17hm2 in a very unrestorable 1849 open top?

True, but then I would have to reload for it :p

If I did a 25cal projectile I would likely just stick with 25acp as it's semi rimmed and fairly light pressure.

A 22 cal centerfire wildcat might be interesting and give a bit of extra space for the sleeve but once again, trying to avoid reloading for another caliber.
 
It likely would.... if I understand you correctly.

If you mean the stock hammer directly striking the rim of the case, I do not think so. It's unlikely that the hammer will just happen to be the exact right size and placement to strike only the very edge of the rim of the casing without exposing excess amounts of the base and risking a blow out of the unsupported base of the cartridge. I've had this happen on a .22, so I would imagine it would be a factor on the higher pressure 17hm2.

If you meant stock hammer being fine for working in correspondance with a custom made back plate, definitely. Since the back plate would be designed for the gun, it would simply be a matter of making it to fit.

Also, since I've just given it some more thought, might be an idea to just make a second hammer with a wedge on the hammer face and eliminate the complicated little pin contraption that would need to be built into a centerfire kirst conversion altogether. The wedge would be inherently delicate, but it could always be made as a threaded insert to be replaced in case the gun were accidentally dry fired more than a few times.

The only issue I can see is if the base is so small that the hammer completely passes above it. I'm too tired to check that right now though.
 
Got around to checking - the hammer is placed so that either method should work, IE using a back plate with internal pin or making a new hammer with it's own "pin" and simply making a slit in the back plate for it to reach the rim of the cartridge. Of course, if a new hammer were made it wouldn't need to match the original's profile exactly anyways, so there's always that.

Both methods would probably be the same amount of work - using the original hammer would require some very fine tolerance work on fitting a spring loaded pin into the back plate while a new wedge faced hammer would require making a whole new part, but remove the issue of fine tedious work
 
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