.31 Pocket Model

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mec

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This is a Uberti that has characteristics of the Baby Dragoon and the early pocket models without rammer. It's a .31 and the chamber mouths measure .317-18" Ball weights 50 grains and 12.5 grain equivalent seems about right. fffg averaged 720 /pyrodex:689 and pyrodex with the 60 grain bullet did 660s.
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50feet

As expected, it's more accurate with a round ball but the bullets were ok at 50 feet: In the process of deepening the hammer notch to lower poi
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ball 50ft

Stringing may be from the small sights.
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WOW! That is AWESOME!! Those were/are basically belly guns. They weren't expected to hit anything more than 5 feet away. You are shooting AND scoring at 50!? It proves that those old designs were/are capable. The filing of the rear sight notch is a trick to LOWER the POI/POA. It is easier to do than adding height TO the front sight. A 6 O'clock hold works well also.
 
I'm haveing to hold Under 6 o'clock as it still shoots pretty high. Does seem to be accurate though.
 
I have the same pistol with "Santa Fe Arms" markings on the top of the barrel. It is a little dificult more difficult to load without a built-in rammer, but the cylinder pin works well to shove the ball home.

I would love to have the same fitted box and accessories as seen in your first post. I use the same flask that I use with my 1851 Navy, except that I substitute a 12 grain spout. I chrono'd mine, and even though velocities were between 600 and 720 the accuracy was very surprising.

I know that Colt sold more of the pocket pistols than any other model between 1850 and 1872, I wonder how many of those were in this very handy "Wells Fargo" configuration?
 
What I'm told is that the "Wells Fargo " was usually available with a 3" barrel rather than the 4" on the Uberti. They were not nearly as popular as the 49 with the rammer but may have been used by some of the Pony Express riders who carried an extra capped and loaded cylinder. The numbers given for the Baby Dragoon that came just before are 15,000 against 300,000+ for all of the pocket models. People continued to advertise and sell pocket models into the Middle 1880s and they could be picked up for next to nothing well into the 20th century.

Don't know where they came up with the name " Wells Fargo" as there is no indication that WF ever bought any .31 revolvers. I like to use the short nub of a ball starter to seat the bullets and have read that the originals had a cupped end on the cylinder arbor to seat the balls. For what it is- a small hide out gun, I like the rammerless model as well or better than the full featured 49.

I'm getting the same velocity range as you are with fffg and pyrodex.
 
Your cylinder arbor (I called it a cylinder pin in my earlier post) isn't cupped? Mine is, and it is an Uberti, as shown by the "A. Uberti & C." marking on the left side of the frame.

I was wrong about the "Santa Fe Arms" markings on the top of the barrel, it is really: " ALLEN F.A. MFG. CO.-SANTA FE N.M." Possibly the guns imported by Allen were manufactured to a slightly different spec than normal, and that accounts for the cupped arbor.
 
mec:

If you're serious about shooting the little gun, and there is no reason you shouldn't be, have a gunsmith or machinest mill a dovetail in the front of the barrel and install a front sight of the kind used on German Luger or P-38 pistols. The higher sight will cause the point of impact to lower, and the sight can be driven in the dovetail to corrrect windage errors. That way you don't have to fool with the notch in the hammer - and I doubt this will work well anyway.

The old-timers did the same thing, except they used cast front sights of the type usually used on percussion rifles, but shortened for their purpose.
 
I do the tall front sight thing on my navys and others and generally stick with the Navy/ Army types for high volume shooting. Easier to find parts.

Allen was the big uberti distributor before Cimarron and i think cimarron grew out of the allen company.
 
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