Slicking Up the Uberti Cowboy Revolvers

Over the years, I’ve worked with a dozen or so Uberti singleaction revolvers, and have reached several definitive conclusions borne out by experience. First and foremost among these conclusions is the opinion that some Ubertis are better than others. Your customers would be well advised to look hard at the Navy Arms Deluxe or the Navy Arms Gunfighter, or the Beretta Stampede, which is a Uberti by another name.

At present, I believe these are the best examples of the breed and are far better fitted than anything Uberti produced in earlier years. The Beretta Stampede appears to the "flagship" of the Uberti line and as such is well finished. The Gunfighter is fitted with premium W. C. Wolff springs from the factory, and the timing and action are good. Other Uberti specimens tend to be more "middle of the road" in quality, and made to sell for less.

Thus it seems Uberti is a bit like General Motors, in that its revolvers serve different tastes and budgets from Chevrolet up to Cadillac. Generally speaking, the more you pay for a Uberti revolver, the better product you’re going to get’which is as it should be. In any case, the Uberti will costa fraction of the price of anew Colt Single Action Army. As you might suspect, there are some problems that are commonly encountered with Uberti revolvers.

Before we get into those, let’s talk about how to test the Uberti for function. Some of these revolvers have grinding parts that are obvious as soon as the revolver is cocked. In other words, we have to look at adjustment’getting the revolver into specification’before we look at improvements. I find that the two most common problem areas are the hammer cam and the bolt. If these two parts are out of whack, then adjustment must come before attempting to smooth the action.

A bolt that rises too early on the cocking stroke will leave a scratch around the cylinder of a single-action revolver. Sometimes this ring results from bad timing and sometimes from a form of bad handling. If the piece is brought to half cock and released without going to full cock, the hand rises and leaves a ring around the cylinder. So, when checked out, the bolt may Allow a little penetrating oil to soak in before attempting to remove them. be okay despite the appearance of a ring around the cylinder.

If the shooter cocks the revolver all the way to full cock each time, the ring is less likely to be imprinted on the cylinder. The hammer cam activates the bolt. The cam is timed to unlock the cylinder as well. If the hammer cam is bad, it maybe reworked, although the simpler alternative is usually to replace it. If you’re familiar with the Single Action Army, disassembling the Uberti revolver should produce no surprises.

When field stripping the Uberti, I often find loose grip frames, which can’t be good for accuracy. I also believe this basic action, designed nearly 150 years ago, is not well suited to the pressures of heavy handloads in the .45 Colt versions, and not ideal for the Magnum cartridges in the .38- and .44-caliber versions. I tell my customers to stick with .38 Special or .44 Special loads, especially with the brass-framed revolvers.

That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with the use of brass to help keep manufacturing costs low. These are, after all, purely recreational pieces. When disassembling the grip frame, I carefully loosen the screws a

little at a time. This seems to make for less binding, especially with well worn screws. And it’s never a bad idea to spray penetrating oil into the screws and wait an hour or longer before you attempt to remove the screws. Once these screws are removed, you may find the backstrap is tight on the frame. Rock it gently to the rear and tilt the top of the backstrap off the frame. One-piece grips are easily plucked away. Those with a screw will have been removed at the beginning.

Next, remove the hammer-spring screw from the bottom of the triggerguard and rock the hammer spring out from under the hammer. Then place the frame upside down and remove the trigger guard screw and the trigger guard. Study these parts. The newer Ubertis have a hand similar to the Ruger, while the older models are more Colt-like. Repair and smoothing procedures are the same for either, but there is a spring and plunger in the newer pistols that must be captured and preserved. It is near the back strap screw holes.

Next, remove the hammer by removing the hammer screw first and then lowering the hammer in the frame. Remember, the hand pivots on the hammer. With the frame upside down, take a good look at the trigger spring and then remove the triggerspring screw and the spring itself. At this point, one possibility for smoothing the action is to reduce the power of the springs. The hammer spring can be lightened by running the spring on a grinder. Thin the spring lengthwise, especially close to the retaining screw.

Any crosscuts will tend to weaken the spring and they will break. Also, be aware that the temper of the spring can be lost if it becomes too hot to hold, so take your time and do the work gradually. When working with the trigger spring, remember that the short leg of the spring is the bolt leg. There’s nothing to be gained from modifying that part. The longer or trigger leg can be bent to be a bit straighter, but only experience or trial and error can produce the proper bend by eye.

The trigger action should be lighter after you have bent and thinned the spring. Another alternative is to order reduced-power springs from W. C. Wolff company. This is probably the safest and simplest method, and will probably produce the most consistent results. While the hammer is out, you need to carefully polish the hammer cam. The Uberti is manufactured with a one-piece hammer, while the SAA has a removable hammer cam.

The angle of the cam absolutely must be preserved, but the function can be improved considerably by polishing rough spots and burrs from the hammer cam. At this point, you should reassemble the pistol and try it for function. It’s rare to get it just right

the first time. An additional step that some feel is an aid in trigger action is to place a leather shim between the hammer spring and strap under the screw. The late Skeeter Skelton found that this not only improved the trigger action, it also caused the spring to flex less for virtually the same power. I always test ignition reliability with empty cases that have been primed with large rifle primers rather than the normal large pistol primers.

These primers are more resistant to ignition and pressure than even Magnum pistol primers, and are an excellent judge of ignition reliability. (Rifle primers should never be used in conventional revolver handloads.) If the rifle primers go bang, the revolver will work with any factory load or good handload.

Of course, I’m much more cautious with a handgun destined for personal defense, but single-action revolvers are used almost exclusively for recreational shooting and hunting these days. (For what it’s worth, the only Uberti revolver I’ve seen that I would trust for personal defense is the Navy Arms Deluxe, but only after changing the base pin.) These simple procedures above should help in smoothing any newproduction Uberti.

Some of the older types, particularly those with brass frames, are much rougher and may call for individualized procedures appropriate to the particular handgun. For example, with some Ubertis, I’ve polished the high spots on the sides of the hammer to reduce friction and bring it to an acceptable fit. For this job, 800 grit seems to be about right. A needle file can be used to work the hand channel. The hand and the bolt sometimes have burrs that need to be addressed.

Another spot that’s easy to work while the pistol is disassembled is the bushing and gas check. This is supposed to deflect unburned powder from the bolt, thus preventing binding from a buildup of powder ash. Depending on the powder used, fouling can be troublesome. If this bushing and the cylinder pin are polished, the cylinder will revolve much more smoothly, even with full-power springs. This is almost a "free lunch," producing smoother movement with no loss in spring power.

Don’t overpolish, however; I’ve seen a singleaction revolver that would spin the cylinder right past lockup and miss the next round. We discussed the hammer cam earlier. The cam contacts the cylinder-locking bolt and raises the contact end of the bolt. This lowers the opposite end of the bolt, releasing the cylinder, and allowing the cylinder to rotate. As the hammer is fully cocked, the cam releases the locking bolt and it tilts into place again, locking the cylinder.

To adjust the timing of a single-action revolver, the flat area of the cam can be adjusted by the removal of a small amount of metal. By removing a small amount of metal, the speed of lockup is improved, but if you remove too much, the hammer will have to be replaced. The sear sometimes needs attention. I’ve been able to determine the correct sear height for most Uberti revolvers.

Many have sears that are higher than need be, and by grinding and smoothing to .031- 032 inch, you should have good engagement with less creep. If the sear is too long, naturally, you get a bit of creep. Don’t be surprised if you find the Navy Arms version to have a well-polished sear of the proper height. If you polish the

sear, all the original angles must be preserved. Otherwise, the hammer could be cocked, hang for a moment, and then release. This happened to noted writer Skeeter Skelton, and he was lucky to lose only the toe of his expensive boot when it happened. Now let’s take a look at the Uberti’s cylinder. Sometimes the cylinder has rotation problems. When you remove the cylinder from the frame, check forend shake. End shake is an uneven movement that results in the front of the cylinder moving against the barrel.

This will produce rubbing on the front of the cylinder that is often visided visual inspection. A to check for end shake is toe barrel/cylinder gap. The gap should be consistent with each cylinder, so check all six. The alignment can be tight or loose, ranging from .004 to .008 inch in the case of the Uberti revolvers. A barrel/cylinder gap on the tight side will give better accuracy but foul more quickly with unburned powder. (The U. S.

Firearms Rodeo revolver, for example, is a very well-made revolver with a barrel/cylinder gap of about .002 inch.) End shake can also produce poor timing. When the hand comes up to move the cylinder, a wobbling cylinder will require more force to rotate. The cure is usually to install anew base-pin bushing. Work the old one out and install the new bushing, being certain that the barrel/cylinder gap comes in between .004 and .008 inch at the most.

Once you begin working with the Uberti single-action revolver, you’ll find that one of the fairly common problems is binding of the ejector-rod spring. This is just as common with the 7-1/2-inch-barrel revolver as any of the others. The problem is the spring binding at the end of its travel and not springing back as quickly as the shooter would like. This problem is a concern in cowboy-action shooting. To solve this problem, I simply cut a few coils from the spring at a time and reinstall and test.

Most of the time, the first cut cures the problem. A final concern is the base pin. Some base pins area bit sloppy and tend to work out. I don’t like the longer base pins delivered with some Uberti revolvers. Even the Navy Arms Deluxe, one of the best of the Uberti revolvers, uses this pin. If the base pin is pressed too far into the frame, the pin protrudes out the rear and the firing pin can’t fully contact the cartridge primer.

I like the USFA and Colt pins much better, and routinely use them to replace the Uberti base pins. The Ubertis are not what I would call finely made revolvers, although the nickel-silver gripstrap and Wolff springs in the Navy Arms version area step in the right direction. Still, for the money, they’re hard to beat, which means they’ll always be popular with the cowboy-action crowd. I The softmetal screws are easy to mar.