Nelson Conversion experiences

Why not a survey?

Did your conversion work immediately, with tweaks, or was sent back.

Also be kind enough to explain what you mounted it on.

Mounted on a S&W SC1911. Which has a Commander frame. Made of Scandium. It worked instantly but I prepped the frame while waiting for the Nelson. I gave it a 2.5 lb trigger, and a 19# mainspring. 

Mounted on a Caspian Titanium frame. 100% reliable since day 1. 19lb mainspring.

My Nelson didn't run well at all when first installed. The magazines were to high in the frame, and it would not feed. Larry told me to remove material from the slot cut in the magazine for the magazine catch. Or replace the magazine catch with one that allows the magazine to sit lower in the frame. I removed material from the slot cut in the mag, and got it to run 100%. Im using Springfield frame, 9lb recoil spring, 19lb mainspring, CCI Standard Velocity. My firing pin strikes are lighter than I would like with this set up, but as long as I keep the breech face clean it's fine. My conversion does still shave lead, and brass, which I don't like. But it is reliable so I haven't messed with it.

I have 4 Nelsons.  One is the Bob Marvel II unit.  All work right out of the box. 
ADD that all work fine on every frame I have tried.  A Les Baer made up by Roddy, a Range Officer with nothing done except a KC hammer set, and 18# hammer spring and Colt finger spring.  Also worked fine on my 1963 GC

My first experience with them was a Nighthawk.  It had something wrong with it.  Bob Marvel had Nelson replace the barrel for it.  I can't remember what the problem was.  Memory.  Second thing to go you know. 

Come spring, I will Ransom all the Nelsons and 2 AA.  I have become a fair weather shooter mostly.  I was in Portland today with family.  A league match was a 2 miles away.  Kids come first.

I’ve had mine on a Les Baer, Kimber and now a Colt frame, its worked good on all of them as long as I put a lower poundage mainspring in, 19# I think.

Looks like this poll is working. (My day job is being the American Tourister gorilla for software, so I usually expect computer stuff not to work)

I've bought two Nelson conversions, one with iron sights and the other with a Weaver rail. I eventually bought a combo rail and sold one unit to a friend.

Both functioned well on the Range Officer wad gun and 1975 Colt Series 70 wad gun frames I have. I eventually bought a Palmetto State Armory frame for a dedicated lower and it has run great with a 19 pound mainspring.

Mine runs on a stainless Caspian frame. Runs 100% with 8# recoil spring and 18# mainspring, with pretty much any ammo. As a note, I have a classic spur hammer, which I have come to believe requires a lighter mainspring.

Dave

Currently have 2 Nelsons & 2 Marvel unit 1's. The Nelson's are the only ones I'm running on dedicated frames right now, but I swap them back & forth (frames have a bit different trigger) without any issues as long as I'm using Nelson magazines. They aren't reliable with the Colt Ace mags I use on the Marvels.

Had the same luck with the Marvels, except I tried those on every frame I own without issues. Colt, Caspian, Springfield, Citadel-didn't make any difference which frame I ran them on, they just worked.
Al

I have had two different examples and have a 3rd coming soon. They both worked "out of the box". I have tweaked the dedicated frames that they are on for improved function, I have a lowered mag catch, makes a difference when dirty. The only issue that I have ran into running either of them is a worn out mainspring, which is not the fault of the conversion. I use the nelson mags.

Running a pair on pre Series II Kimber Super Match frames with KC's Battleaxe hammer/sear/disconnector sets.  They both ran good right out of the box.

I have one with iron sights that did/does not go fully into battery all the time. It has been back to Larry and I still have issues with it. I also have one with a Weaver rail that has functioned 100% (well, almost) since I got it. Both have been run on the same frame. The Weaver version has an Aimpoint Micro on it and now gets used 90% of the time as my eyes are getting old.

What the number for the weaver rail that fits the Nelson?

I got my unit (standard barrel, combo rail, patridge front sight, square rear sight) in the spring of 2019. Mounted on a Kimber Classic frame (1997 vintage) which had a trigger job (3.5 lb) and 17 lb mainspring installed (for use with  the Nelson conversion) by Brian Marcov. Topped the conversion with an Ultradot 30mm Matchdot II red dot sight mounted using Weaver tactical 4-hole rings. Pretty much works as received. After some firing I did have a some of fail to chamber issues. Called Larry about this and he advised to keep the chamber clean (say after every 50 rounds fired) and if that did not work to go to a 19 lb mainspring. Frequent chamber cleaning appears to have solved the problem. As expected there is sensitivity to the ammo used: So far CCI SV, Lapua Pistol King, and Eley/Remington Club work essentially issue free. The same cannot be said for Federal Premium Target, federal American Eagle, and CCI Blazer. I am still quite new at this and have a lot more testing and practice to do.

I have mine on an Essex frame. I bought it from a forum member!
It has an EGW high mag catch, C&S hammer, sear, disconnect set that’s just a little over 3.5 lbs
with an 18 lb main spring. Videcki long trigger with a Frank S. Trigger shoe.
My Nelson runs great but it has some quarks......I cannot insert a loaded mag with the slide closed and it doesn’t like being 
slingshot! Works fine using the slide catch. Knowing this, I load with the slide open and drop the slide catch. I have over a 
thousand rounds thru it with only a couple of fail to fire which fired on the second strike.
I also cannot sight it in resting on the mag. The pressure will not let it cycle. But I have another set of gripes that extend beyond the mag when need. So far, I have been very happy with it!

Initially, it failed to strip a round off the magazine intermittently. The slide is aluminum and was not recoiling with enough force, so it was short-stroking. I trimmed one coil off of the mainspring in the 1911 frame to reduce the force required to compress it, which completely fixed the problem. Using a lighter mainspring also may solve the problem.

Even though we are early on with the sample pool I like how a picture appears to be forming and I hope it will help others in getting their conversions running well. I'm pretty sure on this forum we can hit around a hundred votes. Setting this up was easier than I expected other than figuring out useful polling questions.

The results that everyone has contributed to so far are a little easier to interpret than trying to read every post ever made anywhere while trying to form a good picture of user's experiences. Another plus is most posters here tend to meet at least a minimum level of firearms maintenance ability and rounds fired that improves the sample pool quality.

..and my NCG and a Range Officer wadgun,

Stainless Caspian frame that I built. Had issues with it short-stroking at first. Called Larry and he walked me through diagnosing and fixing it. The mag catch was too high, so the mag was pushing the ejector up against the bottom of the slide. Runs great now. Using 19# mainspring and a 7.5# Model 41 recoil spring.

I bought one toward the end of last year that has worked flawlessly through several hundred rounds.  Most of that has been on an Ed Brown frame, but it has also been on two Dan Wessons.

3 or so years ago I had one that would not feed, but it did shoot quite well, when it fed.  Someone wanted it, and I let them have it rather than try to work out the bug. 

I'm "very" happy with the one that I have now!  And either way, Larry is a real gentleman.

I had KC make me a dedicated frame for mine with a 2.5# trigger pull. I have the occasional problem with brass not ejecting.  I've only fired a couple hundred rounds through it.  I bought a Marvel steel slide, and mounted it on my Dad's WWI Colt, and I've had a few problems there also.  I've only fired a couple hundred rounds through it also.

Keep the chamber clean.

I might be the exception,but I've had about the same luck with mine as I've had with other .22 conversions on multiple platforms.From 1911s,Glocks,and CZs,I just haven't had much luck getting one to be all that reliable.I gave up on mine for the time being,and decided to concentrate on the High Standard platform.-Mike

And my experience has been the exact opposite.  My Nelson on a Springer TRP lower runs like a fine Swiss watch.  My other .22 handguns feel neglected as they seldom get to the range. bob