Talk me out of an Uberti

Cornhusker77 said:

Heritage Rough Rider that I think was made by Uberti in .45 Colt b

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The Heritage big bores are Pietta made parts.

Electricmo said:

He said talk him out of it so I tried.

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LOL! Ok, have to go with that.

I might be late to the party. I own a few uberti/cimarron guns, and I'd say to be careful.

I purchased a (Model P, 1873 style single action, Prewar) 6 or 7 years ago and another this year. Other than the conversion to the 3-click retractable hammer, the guns look just the same....except the fit of the parts on the model from 6 or 7 years ago is much better. I will give the new model credit that the case hardening is nicer to look at (but that likely varies gun to gun anyway and is not a generation thing).

There is a fair bit more tooling marks and bad fit on the new one. The old one is just about perfect for a not-super-expensive kinda gun. I'll never get rid of it, I ordered it blind from Bud's.

To get a new one, I had to dig through 3 of these or so to find the one I liked the most and it still has issues. This was NIB.
This is a bit nitpicky, but worth mentioning.

Note: The gapping of the wood to the backstrap...is more serious than it seems when you pull the grip off. The wood wants to shoot out of the backstrap. You cannot force the backstrap and grip to sit together flush by hand unless you are Thor. They only get somewhat in line when the backstrap screws are torqued down real good. (Which is great for stripping things.) I pulled the grip/backstrap off my old model and it fits together perfectly. No force needed to seat things. The new set is fighting itself, so they just torqued it down and called it a day.
From what I can tell the backstrap itself is the issue..not square where it should be. But good luck getting one anywhere right now.

If you are buying a new one to complete a "pair" with an older model, it'll take some work to make them feel like a pair. There is a difference in trigger pull/cocking (new is lighter) and position. You can see the older model trigger sits farther back in the guard, where I like it. Barely any travel at all through all hammer positions.
(Older Model on Bottom)



As a slightly-off topic but related side note....another company doing parts for these and importing Uberti stuff...I got a new trigger and hammer from Taylors and Co to convert this 3-click to 4-click to match my old gun. Look at this knurling on the Taylor hammer I got. Off-center..pitty/sloppy knurling. I installed it anyway and ordered a second (can't send this back as I've already stoned/polished/installed it.) hoping to get a nicer one the second time around.

I think I could center and knurl this better by hand...drunk..in the dark.



I'm done griping. Just shocked at what kind of fit/finish you get on some of these things.

Dang JC, not good on that hammer. That had me go look at my 1873 Pietta Gunfighter and my Uberti/Taylor's "Old Randall, both in .45 Colt. Fit and finish on both are spot on. And on my Taylor's, the knurling is centered as it should be. Damn the luck sometimes. How do they shoot? For the price of these Italian imports, I can't complain.

That is some ugly checkering! Looks like it was cut with a dull misaligned tool by someone with poor eyesight. You should send your supplier a copy of the photo that you posted. They might send you another.

El Patron version.
Nice walnut grips & very tidy checkering for a gun in this price range. The trigger is sweet as well.




But uh-oh...



I never noticed this before. This really is laughingly bad. Somebody's retarded in-law must be responsible for hammer checkering at Uberti.
Fortunately I'm right-handed. If I were a lefty my thumb might slip off that wide margin.
Lol
I'm going to try to overlook this one blemish but I'm afraid that once seen it can never be un-seen.

Geez, you guys are making me do some walking out to my shop. Now, I had to look at the Pietta hammer knurling. Centered. Both of my Italian replicas are less than two years old and both seem to be built as they should have been. I don't know how to post pics here[or anywhere for that matter], otherwise, I could show them. I can e-mail or text to someone.

The knurling used to be cast-in. It's never been hand cut, that I recall. On the new guns it's done by laser or EDM.

Case colors do vary by gun but are also absolutely generation. 20yrs ago, they all looked like this.



They've not only improved their case colors but they're also much more consistent. Now they more or less look like this:

Same flat-top compared to an older Bisley.

I have had 3 guns sent to Doug Trunbull for CCH and everyone came back with lacquer on them. To me it looks a little like Hollywood so I wipe it down with some fingernail polish remover about 3 times and then it looks like your older Bisley.

.45Coltguy said:

Dang JC, not good on that hammer. That had me go look at my 1873 Pietta Gunfighter and my Uberti/Taylor's "Old Randall, both in .45 Colt. Fit and finish on both are spot on. And on my Taylor's, the knurling is centered as it should be. Damn the luck sometimes. How do they shoot? For the price of these Italian imports, I can't complain.

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The older one I've shot dozens of time and it's beautiful. The new one I haven't had out to shoot yet..trying to find .45 lc around here is nigh impossible.

jdavis123 said:

That is some ugly checkering! Looks like it was cut with a dull misaligned tool by someone with poor eyesight. You should send your supplier a copy of the photo that you posted. They might send you another.

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That's a good idea. I just got a second in the mail (I ordered a second hoping for better luck, but also just to have a spare hammer/trigger set around) today actually, I was only slightly surprised to see that it was just as bad. Apparently, that's how they do it now.
Has anyone here tried to re-knurl a hammer? I feel like I could get something better with some strategic file work. Maybe spring for a checkering file.

CraigC said:

The knurling used to be cast-in. It's never been hand cut, that I recall. On the new guns it's done by laser or EDM.

Case colors do vary by gun but are also absolutely generation. 20yrs ago, they all looked like this.


They've not only improved their case colors but they're also much more consistent. Now they more or less look like this:

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Those are both beautiful for different reasons. I love the subtlety of the older model, but that new case color does give it a bit of something nice to look at.

Guy48065 said:

But uh-oh...

I never noticed this before. This really is laughingly bad. Somebody's retarded in-law must be responsible for hammer checkering at Uberti.
Fortunately I'm right-handed. If I were a lefty my thumb might slip off that wide margin.
Lol
I'm going to try to overlook this one blemish but I'm afraid that once seen it can never be un-seen.

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I'm with you. My OCD can't take it. But how this is acceptable to their quality people I don't know....

How old are the ones with the bad checkering jobs?

I thought about looking at my hammer, but now you've got me afraid to do it.....

I've always liked the gun, don't want to be disappointed.

I bought a NiB Uberti a month or so ago. it's a 4.75" blued in 357 magnum.

The colorful finish on the frame looks good. The trigger and action are very smooth.

It's as accurate as my aging eyes allow. I painted the front sight white for next time.

And yes, looking at it carefully, the checkering on the hammer spur is not perfectly centered.

If you just glance quickly you don't notice, but if you're looking for it you'll realize that the checkering is a bit closer to one side than the other.

vintovka said:

How old are the ones with the bad checkering jobs?

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Bought mine in 2014.

I have owned one and now own two Uberti. I had a 30 year old 4.75” 45 Colt 1873 marked Cimarron. It was fairly rough on over all fit and finish but shot accurately. I have an about 10 year old 1860 date code “BN” seems as good as a Blackhawk. I have a 4 year old 5.5” 45 Colt 1873 Cattleman II marked Stoeger date code “CT”. It also has fairly good fit and finish and is accurate. They don’t seem as well finished as my New Vaquero or my Talo Super Blackhawk. The Vaqueros seem a notch up on fit and finish, am I right?

I don't think you should buy a Uberti, buy a Cimarron instead, they are actually Uberti's but with a cooler sounding name. Or you could buy Pietta's

Sorry, I tried to talk you out of it, but, I am actually an enabler, and now that I am thinking about it, I have to go look to see if there are any out there I want to buy before you get them all.

Dave

My Cimarron in 45LC looks and shoots great. I wouldn't talk anybody out of owning one in any caliber.

Mine are all Cimarron (Uberti models). My older Model P (6 or 7 years old) has no centering issues with hammer knurling and all the parts fit perfectly.

The new Model P that I just bought, last month, has fit and finish issues and the bad knurling. I just bought two hammers from Taylors and Co...they both have the same bad knurling. :shrug:

I think someone mentioned them going to laser cutting and that must be when they started looking like junk.

No issues with my 3 Ubertis. All in 357 mag.

Cimarron imports both Uberti and Pietta firearms. I prefer the Pietta.

Choctaw said:

Cimarron imports both Uberti and Pietta firearms. I prefer the Pietta.

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Very nice. Love that..Dalton?

drobs said:

No issues with my 3 Ubertis. All in 357 mag.

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Great looking guns. Probably a very slight timing issue on the hombre it seems, but that is somewhat normal with these guns too from what I've seen. I love the matte look on that with the brass...I might have to get one.