Uberti update

So, after discovering that my new (to me) Uberti SAA was out of time, I contacted Uberti via their website to inqure about a repair job, only to be told that it's an older import via an importer that they no longer use, as as such, they won't work on it even if I pay. They punted me off to VTI Gun Parts, a company that sells parts, and they in turn referred me to a Winchester, VA-based company that sells and fixes western replica firearms. That outfit, Taylor's and Company, has a gunsmith named Tom who spent quite a bit of time with me yesterday when I dropped in on the way home from the doctor's office. He works on these guns for a living and he showed me how the cylinder on this particular pistol, which was probably made back in the 1970s or early 1980s, was poorly machined originally, which is probably why it's jumping time now. But he says that he'll fix it for me just as soon as I can get my hands on a new cylinder from VTI. And the trip wasn't wasted, as Tom taught me quite a bit about these western replicas and cowboy-action shooting.

Now I just got off the phone with VTI and they did indeed have the cylinder that I needed; it's on the way here now. And the nice lady there gave me a ton more information about these pistols and the fitting of the parts, so I'm definitely getting an education if nothing else.

Gun test day

So yesterday I took a couple of pistols out to the range for some testing. The main one was my old Model 642 with it's new Crimson Trace laser grip; I had to see what it could do.

It was bitingly cold and there was a sharp wind in addition to bright sunlight that made the dot difficult but not impossible to see at 15 yards.

The night before, I'd passed this pistol and it's new sighting tool around at my church group, only to have three different people state without a doubt that it wasn't even close to being lined up with it's sights.

Well I'm happy to announce that the steel dueling tree with the 4" discs says otherwise. If I did my part and kept the dot on the discs through the trigger pull, I was rewarded with a loud, satisfying "CLINK!" nearly every time.

It's going to take some practice and getting used to, and I still want to bench it and fine-tune it, but I came away impressed. It's got real potential and I like it. A lot.

I also took the new (to me) Uberti .45 Long Colt SAA out to test, using factory loads, some smokeless loads I put together with Unique powder and some fffg black powder loads because...well just because, dammit.

It's sights are pretty much point of aim at 25 yards and it knocks over 6" steel plates like nobody's business...five times out of six. This pistol has a problem.

Almost every time I run a cylinder through it, five rounds get nice, heavy primer hits dead center, but one chamber almost always lines up so as to give me an off-center hit right on the edge of the primer that's usually insufficient to fire the cartridge. I tracked it for the session and it's definitely the same chamber every time. So a repair request has been submitted to Uberti and now we'll see how their customer service rates. Are they going to be excellent, like Henry, Glock or Surefire, or are they going to be piss-poor like Colt? Time will tell, and rest assured, so will I.

Other than that though, I'm please to report that my Unique loads hit almost identically to the factory Federal loads--point of aim at 25 yards--and my black powder loads were a bit off but still close enough to ring the bigger steel targets. Sadly I couldn't see if they were impacting the berm over or under because the massive smoke clouds that the rounds were making were being blown right back in my face by the wind so I saw nothing for a couple of seconds after every shot. But those rounds were still a boatload of fun and I'm sure that with a little work at the loading bench and some better test weather I can dial them right in.