The owner of this one has been shooting it for a few weeks and becomes more proud of it all the time. This is significant because he has a broad sampling of all three generations of Colt. This one came with the appearance of roughness in the action. The basepin, which also serves as at bureaucrat safety on this model, was out of round and oversized. He replaced it with a stainless colt replica and the action became smooth, perfectly timed and the trigger pull crisp at under 3 pounds. Amazingly, the sight is regulated to hit with the lyman 454190 250 grain bullet at velocities ranging from about 700 fps to mid 800s.
The trigger/bolt spring is one of the round wire things that the cowboy shooters used to make for themselves. Heinie has been turning them out for several years not. The hand is powered by a plunger/spring deal that is all the rage with the high end custom pistol smiths. This eliminates the springs most likely to break most often leaving the mainspring which only breaks occasionally. It promises to be more trouble-free than those traditionally sprung.
Pictured is the original base pin with an extra cut for the base pin latch. This allows it to be locked far enough in to block full travel of the hammer.
In common with the Italian replicas, the cylinder is bigger in cross section by twenty thousanths and the frame window is forty thousands bigger than a colt. Other measurements are just about identical. The chamber and bore is tight at .451 and .450 which is perfectly fine for most available bullets. It works very well with a spare .45acp cylinder the owner picked up at a gun show.
Many traditionalists claim to be able to tell the difference in one of these copies and the Colt. I am not gifted with that degree of sensitivity. The Uberti is such a close match that the owner was able to fit a set of Colt grips to it with the most minor of overlap at the bottom of the frame. The rest of the fit to the front and back of the grip frame was perfect.
The purchase of Uberti by the same concern that owns Beretta seems to correspond with a marked improvement in both the cartridge revolvers and the cap lock replicas. Hopefully this will prove to be a long- standing situation rather than something driven by a handfull of responsible employees subject to replacement by the bean counters.
