"Westerner's Arms" Yellowboy Carbine

[krinko]

Picked this up today but still have not picked up a replacement camera---so please bear with me.
The barrel is about 19 inches from muzzle to breech, the receiver is solid brass, the bolt, hammer and lever are steel. Lanyard ring, both barrel bands and screws are steel, too.
It's .44-40 caliber, marked as Uberti made in "XX7"--1971.
Unlike the .22 rimfire versions made in the same time frame, it has a loading gate.

This is a photo of a .22 rimfire one, showing the peculiar hammer and lack of a lever latch. The current batch of Uberti Y.B.s are more like 1873's as regards these parts.

So....brass frame....1971....44-40. The little beauty seems to have never been fired by the original owner, which is why he probably died of old age. I imagine when the receiver fails, the cloud of white-hot brass globules surrounding one's head might rival some of the more spectacular photos from the Hubble telescope. But with more screaming.
Luckily, I will probably be unable to locate ammuition.
-----krinko

 

[hawg]

So....brass frame....1971....44-40. The little beauty seems to have never been fired by the original owner, which is why he probably died of old age. I imagine when the receiver fails, the cloud of white-hot brass globules surrounding one's head might rival some of the more spectacular photos from the Hubble telescope. But with more screaming.
Luckily, I will probably be unable to locate ammuition.
-----krinko

What makes you think the receiver will fail?

 

[44 Dave]

What makes you think the receiver will fail?

Yes, all of the parts subject to pressures are steel. The brass only has to stand up to the abuse of the user on the leaver.

 

[hawg]

Uberti has made thousands and thousands of them and are still making them.

 

[troy fairweather]

the early ones used different parts and new parts won't fit, I restored one that came out nice but the lack of parts made me sell it.
These are great fun shooting black powder tho, the 44-40 case seals the chamber and keep the action very clean compared to 45 colt. The 44-40 feeds better then the 45c as well.

 

[krinko]

"...early ones used different parts and new parts won't fit..."
Yep.
"...the 44-40 case seals the chamber and keep the action very clean..."
That had not occurred to me. Thanks.
If I can find some cases, I intend to try black in this carbine. If it can be cleaned without a total disassembly, it might inspire some black loads for the Uberti .50-95.
It's going to have to wait for better weather, anyway. At 3:00 PM it has just made it to 33 degrees.
-----krinko

 

[hawg]

In my 92 44-40 I kept a fired case in the chamber when I cleaned it. I got very little fouling inside the action. Nothing that couldn't be flushed out.

 

[44 Dave]

In my 92 44-40 I kept a fired case in the chamber when I cleaned it. I got very little fouling inside the action. Nothing that couldn't be flushed out.

I do the same. It seals so tight that when the patch is pulled out there is a pop like a cork out of a bottle..

 

[Captain*kirk]

No reason you can't shoot it. I have an earlier Navy Arms that I've shot handloads out of using 200gr lead bullets over 7 gr of Unique. 35gr of 3F powder with a 200gr lead bullet will also treat it just fine, and as the guys said, the bottleneck .44WCF (.44-40) keeps the gunk in the barrel, not the action. The action won't fail unless you overcharge it with smokeless loads

 

[hawg]

The action won't fail unless you overcharge it with smokeless loads

With heavy smokeless loads the toggles will wear out.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

Aren't most "brass" guns actually "gunmetal" or bronze, a tougher alloy than brass?

 

[hawg]

Aren't most "brass" guns actually "gunmetal" or bronze, a tougher alloy than brass?

Original guns were gunmetal. Uberti's are brass.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

The bottleneck does not keep the fouling out of the action with the 44-40 or 38-40 round. These rounds have very thin brass at the case mouth, on the order of about .007 thick, vs about .012 thick for a straight walled cartridge such as 45 Colt. Because the brass is so thin, it expands to seal the chamber completely at the relatively low pressure these cartridges generate. That's what keeps the fouling in the bore, not the bottleneck. The taper of the bottleneck of 44-40 is so slight that gas would have no problem getting around it if the chamber was not sealed.

I have been shooting 44-40 with Black Powder for many years. I have 5 rifles chambered for it, and an antique Winchester Model 1873 chambered for 38-40.

I too leave a spent case in the chamber when cleaning the bore. I place a patch soaked with my favorite BP cleaning solution in the slotted end of a cleaning rod, and twirl it down the bore. I do this a few times until the patch comes up dirty gray. This means all the fouling has been washed down into the spent case. Then I turn the rifle upside down and eject the spent case on the ground, being careful not to get any of the spray of dirty solvent on me that comes out with the brass. With this method, there is hardly any fouling at all that gets into the mechanism of the rifle. Just a quick swab with a couple of patches, followed by a little bit of Ballistol in the mechanism, and a little bit of Ballistol, down the bore to prevent any corrosion. Clean up is quick and easy, only takes about 10 minutes. Take down of the action is most definitely not required.

By the way, don't use a jag to run a patch down the bore, use the slotted end of your cleaning rod. I discovered the hard way, many years ago that a jag can jam the patch into the mouth of the case in the chamber, and it cannot be pulled out easily without great gnashing of teeth.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Original guns were gunmetal. Uberti's are brass.

That is correct. I had the metal of the frame of an Uberti '66 tested many years ago.

Brass, not Gun Metal.

Gun Metal was a form of Bronze.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

Also Confederates made revolver fames out of melted bell metal, another form of bronze.