This subject comes up once every few months (December was the last time)with the same baseless claims and BS of frames stretching, weak pins, weak links, weak bolts, blah, blah, blah.
Doctors, plumbers, carpenters, school teachers, electrical engineers, painters, mechanics, farmers and many more experts, all telling us how the Uberti and Winchester engineers got it all wrong and that we'd better keep the loads on the light side lest the rifles blow up and kill entire communities
Howdy
I am probably the guy being quoted here about the cracked frame on an Uberti Model 1873 chambered for 357 Mag. I am not a doctor, plumber, carpenter, school teacher, or any of those other 'experts' quoted. But I do have first hand knowledge of a cracked frame in an Uberti '73 chambered for 357 Mag. What happened was a friend bought a used Uberti 1873 chambered for 357 Mag. When he got it home he discovered a hair line crack in the frame. He took it back to the shop where he bought it and got his money back.
Seeing as it was a used gun, he of course had no idea what had caused the crack. He had no idea (and neither do I) if shooting regular factory 357 Magnum ammunition cracked the frame, or if hot hand loads did it. But the fact remains, the frame had a hairline crack.
This is the frame of my Uberti 1873 that is chambered for 44-40. I have removed one of the side plates to show the action.
This is the frame of an original Winchester model 1873 that left the factory in 1887. Both side plates have been removed on this one.
The point is,
all the toggle link rifles, the 1860 Henry, the 1866 Winchester, and the 1873 Winchester basically have 'skeletonized' frames. The side plates provide no support, particularly not with the 1873 model. I don't recall exactly where the crack was in my friend's rifle, but I would bet it was at the thin cross section in front of the lever.
Yes,
all firearms made in Italy are proof tested in government run proof houses, to standards that are slightly higher pressure than US standards. But proofing only involves firing one or two proof loads. I have no idea what the long term effect of firing maximum loads in these rifles would be.
Yes, the Uberti 1873 chambered for 357 Magnum is the most popular rifle in CAS, but the great majority are only ever fired with very lightly loaded 38 Specials, at very low pressure.
I only shoot Black Powder in my 1873 rifles, personally I would avoid very many Magnum loads, but that's just me.
Oh, and by the way, about frames stretching, read Mike Venturino's book, Shooting Lever Guns of the Old West. Mike relates the story of a brass framed 44-40 Uberti Henry that he was interested in buying. Mike missed the opportunity to buy it, somebody else beat him to it. And after just one magazine of hot 44-40 handloads that would have been more appropriate for a stronger action such as the Winchester Model 1892, the frame stretched and the gun was ruined. Yes, a brass frame, not a steel frame, but the frame stretched and the head spacing was ruined.
Maybe someone in the know can explain to me how the bolt in these guns can withstand the pressures of repeated firing of the .357 mag. Goes beyond all reasoning when you realize what is actually going on and how small and weak the bolt really is.
