I can't say there are any other advantages that you didn't identify, but they are fun to shoot. I have found both of my Ruger convertibles had undersized cylinder throats on one of the cylinders; as I recall, it was the .45ACP cylinder for both, which would account for the previously mentioned lack ...

Unfortunately, the lotto I'm waiting on is my next tour in Afghanistan! I'll do it sooner if I can, though.

Thanks all for the welcome and suggestions. Here is another picture of the butchered barrel; the new dovetail with the leaf sight is actually crooked, to top things off. I need to look at the stock when I get home and see how the fit is with the crescent butt plate. If it can be salvaged, I may just...

A friend gave me his 1886 a year or two ago. He bought it from the owner of the Pony Express Gun Shop in Southern CA, who had converted it from .38-56 to .45-70 because of the poor bore, hack-sawed the barrel and magazine tube, put on a graduated express leaf sight in a shoddy new dovetail, and fill...