Just got a brand new lemon

[cynthialee]

Uberti 1849, NIB and the first new Uberti I ever sprung for. More of a second hand Pietta budget kinda gal. But I was flush, so I went for the new thing.
Nice pistol....except...the barrel and cylinder interface if off. The barrel has a gap up against the cylinder on the left side. I can fit a thin feeler gauge in the gap.....Barrel is off true and pointing a smidge off to the right. I can't shoot this thing. It is not a safe gun.

Not a happy camper. Hazzard of buying over the net. But how many black powder pocket pistols you gonna find in the local gun store? I shoulda got the used one in a case from a member here, but my sweetie was all 'get a new one for that price, you don't know what that older pistol has been through'. And I listened. grrrrr......

So how is Uberti about fixing issues like this?

 

[CaptainKirk]

Uberti is completely ignoring the short arbor issues, which may be connected to the problem you are having, by pretending it does not exist. My brand new Uberti Richards-Mason required shimming the arbor right out of the box. You have three choices; either read up on the issue (Google will give you hundreds of links) and see if you can fix it yourself, send it to an accomplished gun tuner like Mike Brackett @ Goon's Gun Works, or deal with the hassle of trying to get an exchange from your vendor. Good luck with that...
I guarantee you if you tell Uberti you have a short arbor they will tell you to jump in a lake.

If you put the hammer in half cock and drive the wedge home with a plastic mallet and the cylinder locks up; bingo. Short arbor.

 

[azmntman]

I would send back to the vendor (not Uberti) and ask them for a replacement. Most would assist you rather than get a FORUM FULL OF BAD REP! Cabela's? send back to Cabela's etc etc. Keep us posted, HATE to see the nice guy finish last!!

btw my cheapo 1849 Italian is a HOOT to shoot and one I wont let go of, ya gotta get this done, yer gonna luv it!

Happy Easter too Cindy!! (an all)

 

[cynthialee]

Yeah I have started the hate mail chain with Midway and Uberti already.

I been wanting a Remington .31 pocket model, because I love that trigger sans guard it has, but I couldn't find one so I figured the Uberti colt clone would be a nice second option.

 

[nkbj]

Wow. That's disappointing to hear about Uberti.
Best wishes on recompense.

 

[ZUG]

Return it for a replacement - don't accept a "reject" - you paid good money and you deserve a GOOD revolver in return for that money.

 

[cynthialee]

At this point I have to say screw MidwayUSA

As per their email to me they do not have anyone on staff charged with inspection of firearms they receive from the vendors. I feel that this is a terrible shirking of responsibility. They can afford to have an on staff gunsmith to go through received firearms to check for blatant defects.
That should be a basic thing to do.

What was supposed to be a fun day was ruined.

 

[Mtman725]

That's a big ankle biter for sure.

 

[Timber Wolf]

Bought a completely unacceptable 1851 Uberti from Midway a couple of years back. Wedge would bottom out, and you could still push/pull the barrel back and forth! I was less than pleased. Uberti made it right though, sent me a perfect replacement gun. I have no confidence in their factory QC. Like most everybody else (with a few exceptions) they are using the retail buyer as their quality control department.

 

[Whitworth]

At this point I have to say screw MidwayUSA

As per their email to me they do not have anyone on staff charged with inspection of firearms they receive from the vendors. I feel that this is a terrible shirking of responsibility. They can afford to have an on staff gunsmith to go through received firearms to check for blatant defects.
That should be a basic thing to do.

What was supposed to be a fun day was ruined.

Seems to me this should have been caught at the factory, QC must really stink now. Hope you get some satisfaction from someone. One thing about the Pietta .31 Remington if you haven't seen one in person is the horrible way the barrel is defaced with stampings on the sides of that little barrel. I wanted one until I saw it. YMMV

 

[deermanok]

That stinks, hope you get a refund or replacement.

 

[CaptainKirk]

Seems to me this should have been caught at the factory, QC must really stink now.

QC has been brainwashed to think that "short arbor" is not a real thing. In fact, there is an Uberti video floating about that shows how to properly "adjust" barrel gap using the wedge as an "adjustment"...
Unless the wedge is driven in firmly to bottom out the arbor in the bore hole, no two re-assemblies of the frame and barrel will result in the same tightness of barrel-to-frame nor a reproducible cylinder gap. It's that simple. Pietta seems to grasp the concept and has addressed the issue on recent production guns.
A properly corrected arbor will result in a solid lockup of frame and barrel with a consistent cylinder gap each and every time you reassemble the gun. I learned this from Mike Brackett; the best in the BP gun tuning business. And his contemporaries all agree with him in this matter.
Whether this is the root cause of your Pocket issues (I suspect it is), it's almost certainly an issue with all Ubertis.

 

[Tom A Hawk]

Many years ago I bought an 1849 from Cabelas on sale. It would not fire. Close inspection revealed a pimple in the frame under the hammer that prevented the hammer from making contact with the cap. I was able to correct the situation with some grinding but this should never have left the factory, I have several perfect Ubertis but sometimes their Quality Control is out to lunch.

 

[Blackpowderwarrior]

Im sorry cindy. I recently bought a 1862 police that had a few issues from midway that i fixed myself. Assuming midway wouldnt touch it

 

[hawkeye2]

45D, Goons, can fix your problem and anything else that may need fixing and it's probably worth the money, just a shame you would have to invest time and $$ in something that should be right out of the box.

 

[Stantheman86]

I would reach out to Uberti, they have authorized dealers that will do warranty and repair work..given that they sell lots of cartridge revolvers to the CAS market they do try to make things right.

Also, any future Ubertis I buy will be through Cimarron since they sell what's basically a higher end Uberti. They cost more but you get the better QC.

I have a Cimarron Uberti Walker and 2 Walkers I got from Sportman's Guide, and the Cimarron is a few notches above the rest of my Ubertis as far as fit and finish. I think Uberti basically half-a$$es the QC if they know the guns are going to a box retailer.

 

[Tom A Hawk]

Cimarron and Taylor have been out of stock for months. Wonder when the boat from Italy comes in...?

 

[M. De Land]

Uberti is completely ignoring the short arbor issues, which may be connected to the problem you are having, by pretending it does not exist. My brand new Uberti Richards-Mason required shimming the arbor right out of the box. You have three choices; either read up on the issue (Google will give you hundreds of links) and see if you can fix it yourself, send it to an accomplished gun tuner like Mike Brackett @ Goon's Gun Works, or deal with the hassle of trying to get an exchange from your vendor. Good luck with that...
I guarantee you if you tell Uberti you have a short arbor they will tell you to jump in a lake.

If you put the hammer in half cock and drive the wedge home with a plastic mallet and the cylinder locks up; bingo. Short arbor.

Now there is a sound reason to have end fit on the arbor !

 

[dave61965]

At this point I have to say screw MidwayUSA

As per their email to me they do not have anyone on staff charged with inspection of firearms they receive from the vendors. I feel that this is a terrible shirking of responsibility. They can afford to have an on staff gunsmith to go through received firearms to check for blatant defects.
That should be a basic thing to do.

What was supposed to be a fun day was ruined.

I can understand it being aggravating and disappointing but I see no cause to poo poo on Midway, on the very page to purchase to pistol it states in two different places they will not accept returns, after your purchase and you receive your pistol Uberti is responsible for any warranty issues, I’d be contacting Uberti customer service asap if I had issues with a new gun.

 

[Stantheman86]

Cimarron and Taylor have been out of stock for months. Wonder when the boat from Italy comes in...?

I've been waiting on a pair of Uberti 1860 Armies that I had planned to use for CAS shooting, on Backorder, for almost a year now and also a .38 Special Uberti 1851 Conversion , for over a year from my local gun shop. The boat is not coming anytime soon apparently