Cast lead only?

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I've been looking at a Taylor&Co 1858 cartridge conversion, one of their pre-made ones in .38 special ( http://www.taylorsfirearms.com/hand...-1-2-blue-finish-walnut-grips-model-1012.html )

I asked about the ammunition it took to find out if it was black powder or cowboy loads only like many conversion kits you can get, and they told me that normal velocity ammo would be fine, but that I shouldn't use copper jacketed rounds.

What's the reasoning behind this? Is the barrel made of a softer material? Is it somehow out-of-spec from a normal .38 sp. barrel?

I had been expecting it to not like normal .38 special velocities/loads, but they told me that it could handle 900FPS PPU lead cast ammo, so it can presumably take the pressure of modern ammunition, but no copper jackets for some reason.

It's not that much more expensive for me to get cast lead ammo, but since I already own a .38 special and several hundred rounds of copper jacketed ammo I'd like to know the reasoning why it shouldn't go in this gun.

Also wondering if anyone here has had one of these before and what they've put through it and with what results.
 
That's really strange. Perhaps you could ask them why they say not to use jacketed ammo, then report back to us?

Quite a bit of factory .38 special these days is jacketed. It'd be a bummer if you had to find the lead only loads for the gun.
 
The 38 special is a .357 diameter bullet, and the the .36cal 1858 uses .375 balls...so the 38 needs to be shot with a soft lead, hollow based, bullet in order for the bullet to expand and engage the rifling of the larger bore... copper in this case would just slip down the bore with bad accuracy.
 
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Good luck with lead bullets in "The Peoples Republic of California"!
Maybe the Lone Ranger had something with his silver bullets.
 
The 38spl jacketd bullet warning is just victim of a broad blanket statement warning issued to keep CHT from damaging the old style revolvers....but obviously the standard 38spl cannot give damaging CHT because of reduced rim diameter, small(er) bullet weight and modrate velocity
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Ok, I think I understand what causes the pressure but I'm not sure I get why .38sp would be exempt. It's not that slow of a round compared to .45LC or .44-40, the other two rounds this conversion comes in. If it's the velocity that's a problem with copper, shouldn't it still cause the pressure issue? Or is .38 special just such a less powerful round that it doesn't matter given the barrels are the same material/heat treatment as with the .45?

The company has just given me the generic "we don't recommend it," but someone else I talked to said it could be an issue of the forcing cone not being able to handle the relative hardness of the copper.

Good luck with lead bullets in "The Peoples Republic of California"!
Maybe the Lone Ranger had something with his silver bullets.
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We can still order stuff online for another year, besides places that are too chicken to ship it (looking at you, CTD.) Hopefully by then I'll have a decent stockpile and a reloading press, or live in another state.
 
The pre-made cartridge "conversion" guns should have the proper bore diameter for .38 special.

I know Uberti at least doesn't just slap a '51 navy barrel on their factory made conversion guns. The bore on them is the proper .357" and I think the twist rate is proper for the caliber.
 
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