Uberti 1873 Cattleman questin

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bluegrassboy

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I just purchased a Cattleman yesterday and tried it out today. My question is about the safety. I've never owned a saa before and I thought the only safety was resting the hammer on an empty chamber but first few shots just clicked. I finally got it to firing after moving the cylinder pin. The instuction manual never mentioned anything about a safety mechanism, but I read on another post here about the cylinder pin having a safe and fire position. Could somebody please explain this to me? I just need to know what position is fire and which is safe instead of just moving it around until it fires or the cylinder falls out. Thanks!
 
Uberti revolvers can be found with one of two safety systems and a few have both.
If you pull the cylinder pin out, you will see two grooves at the front of the cylinder pin.
The groove closest to the forward end of the cylinder pin will act as a hammer drop prevention when the cylinder pin is pushed into the frame far enough for the cylinder pin retainer to contact this groove.
Pulling the cylinder pin out until the second groove contacts the cylinder pin retainer will allow the gun to fire.
What happens when the first groove is in contact with the cylinder pin retainer is the back end of the cylinder pin extends through the rear of the frame and prevents the firing pin from contacting a primed cartridge by arresting the full drop of the hammer.

This is effective but if the gun is dry fired and the hammer hits the cylinder pin too many times it will cause the rear end of the cylinder pin to mushroom making it all but impossible to remove the cylinder pin from the gun or even pull it far enough forward to make the gun fire.
This dry firing willl also distort and mar the front of the hammer, so don't dry fire the gun.
Even with the cylinder pin pulled forward to the fire position, don't dry fire the gun, use snap caps.

The second safety system Uberti uses is a hammer mounted block.
You may notice a mechanism on the front of the hammer and a little headless turn screw on the side of the hammer.
Turning the screw clockwise causes the mechanism to advance up and out of the front of the hammer.
This again acts as a block to prevent the firing pin from contacting a primed cartridge and again, dry firing will damage this mechanism as well as the hammer groove in the rear of the frame so don't do it.

Turning the screw anti clockwise will lower the hammer block mechanism and allow the gun to fire.

As I said, some guns will have the cylinder pin safety, some will have the hammer mounted blocking safety, and some guns will have both. HTH
 
The best thing to do with that two groove "safety" base pin is to throw it away and replace it with a Belt Mountain base pin.

Then carry on an empty chamber like you should do anyway.
A Colt clone SAA is a Colt clone SAA, and they are five-shooters!

The only reason that stupid pin is there is to gain enough import points to get them into the country.

For actual field use as a safety system?
Pretty confusing, time consuming, and worthless!
It will always be in the wrong position when you need it, one way or another.

rc
 
Yeah, it confused the crap out of me. I mean, I'm pretty familiar with most types of firearms but never have seen anything like this before. I may end up replacing it as rcmodel suggested
 
Onmilo
Uberti revolvers..
.. when the cylinder pin is pushed into the frame far enough..
..the back end of the cylinder pin extends through the rear of the frame and prevents the firing pin from contacting a primed cartridge by arresting the full drop of the hammer...
HTH

I can't believe it:what:

I learned something.

My 40 year old Uberti- Iver Johnson Cattleman has a fault.

I am going out in the shop and make a pin that does not enable this "feature".
 
All you have to do is machine the rear of the pin so it can be seated all the way to the frame like it should be, while not engaging the hammer.
 
WOW, RC did you miss your coffee this morning? :D

Confused me when I bought mine too!
The guy at the gun shop showed me the pin safety, but didn't say how to engage or disengage it.
So I had to play with it a while when I got home to figure it out.
 
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