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Uberti 45Colt
- Thread starter KMAX
- Start date
I have a Cimarron Uberti 45 Colt Artillery model which is the 5 1/2" with the old or BP frame. I am really impressed with this gun. Very good quality. It has excellent timing and accuracy. Cimarron Firearms has a good website with good pictures. http://www.cimarron-firearms.com/default.htm
MY CIMARRON UBERTI 45COLT has over 6800 rounds though it as we speak. It has never given me a moments problem. All the rest of my CIMARRON and UBERTI sixguns in every caliber available have nearly 50,000 rounds through them, in total. Two broke the bolt spring WAAAY back when which is no big deal and easily replaced.
Good guns, good specs but will only take standard pressure loads and they are "five shooters" (six round cylinder with no safety). The .45 Colt Blackhawks will need to have cylinder sent to Cylinderman for best results. Also, the Blackhawks have adjustable sights so not really "cowboy" but real nice and can shoot high-end .45 Colt "Ruger Only" loads. A really good choice would be a Ruger Vaquero. The "new" Vaqueros have good specs (No trip to the Cylinderman) and are good to 20k psi so you get a stronger gun that can safely carry six bullets. I would be happy to own an Uberti and even happier to own a Vaquero. Most happy would be to own a Freedom Arms .45 Colt some day.
Crunchy Frog
New member
Attend a SASS match and you'll see Uberti revolvers that have been put to the test. Cowboy shooters put a lot of rounds through their guns. If the Uberti revolvers were junk, cowboys would not buy them.
The Uberti is a copy of a Colt (as is a Pietta). That means it has the classic "four clicks to cock", hammer mounted firing pin, etc. Carry it with an empty chamber under the hammer. It has leaf springs like a Colt. They break more frequently than Ruger's coil springs but you might go thousands of rounds with no problem. If a spring breaks, you replace it. Not the end of the world.
The Uberti is a copy of a Colt (as is a Pietta). That means it has the classic "four clicks to cock", hammer mounted firing pin, etc. Carry it with an empty chamber under the hammer. It has leaf springs like a Colt. They break more frequently than Ruger's coil springs but you might go thousands of rounds with no problem. If a spring breaks, you replace it. Not the end of the world.
Ubertis and Piettas made after 2000-2001 seem to be pretty good. Both shops re-vamped their tooling around then. Prior to that they were getting problems with basic metallurgy, so...yeah, new or at least newer is good.
The Beretta Stampede is an Uberti with a transfer bar ignition grafted in. It's still more traditional than a Ruger as it loads on the half-cock, but the reliability is a step down from the no-safety Uberti variants.
Pietta also does a transfer-bar equipped gun. It's fairly rare, sold only by Heritage which calls it the "Big Bore Rough Rider":
http://www.heritagemfg.com/site/department.cfm?id=52
Final finish and assembly is stateside from Pietta parts. Taurus recently bought Heritage and I for one suspect they'll want to keep the deal with Pietta going and possibly expand the program if possible, because Taurus' own Brazilian-made SAA-near-clone-with-a-safety (Gaucho) was a total failure.
A Pietta is a decent alternative to Uberti and otherwise very similar. A lot of the SASS guys are happy with the ones imported by EMF as the "Great Western II" or more recently by Cimarron which used to be an Uberti-only shop but added Pietta of late. Pietta's CEO competes in European SASS matches as "Alchemista" and there's a Pietta model of that name set up for guys with big hands.
Both Pietta and Uberti have lower-slung-hammer models available now that SASS has legalized the use of the Ruger SuperBlackhawk hammers "or similar" in all aspects of competition ("main match"). At first they were a mounted-only thing.
What else...
Uberti's best possible fit and finish under their own name is called the "El Patron". They also sell that finish level to Taylor's & Co. who sells it as the "Running Iron" or "Smoke Wagon" depending on options. Cimarron sells that finish as the "Evil Roy" and possibly others, with the Evil Roy tuned up internally in-house.
Longhunter's Shooting Supply in turn is a gunsmith and gun sales operation that sells pre-tuned guns including Rugers and the Taylor's high-end Ubertis. One of those Ubertis pre-tuned by Longhunter is probably the single best Italian SAA type you can get, matched only by the Evil Roy which is more money.
http://www.longhunt.com/
Hmmm...looks like he's also tuning some Cimarron models so that might be worth looking at.
You might also note that he's tuning Rugers. A Ruger New Vaquero is still a fundamentally better gun than anything coming out of Italy, if you care about toughness and performance more than looks. In his list of pre-tuned Ruger services, checking the throats isn't listed BUT if you call him I'd bet he'd be willing to go there for a slight cost. That would, in my opinion, get you the very best SAA-class gun possible this side of a grand-plus worth of USFA or Colt or two grand worth of Freedom Arms '97-frame.
Remember: any Ruger mid-frame (New Vaquero, Montado, 50th Anniversary 357 Blackhawk Flattop or the 44Spls fixed or adjustable) have cylinder chambers that were all bored with the same bit/reamer set. Large-frames from 2007 forward got the same improvement...you can ID those by the "lawyer's warning label" on the barrel of the large-frame guns: under-barrel warning means new enough to get the improved cylinder, side-barrel means too old. If it has uniform chambers that's a great start. In 45LC you're correct, there's a risk the throats will be tight but it's easily fixed and once you do accuracy is generally a dream.
The Beretta Stampede is an Uberti with a transfer bar ignition grafted in. It's still more traditional than a Ruger as it loads on the half-cock, but the reliability is a step down from the no-safety Uberti variants.
Pietta also does a transfer-bar equipped gun. It's fairly rare, sold only by Heritage which calls it the "Big Bore Rough Rider":
http://www.heritagemfg.com/site/department.cfm?id=52
Final finish and assembly is stateside from Pietta parts. Taurus recently bought Heritage and I for one suspect they'll want to keep the deal with Pietta going and possibly expand the program if possible, because Taurus' own Brazilian-made SAA-near-clone-with-a-safety (Gaucho) was a total failure.
A Pietta is a decent alternative to Uberti and otherwise very similar. A lot of the SASS guys are happy with the ones imported by EMF as the "Great Western II" or more recently by Cimarron which used to be an Uberti-only shop but added Pietta of late. Pietta's CEO competes in European SASS matches as "Alchemista" and there's a Pietta model of that name set up for guys with big hands.
Both Pietta and Uberti have lower-slung-hammer models available now that SASS has legalized the use of the Ruger SuperBlackhawk hammers "or similar" in all aspects of competition ("main match"). At first they were a mounted-only thing.
What else...
Uberti's best possible fit and finish under their own name is called the "El Patron". They also sell that finish level to Taylor's & Co. who sells it as the "Running Iron" or "Smoke Wagon" depending on options. Cimarron sells that finish as the "Evil Roy" and possibly others, with the Evil Roy tuned up internally in-house.
Longhunter's Shooting Supply in turn is a gunsmith and gun sales operation that sells pre-tuned guns including Rugers and the Taylor's high-end Ubertis. One of those Ubertis pre-tuned by Longhunter is probably the single best Italian SAA type you can get, matched only by the Evil Roy which is more money.
http://www.longhunt.com/
Hmmm...looks like he's also tuning some Cimarron models so that might be worth looking at.
You might also note that he's tuning Rugers. A Ruger New Vaquero is still a fundamentally better gun than anything coming out of Italy, if you care about toughness and performance more than looks. In his list of pre-tuned Ruger services, checking the throats isn't listed BUT if you call him I'd bet he'd be willing to go there for a slight cost. That would, in my opinion, get you the very best SAA-class gun possible this side of a grand-plus worth of USFA or Colt or two grand worth of Freedom Arms '97-frame.
Remember: any Ruger mid-frame (New Vaquero, Montado, 50th Anniversary 357 Blackhawk Flattop or the 44Spls fixed or adjustable) have cylinder chambers that were all bored with the same bit/reamer set. Large-frames from 2007 forward got the same improvement...you can ID those by the "lawyer's warning label" on the barrel of the large-frame guns: under-barrel warning means new enough to get the improved cylinder, side-barrel means too old. If it has uniform chambers that's a great start. In 45LC you're correct, there's a risk the throats will be tight but it's easily fixed and once you do accuracy is generally a dream.
Kmax, Jim March's response was indeed a good one as usual. My take on things having had all fixed-sight ("cowboy style") single action variants mentioned, is that your choice is or should be a vicsceral one. Which do you value--"gets you going"--most for your first (I guarantee there will be more!)? -- Colt looks and feel...the snick, snick (snick, snick) and color case hardened look of the Colts and clones, or the near-"bulletproof" ruggedness and reliability, and ability to shoot 6 of the Ruger? It is true you can have a bit of both (except the Ruger's (New Vaquero) ruggedness) with the aforementioned Beretta. However, if being able to safely load/shoot six is paramount, I'd agree with the previous poster and err on the side of Ruger's proven application. Also, if you're focused on .45 Colt and IF planning to regularly shoot particularly "hot" loads, the answer is especially simple, the old/original large-frame Vaquero--discontinued ca 2005 but occasionally available since in "special distributor runs".
Edit/add. I will say that as a "beware of...," unless on a lowest possible price budget, I'd stay away from the "big box store" entry-level Ubertis (and maybe similar Piettas?). These are the ones with the charcoal matte finishes, often paired with brass frames. They just lack soul IMO, though the internals should share the same good bits as the pricier Ubertis--and the non-brass framed ones of that ilk in particular do represent a good "base gun" for a home brew antiquing job, which you might not (understandably) even consider doing to a brand new/nice blued and CCH'd gun.
Edit/add. I will say that as a "beware of...," unless on a lowest possible price budget, I'd stay away from the "big box store" entry-level Ubertis (and maybe similar Piettas?). These are the ones with the charcoal matte finishes, often paired with brass frames. They just lack soul IMO, though the internals should share the same good bits as the pricier Ubertis--and the non-brass framed ones of that ilk in particular do represent a good "base gun" for a home brew antiquing job, which you might not (understandably) even consider doing to a brand new/nice blued and CCH'd gun.
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Or... if you want to go SA but be a little different- there are the Uberti Remington replicas. I have the 1875 and the 1890. The feel, and dimentions of the frame are different from the Colt clones- a little more comfortable reach in my opinion. They also have a wide trigger face with an amazingly light, crisp let off.
Shotgun693
New member
There have been lots of problems with newer Uberti Remingtons. The importer, Stoeger, will not honor the warranty. The shop where I bought mine gave me my money back.
I have a Uberti 1873 Cattleman NM Brass 5-1/2" barrel and My wife has a Uberti 1873 Cattleman El Patron 4-3/4" barrel both are well made and mine has over 1000 rounds through it and zero issues we love em both. I also reload all our ammo I am using 200g lrnfp over 5.8g Trail Boss powder and both shoot very well.