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Uberti army accuracy

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jan_buchwald

32 Cal.
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Have had two Uberti 1860 army's, both shoot 3" high and 3" right, why or whats wrong? Are there anyway to correct this? The 3" high is ok, but!
 
Jan Buchwald said:
Have had two Uberti 1860 army's, both shoot 3" high and 3" right, why or whats wrong? Are there anyway to correct this? The 3" high is ok, but!

3" high and right at what distance?

Many folks let the frame of a Colt rest on their trigger finger...many without even noticing it. If that is happening, then the finger movement pushes or pulls the gun one way or the other.

Or the sight notch may not be centered in the hammer, or the hammer not quite centered in the gun. I have had pretty good success with moving the sight notch over with the careful use of a triangular file.
 
Jan Buchwald
As you may have read on a number of posts here most if not all of the Civil War revolvers shoot high.

Many theories have been given as to why this is true ranging from "The guns were designed to shoot at ranges of 75 yards" to "This allowed the soldier to aim at the belt buckle and hit a man in the vitals."

As for the gun hitting 3 inches to the right, Doc probably has a point.
My take on this is the barrel may not be seated against the frame (at the bottom) or the cylinder pin may have been installed at a slight angle relative to the frame and hammer.
A small burr on the frame below the cylinder or on the barrel at the same place could cause this.

Another thought is simply that these guns were originally designed to shoot people at moderate or close ranges so precision shooting is asking a lot of them.
With guns like these sometimes the only answer is to learn where your gun shoots and then make a mental note to aim slightly off target to hit where you want it to hit.
 
Every one of these revolvers is a different animal...each likes their own special load. You might try to adjust the charge by a couple of grains or so, or try more than one wad to bring the ball up towards the top of the cylinder so as to avoid "jump" into the forcing cone on the barrel. This may do the trick. Remember that BP arms behave differently in different weather conditions: dry or humid, hot or cold, and then there's the evil wind god :hmm: .

Good luck and remember--Aim Low!

Dave
 
The next question is, are you shooting from a stand or firing by hand to "zero" in your pistol?
 
I had a friend and his true love was revolvers.

He would add a shim to either the right or left side of the front sight to make it shoot where he wanted. If it shot high he would build up the front sight with a shim to bring the ball down.

JB Weld can do wonders on front sights to move the point of impact.

RDE
 
Jan Buchwald: have you checked the muzzle crown for irregularities? If there is this may account for the lack in accuracy.Recrowning may help here.
The dia of the chambers should be about the same as the rifling bore diameter. If the chambers are significantly less that can be corrected easily. If the chambers are significantly more you may want to consider exchanging the cylinder.
Is the arbor firmly resting in the bottom of the corresponding hole in the barrel lug? Most Ubertis have arbors that are a mite too short which is negatively affecting accuracy.
Long Johns Wolf
 
Smokin .50 has a good point. My 1860 is very picky about its seating. If I get the ball much past flush it will shoot a little left. If I load it hot and seat the ball as far out as possible it will put em right under the front sight. Mine also doesn't seem to like grease,just the opposite of my ROA. The point is try lots o different loads and make sure you have the barrel seated on its pins fully.
 
I remember one of the better pistol shooters telling me that gripping revolvers differently changes where the pistol shoots.

He said that moving your hand towads the hammer would make the pistol either higher or lower and moving the hand towards the bottom of the grip would do the opposite. I cannot remember which way, but it might be worth a try to see what happens.

RDE
 
The original Rems. were gain twist and had a reputation of being very accurate. I think Uberti did make some in gain twist.
Shooters who use the Rems. in Compt. have the cylinders centered to the bore. The chambers are filled and rebored to line with the barrel. This seems to make them very accurate. There was a fellow in Colorado who did this. He has retired and moved to Texas. Don't know of anyone else doing this work on Rems.
 
I don't know about the older Uberti '58's but the Uberti 1858 Millenium that I have has the standard 1:24" rifling & it shoots prety well with both .457 Ball & .456 Lee Conicals out to 30 yards, a natural pointer.

I know that the Pietta 1858 Shooter model has a Gain Twist Rifling that started out at 1:32 & end at 1:24 & they were regarded as superbly accurate pieces.

My 1 year old Pietta '58 with it's 5.5" barrel has a 1:32" twist rifling & I had done a lot to get it shooting the way I like it.
Recrowned the Barrel.
Reamed the chambers to .4510 to better accomodate the grove of .4495.
Smoothed & Tuned the action.
opened up the cone areas to accomodate a snail capper.
She now shoots .457 Ball & .456 Lee Conicals pretty well out to 30 yards.
 
redwing,

I bought the 44 Uberti 1858 and it was a problem child which has not been shot yet.

To make a long story very short, I called Taylors, talked with the gunsmith there. He response was ship it to me and I call take care of you.

I week total time turnaround, very nice people.

RDE
 
I've been looking through a few of my books about the Old West, and in photos where the chamber mouths are clearly visible, no grease is apparent. I don't recall Colt factory loading instructions calling for lube over the ball either. Maybe this is a new thing like using wads and fillers. Might be we've gotten a little too fussy about how we load our revolvers. I think I may experiment with this a little bit when the weather clears.
 
For those of you who don't know Richard is a fine hand gun shooter down Texas way. Yes, in shooting modern handguns the drill for proper shooting on Bulls eye targets includes proper hand placement.
The old single shot BP handguns were used as a replacement for the saber. You will note the early ones had some what straight grips like a saber. Early hand guns had no rear sight. The gun was held like a saber the thumb was pointed toward the thrust like a saber. So from the very start how you held a handgun was important. :thumbsup:
 
I am thinking that they would not grease the cylinders in the heat of battle or carrying a holstered gun. I think that would make a mess.
The only double chain fire i ever saw the guy was using .451 balls with no grease and #11 caps and did not pinch them. My bet in on the louse fitting caps.

Mike
 
Grease over the ball is to help reduce leading and soften fouling in the barrel and the splash of lubrication on the arbor when the shot is fired. In the "old days" this was all irrelevant as by the time you got six shots off the battle was probably over, and if it wasn't you sure didn't have time to reload a revolver.
In my opinion, this over the ball grease is a modern day invention that has resulted from extended shooting sessions at targets.
I can get 6 shots of in my revolvers with out grease, but accuracy would probably start falling off after that.
 
Your assessment sounds right i make paper cartage's after six shots i have to wipe the cylinder face and barrel with goop waterless hand soap.

Mike
 
They also recount carrying as many as 4 extra loaded cylinders into battle. I don't think the grease was used in the day of the C&B six gun. They may have used OP wads of felt.
In the 1960s the hype over chain firing became a part of our shooting misinformation. That has all so promoted the messy loading problem. It is like the fellow who post that a thin patch can not burn in a muzzleloader. :rotf: Some one will follow and believe these yarns until they become facts.
 

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