[JShirley]

I'd like to get a .45 Colt as a "Sunday/Wedding/Barbecue gun". I have no problem using a single action revolver for virtually any use, except for the loading gate virtually all SA wheelguns have. I have given some thought to getting one of the Schofield style pistols, and since I want to be able to use regular .45 Colt ammo, Uberti will probably be the route I go.

Who has experience with these pistols? How accurate are they for you? Would you buy one again? What can one expect to pay? Best holsters? Who should I get to engrave one for me? Any feedback and knowledgeable opinion is appreciated.

John

[Jim March]

Those guns are WEAK. They can handle "cowboy grade ammo" but even modest diets of slightly stronger jacketed hollowpoints like the Winchester Silvertip or Cor-Bon self-defense load will beat them up and can trip off the top latch.

Understand, I'm not talking about the 45LC+P "Ruger Only" fodder - that'll turn a Spaghetti Schofield into a hand grenade.

I went through the same analysis, and gave up on the concept. Breaktops were abandoned for a reason :(.

[Old Fuff]

I agree with Jim, but if you are willing to use "mild" ammunition and are thinking in terms of a "fun toy," rather then a weapon I see no reason to not get a Schofield reproduction. I sometime shoot original top-break revolver without any problems, but I am very careful in selecting ammunition. Magnums they are not.

[Jim March]

A different question is "how do you reload an SAA type (Vaquero or otherwise) faster?".

There's two problems: unloading, and loading.

On the first, this page gives a clue:

http://www.curtrich.com/ruger.html

He talks about a cylinder honing kit available from Brownell's that gives a high enough polish that lower-pressure loads, esp. 45LC, will drop free as you spin the cylinder. I don't yet know how reliable this is!

'Course, I'm also psycho enough to rig a CO2 cartridge up to the ejector housing and run a tube into the frame where the ejector rod would go, and have a valve that would let you "spray" the empties out in a "stream" as you spin the cylinder :D.

Loading:

Well, if you're doing 45ACPs, you can thumb them in from a 1911 or whatever magazine :). Or use a tube that's capped with a cork on one end and the hole partially blocked on the other - tumb the cork off, stick that end in the loading gate and then BLOW on the back of the tube while you spin the cylinder.

Right, this sorta thing will get you thrown out of a SASS match in short order :D.

[JShirley]

Jim, you're just nuts. :D (You still making kydex body armor, btw?)

Even without being forced to actually use the ejection plunger (or whatever it's called), single loading is just too damn slow. If the Uberti can't stand up to semi-regular doses of SAAMI standard .45 Colt ammo, I reckon maybe I'll just have to get another 627 for my Barbecue gun...or maybe a 10mm 1911.

John


It's not the fall down that scares me, it's the jump off.

[Jim March]

JShirley: you have NO idea how seriously I'd tweak a Ruger SA :D.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16400

Edited to add: not doing armor, but am having good results with kydex holsters/sheaths.

[tex_n_cal]

What I have actually heard is that Uberti pressure tested the Schofeld replica - they ran some with +P Ruger loads, and nothing blew, but the latch did loosen up after a steady diet of those loads. Makes sense to me, I doubt they'd sell the Schofeld in .45 Colt, unless they thought it could reasonably tolerate some heavy loads.

Given modern steels, I'd bet the Uberti could tolerate anything that a Smith Model 25 or Colt SAA would handle - say a 250 at 950 fps

S&W, of course, went with the shorter .45 Schofeld cartridge, probably to discourage anyone from shooting 300's at 1300 fps. :evil:

Me I'd really like to have one of the .44 Russian replicas - that spur trigger guard is just too cool. I promise I won't shoot any Elmer Keith Commemorative loads in it.:evil:

By the way, Jim, you ever find a machine shop in the Bay Area to to make your projects?

[Mike Irwin]

I'll tell you, I'm really torn.

Between spending the nearly $800 they're asking for the reproductions, or spending only about double that and getting the REAL deal, an ORIGINAL S&W No. 3.

Not a Schofield, but a real, dyed in the wool period S&W, not an Italian knockoff or one of the stupid priced new S&Ws.