Gunshop has Uberti black powder "SAA" type

Tallbald · May 12, 2012

Stopped in at LGS this morning to browse. Good folks at Sherwood's Guns in Bowling Green, KY. For the first time I saw and held one of the Uberti black powder revolvers fashioned to look just like a Colt SAA. I had no idea just how beautiful these were. Case hardened cylinder frame and hammer, blue-black grip frame, and beautifully blued barrel, I think 5.5 inches (but I did not measure it). Either it has not been fired, or someone took wonderful good care of it. Interesting that although it's BP, it has the case ejector rod .
Unfortunately all there was was the revolver. No loading tool, box or instructions. It's a consignment gun priced at $285. Don't know if there's any wiggle room or not, and I have nothing to gain by posting this in case somebody's interested. Here's a link. Don

http://sherwoodsguns.com/

Tell Sherwood or John that Don referred you and they'll know who you are talking about.

joecil · May 12, 2012

I have 3 Uberti Cattleman 1873 models a 4.75", 5.5" and a 7.5" barrel all in 45 Colt. Now all of mine are case hardened/blued with steal trigger guards. Fine guns though mine is a cartridge type I do shoot black powder through all of them. The 7.5" is a Cimarron/Uberti Mod P which is a smoothed out Uberti Cattleman with different grips. Still a Uberti though regardless.

Skinny 1950 · May 14, 2012

I bought one of those guns and it came with a loading stand that was home-made but robust. Here are some pictures of the gun and loading procedure. I was told that these guns were made for the British market where centre-fire pistols are prohibited.

Saakee · May 14, 2012

that powder is incredibly pretty and it would fit in perfectly in a yellow texture shoot i'm doing tomorrow.

And an on topic statement is, I always wondered how black powder revolvers were loaded. Very cool.

hang fire · May 14, 2012

That revolver is begging for a conversion cylinder, but doubt any are made for it.

CraigC · May 14, 2012

They can't be converted to cartridges, period, at all, whatsoever. Designed that way, been round and round and round about it several times with narrow minded brick walls. Forget it.

mykeal · May 14, 2012

the British market where centre-fire pistols are prohibited.

Ownership and possession of centre-fire AND rimfire cartridge handguns are prohibited.

BTW, here's mine:

Skinny 1950 · May 15, 2012

I bought it to shoot black powder out of, I have much the same gun in .45 Colt which I am shooting 230 grain round nose with smokeless

Unique and I have to admit that the .45Colt is so far way more accurate than the round ball, still working on a good load for the black powder. With 24 grains Goex FFFG and a filler (the yellow stuff) there is some difficulty getting a group at 10 Yards.

hang fire · May 15, 2012

They can't be converted to cartridges, period, at all, whatsoever. Designed that way, been round and round and round about it several times with narrow minded brick walls. Forget it.

Can't be, or won't be by anyone?

mykeal · May 15, 2012

Put it this way: it would take a great deal of effort and/or money, significantly more than what the gun is worth. Given enough time and money one can do anything. But so far, nobody's been foolish enough to have done it.

CraigC · May 15, 2012

Can't be, or won't be by anyone?

Can't.

Everything is offset to prevent this. The hole in the frame is offset, not to mention rather large. One could, theoretically, weld up the holes and start from scratch with a new hammer and cylinder but why would anyone spend a thousand dollars building what they could buy for $250-$400??? There's a rather long and detailed thread with pics around here somewhere, search for it.

Found it.
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=634653

mykeal · May 15, 2012

If you follow the thread CraigC has provided, and the subsequent threads, you'll come to one on TFL in which a member opined that it would be simple for any machinist...he was challenged to provide pictures of the simple changes he suggested. That was two years ago, and none have been presented.

Given enough time and money....

dober83 · May 17, 2012

midwayusa r&d conversion for uberti 1873 I'm not sure if this is the same gun or not.

arcticap · May 17, 2012

Nice find!

Yes, that's a conversion cylinder for the Uberti 1873 Cattleman.
Even if it has been discontinued, I hadn't heard that it ever existed!

mykeal · May 18, 2012

I'm skeptical that it actually ever existed. I've never seen one nor heard of anybody who claimed to have one. It was never listed in R&D's catalog.

Notice that there is no mention made of how they deal with the hammer offset; in order for the firing pins in the cylinder back plate to be struck by the offset hammer nose through the offset hole in the frame, the plate would have to have the firing pins offset from the bore centerline. Or something....

Saakee · May 18, 2012

this reminds me of an idea i had for donut shaped firing pins so rounds with pointed tips could be used in lever guns.

Jaymo · May 19, 2012

Those close up pics of lead balls always remind me of Whoppers malted milk balls. Dang, I love those things.

junkman_01 · May 19, 2012

Saakee said:
this reminds me of an idea i had for donut shaped firing pins so rounds with pointed tips could be used in lever guns.

Please explain. I don't get it.

Mk VII · May 19, 2012

They did, and possibly do still, sell these guns here. Can't say I saw many people buying them. Most bought conventional m/l revolvers.

Saakee · May 19, 2012

junkman_01 said:
Please explain. I don't get it.

oops, not the firing pins, the primers. wrote that on three days of 11+ hour manual labor and no sleep days. The primers would be donut shapes so the pointed tips of bullets behind them just hit case, not primer.

BSA1 · May 19, 2012

The problem I have ran into with the cap-n-ball version is with the caps falling free and not jamming the action or cylinder. Ole Sam'l Colt had it right with the open top design.

arcticap · May 19, 2012

The back side of the firing pins are large and flat like an umbrella or mushroom on all of the other R&D conversion back plates, so maybe they're large enough in diameter to be struck by the offset hammer that the 1873 has.
I can't imagine why Midway would have create such a product page without that 1873 conversion cylinder ever having been introduced. Although I can understand that it could have been quickly discontinued if there were production problems or if it was a business marketing decision.
For instance, at one time Uberti was the popular maker of these 1873 C&B's, but now it seems that Pietta is.

junkman_01 · May 19, 2012

The firing pins on a R&D conversion cylinder do not start out mushroomed shaped. If you read the instructions, it states that they will become mushroomed because they are purposely made softer than the hammer so as to not damage the C&B hammer. :banghead:

arcticap · May 19, 2012

junkman_01 said:
The firing pins on a R&D conversion cylinder do not start out mushroomed shaped. If you read the instructions, it states that they will become mushroomed because they are purposely made softer than the hammer so as to not damage the C&B hammer. :banghead:

There's no need to bang your head against a brick wall over it.

Yes, I've read the instructions.
I've posted a copy of the R&D instructions several times including the part about the possibility for them to become mushroomed.

IIRC the back ends of the firing pins are flatter and larger in diameter than the stem of the firing pin thats enters the backplate. That's what I meant by using the term umbrella or mushroom shaped, and not "mushroomed" as in what can happen to them to an even greater extent afterward.

junkman_01 · May 19, 2012

In that context the part that hits the primer is smaller than the part that gets hit by the hammer.

Gunshop has Uberti black powder "SAA" type

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