Price of Uberti worth the expense?

[Cowboy2]

The Navy was from Taylors, the Dragoon from Cabelas, and the latter is the smoothest running cap and ball I've ever handled. The Navy isn't far behind, but doesn't have enough rounds through it to really say for sure. I'll get the Army out to the range tomorrow and see how it measures up.

 

[Poor Private]

One point not yet mentioned, unless I missed it, is that Uberti's used to come in at least 3 different grades depending on who is buying for resale. The Cimarrons used to be top of the line. They payed a bit more, then the customer payed a bit more in order to get more. The Cimarrons used to be fitted, polished, and finished much better than the average or lower grade Uberti. I suspect that still holds true.

Yepper I have a Uberti 5.5" barreled .44 Remington, I bought it just over a year ago from Cimarron. It has double the warranty of the UBerti warrant. 2 yrs instead of 1. It was cleaned up in fit and in the workings(polished). They have proofed all parts of the revolver and s/n are on all parts(frame, barrel, cylinder). It trigger is a smooth pull and I think a bit lighter on the pull than my out of the box Uberti Remington. Would I buy another one from them- yepper. to me it was worth the extra.

 

[Dphar]

One point not yet mentioned, unless I missed it, is that Uberti's used to come in at least 3 different grades depending on who is buying for resale. The Cimarrons used to be top of the line. They payed a bit more, then the customer payed a bit more in order to get more. The Cimarrons used to be fitted, polished, and finished much better than the average or lower grade Uberti. I suspect that still holds true.

I think the Cowboy Action shooting has helped improve the reproduction revolver quality.
Years ago the cheaper ones had shallow rifling and other problems, soft internals etc.
This was why I would not buy anything but the Colts or Ubertis. See no reason to change now.

Dan

And yes there were different grades of Italian guns.
But the best Ubertis were the best. Buying a revolver mail order, even a SAA copy, was a manure shoot 20 years ago. But Cimmaron is reliable and the old Western Arms co. was always good. If the company will accept junk they get junk or did in the past.
Dan

 

[aeatwood]

I have a Pietta I bought mail order back in '97. The action was so rough I had to use FILES to get it to the point my Arkansas stones were any use. The bolt had a knife edge sticking up that had started cutting a groove in the cylinder.

I was into SASS at the time. It was a target model, and I needed a second gun to shoot with my Blackhawk, and it saw a LOT of use - I still have it and it is remarkably accurate - but it is showing a lot of forcing cone wear, and the basepin is about 1/4 way cut through with gas erosion.

Fast forward 10 years and I got another Pietta - a '61 Navy I bought from the Cabela's store in Ft. Worth. Much better finished gun, and very very accurate - on the order of 1" groups at 20 yards. It had the oversized bolt problem documented in Pietta Colts, and marred the cylinder.

I have a couple of 5.5 Remington .44's made in the last year, and they are MILES ahead of the old Piettas. I really like shooting them, and they will both do sub-2" groups at 25 yards when carefully loaded.

I have a couple of '60's production '61 Navies from Uberti and they are nice also, but I don't know if they have been worked over. I also have a couple of Uberti 2nd Model Dragoons from Western Arms. One has the classic Uberti short arbor syndrome, and the other is fine. I purchased them used but unfired, and 1/2 the price of what a new one would cost. I don't mind doing a bit of tweaking if the price is right. 8) Finish on them is pretty good, but not up to some of the newer guns. I've been putting off shooting them til I get the arbor fixed.

Alan

 

[Flash Pan Dan]

Cap’t Kirk and Zonie,

I beg to differ with the conclusions to which you have arrived through Zonie’s tests. The picture “floating” around the internet of the pard with the missing piece of his thumb is from the CAS City Forum and I posted the link on a previous thread because the pressing of caps onto cones with your fingers is dangerous. If you read the rest of the thread with the picture you will see that this is not an isolated case.

The tests Zonie conducted does not take into consideration a multitude of variables that can occur over an extended period of time of firing a percussion revolver. To name just a few; condition of the cones (nipples), are they worn, are the symmetrical, are they free of nicks and cuts? What is the condition of the caps; are they old, have they been stored properly, at the time of firing are they heated due to being left in the sun?

These and other things have been the cause of things going wrong, not only with caps going off while being pressed onto cones, but all kinds of different failures. At a CAS (Cowboy Action Shooting) match a person can be subject to many distractions that can cause errors, all small and benign in nature, but put together they can lead to disaster. Again, please be cautious at conclusion you draw from tests with limited conditions. IT IS DANGEROUS TO PRESS CAPS ONTO NIPPLES WITH YOUR FINGERS.

 

[Poor Private]

In all the years I have been firing pistols live at the range, and the thousands of blank rounds fired in civil war reenactments I have never ever seen a single cook off of a cap on either a pistol or a long gun, in the 15 years I have been reenacting. If your not supposed to cap with your fingers on your pistol then we have to go several steps further. We shouldn't cap our muskets, or even our cannons with our fingers. Wait-wait our kids better not use those multi star shaped caps on their cap guns since they they are being placed over a nipple. I guess all the military manuals from the civil war is wrong- never once have I seen a reference to using a "capper" when loading. Myself I will stick to what works for me., and what the period manual says. Some guns I cap since my fingers don't go there, others I will continue to had cap. To me the choice is yours.

 

[Flash Pan Dan]

Oh no, it’s the dreaded “I’ve done it this way for years and nothing has happen” argument. I am UNDONE! My foul plot to diminish the enjoyment of everyone that shoots percussion revolvers by NOT having bits of themselves blown off their bodies has been thwarted by the insurmountable logic of this argument.

And by all means let us all follow the instruction of 19th century manuals because we all know everything discovered about safely using black powder arms after they were written is worthless rot.

I’ll stop typing now as I must go down to my basement and pace back and forth wringing my hands and moaning “Woe is me, woe is me.” Where the hell did I put that box with the sackcloth and ashes?

 

[CaptainKirk]

Dan-
It's OK! Calm down!
I'm not advocating not using a capper; I do mostly all the time, and when I can't,(due to clearance issues, etc) I seat the cap with a dowel rod.
I'm sure somewhere, sometime, someone set off a cap with his thumb. And if it happened once, it can happen again.
I'm just not going to get all freaked by Urban Legends that may or may not be true. Common sense prevails, as with everything in our sport.