When I first got bought Uberti's, it was for CAS competition and they were something of a novelty to me. I decided I wanted a good, stout utility 45 Colt so I bought a 4 3/4" New Vaquero because, well, everyone said they were better. I hated the hammer with the long spur, so I fitted a Bisley model. The cylinder throats were way undersized so I sent it off to have them uniformed. I cut the forcing cone to 11°. It had the well known tight spot or "choke" where the barrel threaded into the frame and after 60-some rounds of fire-lapping it was better, but still there. I had to work the trigger over and work on the timing because the bolt popped way too soon, scoring the cylinder. After all this work it would only group around 5"-6" at 50 yds. I got disgusted and sold it.
The Uberti Frisco above is about 50% more accurate than the New Vaquero I owned and the only thing I've done to it is cut the forcing cone to 11° and replace the bolt/trigger spring.
They do perform the same tasks. Surely you've read
SIXGUNS and all the things Keith and others did with a 45 Colt, even with the original loads and the old inefficient, pointy bullet. Of course a more powerful version of a 45 Colt would seem better for larger game, but to arbitrarily limit a "normal" 45 Colt load to 120 lb. whitetails is odd, at best. Have you experienced .45 caliber bullets at 950 fps bounce off of say, 125 lb. whitetails?? How did you reach this conclusion? Although I'm sure you have more experience on the subject than I, your assertion that a 120 lb. whitetail is the limit for such loads is completely contrary to my experiences in the field.
You're thinking of versatility
only in the sense of handgun hunting. As
@CraigC and others have alluded to, Colt-style SA revolvers are versatile in a much more broad sense. For example, my old battered .44 Special pictured a couple of pages back has been used for CAS competition, plinking, for small game, quail, javelina, deer and hogs, and all with one sight setting. If I have to get out a screwdriver and twiddle with sights when changing loads, that's not versatility in my book. Also, and again, if versatility were defined by how ultimately powerful a cartridge is, then rifle hunters would do well to all buy 375 H&H's or 458 Winchesters and load them up or down depending on the quarry. But that makes no sense.
Max, I understand that it's your thing to show people how well big revolvers kill cattle-size animals. But not 1 person in 100,000 will hunt that type game nor has the need for that kind of power. If they just
want it, kewl. But to try to convince everyone they need it day to day is in your own words "intellectually dishonest".
35W
