Finally got the Uberti 1873,,but....

[jimb16]

I finally got the Uberti 1873 sport rifle. Its a beaut! Super accurate. However, I had to load my cartridges one at a time! Since I was using those rounds in a 94 Winchester and in a Ruger Blackhawk, They all had an O.A.L of slightly over 1.60. Much to my surprise, the Uberti wouldn't feed them! TOO LONG! I had a batch that were not crimped so I set up the seating die to set the O.A.L. to 1.60. Not quite enough! I had to set the noses back to 1.58 to get them to feed properly. Well anyway, I made a note of that in my reloading journal. From now on my .45 colt boolits get seated just a little deeper. BTW, out of the box, it shot dead even with the top of the front sight, but 4 inches to the right at 100 yards. At 50 yards, I printed several 3 leaf clovers. One of my friends had some 1 quart jugs on the 100 yard backstop and I spent about half an hour bouncing those things all over the place! Talk about light recoil! And a "POP" instead of a loud "CRACK"! I didn't even have to raise the rear sight to be dead on at 100. Now that I've got a couple of boxes that are the correct O.A.L.,,,,,,let the fun begin!

[021]

Nice. The '73's are great guns.

[TXGunNut]

Yes, they are indeed beautiful guns. Glad yours shoots well, seems that's not unusual.

[Irascible]

The proper length for the cartridges for the '73s (also '66 and '76) is the length of the cartridge elevator. Too long and they don't clear the magazine tube so the elevator can go up. Too short and a round from the magazine tube will partially enter the elevator, on top of the previous round, also stopping it from going up.

[Wayne Smith]

Irascible is absolutely right. Very good explanation.

[jimb16]

So I have discovered!

[runfiverun]

so much for SAAMI length eh?

[Wayne Smith]

so much for SAAMI length eh?
I think the design long predates SAAMI!

[ironhead7544]

All leverguns can be fussy about COL and bullet type. Sometimes it takes a bit of work. Most of the cowboy designs will be made for the 1873s.

[35 Whelen]

SAAMI length for the .357 is 1.59", so rounds at this length should work.

The carrier block is designed with a bevel in the front bottom in order to facilitate use of shorter cartridges. The way it works is when a cartridge follows a "short" cartridge out of the magazine and into the carrier, as the lever is closed and the carrier is raised, it pushes the next cartridge back into the magazine.

I shot a Uberti 1873 .44 Special in CAS for awhile and used a little 170 gr. RNFP. When loaded the resultant OAL was 1.45" and the rifle ran those rounds as fast as I could work the lever, no problem. On the other hand, My hunting load used a heavier SWC with an OAL of 1.58" which likewise cycled and fed perfectly.

The Uberti's are truly fine firearms.

35W

[rondog]

Howz about some photos Jim? Sounds awesome!

I recently bought a Rossi 92, 24" octagonal, stainless, .45 Colt. Not as nice as an Uberti rifle, but a sweetheart nonetheless. A wonderful shooter right out of the box.

I know what you mean about the "pop", the muzzle report from my 24" barrel was so mild, I didn't even use ear pro. And I ran 150 round through it! I believe in ear pro, but I really didn't need it, it was like my long-barreled .22 rifle.

[jimb16]

I'm ready to start working up an accuracy load. This is a target shot at 100 yards with my pistol load. I think its a good place to start.
6.3 gr. Red Dot with a 250 gr. cast poly coated bullet sized .452
173760

[rondog]

Nice! Pretty rifle!

I ran fairly warm SAA loads through my Rossi, and it seemed to like them quite well. I now have 300 loaded up of two different rifle recipes, can't wait to try them. Lee 255gr pc'd boolits over 6.2gr Titegroup and 7.1 W231.

[35 Whelen]

Nice shooting Jim

35W

[jimb16]

Someone had left a bunch of clay birds on the backstop (20 of them) It took me 22 shots to completely remove them. Range to backstop is 110 yards. Two of them took 2 shots, not because I didn't hit them, but because they didn't completely shatter. Couldn't leave any large pieces. *LOL* One of the other old timers was there shooting his 1866 model .38 spec. (brass frame). We had a little informal competition. I won, but not by much. That 1866 was pretty darned accurate too. Plus he's a good shot too. These old model levers are pretty darned accurate, and fun to shoot! Ain't no deer gonna git away if'n I do my job!

[smokeywolf]

Hunt, Jennings and Smith didn't do such a bad job on the toggle link action. Horace Smith and Ben Tyler Henry didn't do too bad a job on metallic cartridges.