Thoughts on the Uberti 1873 rifle?

[TheHappyGunner]

Hello all, I'm new to posting on the High Road forums but I've been browsing the website for a couple of years now. I'm glad to be part of such a venerable firearms community. Now, onto what I started this thread about..

I have been looking at Uberti 1873 sporting rifles for a while, and I think they're gorgeous! Their price tags?.. not so much. With a $1,300 price tag, I'm very cautious about ordering one straight from an importer without being able to inspect it first. I'd like to know of a chain store (like Cabela's or Bass Pro) that carries these in stock regularly. Does that depend on each particular store?

Have any of you had any experiences with Uberti's 1873 rifles? What manufacturer did you purchase yours from? Did you have it ordered or did you pick one up? Was the quality as good mechanically as it appears to be cosmetically?

 

[Onmilo]

I own three Uberti rifles and am looking to get one of the 1866 Carbines in .44 Special when I can find one.
Quality has substantially improved over the years.
Guns made today are of better steel and better heat treating than what was available even 10 years ago.
They have to be good now to stand up to the heavy shooting associated with Cowboy Action events where they still remain popular and competitive.
Improved quality combined with a weak dollar has caused the rifles to increase in price, actually, they are three times as expensive today as they were when I bought my first 1873 carbine 30 years ago for $400 new in the box and Navy Arms marked.

 

[OldBrownDog]

For that money, I would buy one of the new Winchester 1873s. Made in Japan by Miroku, which has done excellent work over the years building Brownings and Winchester repros of late. Not as many models available right now, but quality will be excellent.

 

[Crunchy Frog]

The Uberti '73 is the top rifle in SASS. Go to a major match and look at what the top shooters are using; you'll see the '73. I'm enjoying the heck out of mine.

Uberti makes all the rifles and marks them with the name of the US importer (like Taylors, Cimarron, and EMF). Mechanically I'd say they are all the same.

Even as expensive as they are, they need action work out of the box. Can you shoot it as-is? Yes but you wouldn't believe the difference between a stock rifle and one that has been worked on a bit.

The Miroku-made Winchester '73 is getting good reviews. It's about the same price as the Uberti, maybe a little more. They MAY be a little smoother out of the box; I've not handled one personally.

The Winchester is only available in .357. The basic model is a round barrel carbine with a blue receiver. Supposedly there is a deluxe model with casehardened receiver and maybe an octagon barrel but I don't think there are many of those. Reportedly there are NO spare parts available for the Winnie so if something breaks....

Word is that Winchester will introduce a .44-40 (aka .44 WCF), the original chambering of the '73, donchaknow, this Fall.

You can find a deal on a used '73 if you are lucky, and patient.

These rifles are not commonly stocked by dealers except for some dealers who specialize in cowboy action stuff.

I ordered my '73 from a cowboy gunsmith who got the new rifle from Taylors in Virginia, did the action work, and shipped it my my local FFL. It's actually cheaper to do it that way.

If you can't find one to look over, attend a cowboy action match in your area. You'll see a dozen or more. Cowboy shooter love to show off their guns; I bet you'd be able to drool on one.

 

[Onmilo]

Gratuitous gun porn

My 73 is in .45 Colt.
The 1876 is in .45/60

 

[sappyg]

I've had a 73 Taylor Uberti for quite some time now. Very well made IMO.
If you want to be competitive at SASS a 73 is a must after the throw has been shortened and the action smoothed out.
It's not a strong action and the quality is, I think, dictated by the importer to make a price point. If I were looking for one today I would likely avoid EMF and Cimarron for no particular reason. If I found a Winchester branded 73 for around the same price that would be my preference.... Just because.

 

[peacemaker45]

I've got an Uberti 73 in .44 WCF, and a 66 in .38 Spl. The 66 is my main match rifle for SASS, and has probably 30k rounds down the pipe, as well as several times that many dry cycles. It's been rebuilt several times along the way, though usually to keep up with advances in action work, rather than because of wear.

The '73 is what I shoot when I want to make noise and smoke. I did the action work myself, installing a short stroke kit, rather than sending it to a famous race rifle builder, like with the 66. As such, it's good but not great. Of course, when one is shooting full cases of black powder, one has bigger things to worry about than getting the last nth of cyclic speed from one's rifle action. Seeing the targets, for example.

At any rate, they've certainly served me well, in playing cowboy games. If you want a real, working rifle, though, you had best know that the '73 isn't a strong action. The general consensus among cowboy gunsmiths is that even though it's chambered in .357 Mag, you really shouldn't shoot much, if any, full power magnum ammunition through it. The brass framed '66 is weaker still. Their virtues lie in smoothness, not strength. If a steady diet of full power ammo lies in your rifle's future, you'd be better served by a Winchester/Miroku 1892, a Marlin 1894, or a Rossi 1892, probably in that order if ranked by quality, in reverse order if ranked by price.

If we're posting gratuitous gun porn, here's some of mine:

 

[Onmilo]

I had a couple of Cresent Firearms side by side hammer guns I used for hunting as a kid
When I moved to Texas, I took one down there to hunt jackrabbits but ended up buying a Winchester Defender 8 shot pump gun which actually did better work on the wabbits.
I decided I wanted a handgun and was shocked when a dealer traded across the board even for a new in the box S&W 586 to get that old hammer gun!

 

[Meeteetse]

I have a .45 Colt carbine with the 16" barrel and I love it. Pricey, yes but fun to shoot and I am pleased with the quality.

 

[TheHappyGunner]

Wow, great suggestions guys. Thanks a lot, and thanks for the pictures! I have another concern, too.. even though I'm 20 years old, my eyesight in my right eye isn't great. Blurriness would be a problem that could be fixed with prescription lenses. However, I have a condition called keratoconus; it causes double-vision. When looking down the sights of a gun, especially the peeps on my M1 Garand, I see an oval shaped peep along with three or four rather unclear front sights. Over the past 2 years it has gotten progressively worse, which brings me (finally) to my other concern: which sights would provide the clearest picture for my condition, and would provide the longest enjoyment for the years to come? Peeps prove to be bad, so tang sights I believe are out of the question. I am curious whether half/full buckhorn rear sights OR some kind of ghost ring on an 1873 would suit me well.. any suggestions? Do any of you shooters on here have keratoconus as well? Thanks.

 

[peacemaker45]

I can't speak to your specific condition, but peeps are superior to open sights for people with normal vision. You can certainly try one of the various open options, (more on which in a moment,) but for most folks, if a peep is bad, opens are worse.

How's your left eye? If it's in better shape, you might consider shooting left handed. I've got a little bit of eye trouble myself, being right handed but left eye dominant. I shot with my strong hand and weak eye for years, and did pretty well that way. Then I injured my right hand, and decided to make the switch. It took a couple of weeks of steady application before a long gun on that shoulder didn't feel foreign, and several months for it to start to feel natural, but now I'm doing pretty well this way. It might be worth a consideration in your case as well.

Sent from my C771 using Tapatalk 2