix, but Gary just moved to new digs, and hasn't set up the shop yet.
Hopefully they can get it sorted out. The two Konverters I had before were drop in and worked 100% right out of the box.