I just bought a pair of Uberti 1873 SA used, from a gun smith who was selling them on consignment for a client who was retiring from Cowboy action shooting. I had them at the range today and near the end of my session I inadvertently released the ejector instead of riding it forward and the spring snapped it forward. It reached the end of its travel and the impact of half moon rod against the housing made it snap right off. This kind of surprised me as the spring didn't seem exceptionally strong, as its only function is to return the ejector to its resting position.
I called the gunsmith who said that this was not an unheard off vulnerability that was noted even in the originals. The force of thin metal on metal impacting could cause it to crack, plus there's no way of knowing how many times it was done by the original owner so it may have been close to going any way. Thankfully a new one is only $28 on VTI, though shipping from the US to Canada is more than the part cost
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I really wanted to avoid this happening again, and asked the smith if it would be worth shortening the spring to reduce its force. He pointed out that a weaker spring may cause it to rattle around when firing, particularly with .357 magnum rounds. I disassembled it to remove the broken part when I got home and think I may have found a simple solution. I basically took a mechanical pencil eraser refill, cut it down to a couple mm length, and slipped it in the housing tube before the extractor. I might trim it a wee bit shorter and colour it black with a Sharpie, but it it will act as a soft bumper if the extractor is released under full spring tension. One pic is the bumper installed on the broken ejector. Its easier to see with the half moon not in the way.
This seems like it should be a standard feature on these pistols.
