Parts compatability with Uberti 1858

I was under the idea I had 2 piettas, but guess they are Uberti, both have the drift front sight. One was given to me, an old one, rougher looking frame, and the grips wont switch between them. The other is a blued steel frame with adjustable sights, guess no longer sold as all I could find was a stainless with the adjustable rear. I had a spare parts kit from a Pietta I had, nothing fits. But oddly the cylinder from a Pietta fits in the old one. But the cyl from the newer Uberti doesn't fit in the old Uberti. Fits but wont lock, the notches in the cyl are different. And a Pietta conversion cylinder works in the old one. The cyl latch in the new one would be narrower and be loose.

Taylors said you had to buy the right cyl, but apparently not? Maybe?

Not sure what you're asking. I have both the new Uberti and Pietta, and the cylinders are definitely not interchangeable. Some people have modified their Uberti Remingtons to accept Piette cylinders, but I don't see a real reason to do so. They'll say that their reason is that Pietta spare cylinders are cheaper, but I say that having a bunch of spare cylinders is silly. As for installing a conversion cylinder; get the right one for the gun and you won't have to do much, if any, modification. You'd therefore need to have the date of manufacture, or at least the serial number, when ordering a conversion cylinder because apparently Uberti changed their specs at some point. My much older Uberti will swap cylinders with a new Pietta, one way (I forget which way but it doesn't matter), but they don't fit the same, and I wouldn't use it that way.

You're not telling us exactly what it is you want to do, so I'm grasping at straws trying to guess.

A lot of members have pointed to VTI Gun Parts as a good source. Might give them a call to discuss your needs. I've had good experiences with Taylors too. Though at times I've had to wait for months for a backorder, the person I spoke with there did know exactly what she was talking about.

In general, one should not expect the parts of one brand of repro to fit another, at least not without modification, and even the correct part may need some fitting, by design (grips, hands and bolts come to mind). In a perfect world, a Remington New Model Army would be a Remington New Model Army no matter who made it, but alas, that is far from being true here. They are less "reproductions" or "copies" and more "facsimiles" and as such they are variable from original blueprints. Although Uberti NOW claims that their repros have parts interchangeability with the originals, that wouldn’t help you unless you have an original.

And just as an aside; I can tell just by looking at photographs that a lot of the so-called "repros" are substantially different from the originals. I've spent hours and hours modifying loading cutouts and plungers to make my repros accept conical bullets, for but one example, whereas the originals took them easily and in fact conical bullets in paper cartridges were the mainstay during the Civil War.

I was just trying to figure out why the one works with a petta cyl, but not another Uberti cyl. Wasn't about having spare cyl to swap. I have 2 guns, one was going to be set up to run the conversion cyl, and the other still load the old way, I just had the extra cyl was going to get it to work. The one gun needs at least a new hand, I had parts left over from another 1858, but a pietta part aint gonna work.

And Uberti is said to be the better gun, but every part in it was full of sharp edges and rough surfaces binding against each other. The track for the hand is cut thru the screw hole for the hammer.

Aren't your guns marked as to the maker? You shouldn't have to guess who made them. Over the years there have been several makers. If the name isn't stamped on the guns, there should be a maker's logo stamp on the frame. There is also a date code there. You can look both of up on-line.

To add to mazo kid's advice, the stamp on 1858 Rem. repros is sometimes on the bottom bbl. flat under the rammer assembly, which you may have to remove in order to see it.

Older Italian replicas most likely won't really be 'interchangeable' as far as parts go.

The only major difference between the pistols seems to be the cylinder pawl. Its just a little longer on the newer pistol, which would also change the slots on the back of the cylinder. So the old one works with a Pietta cyl, but not with a Uberti. The pietta in the one and it turns it to far to latch, and the latch is narrower on the pietta cyl. Just weird to me they would make such a change without some sort of reason. If Ruger or similar makes a change theres a serial number break you can reference to know. Uberti it would be buy a cyl and see if it works, if not not then you need to buy the other one. A replacement cyl pawl would have to be cut back a bit to work in an old gun.

And the grip part of the frame is wider on the old one. Grips don't even come close to swapping out.

But they are both back together, and the conversion cyl works in the one. Undecided if I will lay out the cash for one for the newer gun.

I know this is an old post BUT having recently been 'smithing' my 1858's (lyman[asm?], piettas, uberti) older and newer model repos are very different regards parts and how or if they fit (drop-in or otherwise). The 'new' parts kits have significant differences, screws are threaded differently (pitch etc.). Bottom line is that swapping and 'fitting' is a long process and not for the faint of heart. As for cylinders, the same 'brand' will fit differently in different weapons of the same make. The differences may be subtle but they are there. Timing and lockup are the big issues! Try to fit the bolt in a pietta - old bolt vs new bolt. There is a BIG difference and it is not just the width!