Colt Country | Home of The Almighty Colt

Greetings all,       

  As you all know, replica Colts from Italy have been hard to come by in recent years. I had been interested in a Uberti 1861 Navy for sometime. Last June Taylor’s website suddenly changed from “out of stock” to “in stock” for the 1861, and so time to place my order.

   On arrival, and after cleaning of enough preservative oil to top off the lawnmower, I was quite
pleased with the parts fit and finish as well as the lock work.  Timing seems right on and the bolt locks up the cylinder nice and tight at full cock. The only “fly in the bullet lube” was that the wedge would bottom out against its retaining screw. It was not a really sloppy fit, it’s just that I could move it with my thumb alone.  So back to Taylor’s it went.

   Their fix was to peen the front of the arbor slot in an attempt to upset the metal and narrow the slot. It sorta worked, but after 50 or so rounds its not really as tight as it should be. Taylor’s gets an “A” for effort and quick turn around time,….  and some knucklehead at Uberti gets an “F” Minus for not rejecting it during their Q.C. process.

  Anyway, I replaced the original nipples with a set of S.S. ones from Track of The Wolf and tested it with Hornady .375 R.B.’s , over 15 grains of FFFG and Cream of Wheat filler topped with a little Crisco.

  With nine cylinders of R.B.s through it, I was quite surprised and pleased with the accuracy.
It is more accurate than my two Second Gen. Colts and maybe even a bit better than my Uberti Remington.
So far the wedge has not changed position during shooting, and the barrel is not loose on the arbor. I hope to cure the wedge issue with proper lengthening of the arbor, or maybe just send the thing to Mr. Goon.

  The really interesting thing about shooting the gun was that it was shooting dead on the mark at my 20 yard range right out of the box with NO sight tinkering. The 1861 Navy has a blade style sight as opposed to the 1851’s “golden pimple”. Perhaps that is the difference ???

So,…I wonder if anyone else who might own a Uberti 1861 Navy finds that it shoots very close to the mark without sight adjustment ?

I also wonder what sight modifications other 1861 Navy owners have found beneficial to accurate shooting ? Does everyone enlarge the hammer notch a bit?

Thanks for any thoughts, suggestions or comments on the 1861 Navy that may be offered.

Brownie

Assuming I got the photo load correctly, here are a few tools that I have found useful. Since I've never done any poking around forums before, not sure if they are redundant.

The two brushes are small hog bristle toll brushes commonly found at any art/ hobby store. I've shortened and rounded the bristles a little. They are superb for cleaning the back wall of each chamber where the nipple pokes through. Much better than a jag with a cotton patch on it.

Further note the wire with the curious end. It works well for pulling caps off of nipples, or fishing fragments of caps out of where they shouldn't be.
At first I used my pocket knife, but soon realized that I was being a danger to the finish of my guns, as well as myself. The wire is about .075, and fairly soft steel with a flattened end turned 90 degrees. I then used a small needle file to file a radius approximating the curve of the nipple.

So there's a couple of my tricks, if anyone can use them, or,...... if you can improve on them let us know.
Brownie

Greetings,
 I have an opportunity to pick up a used Uberti 1860 Colt Army. Bore and chambers looked rust free, and it looked as if it had not been shot too much.
Had some scratches in the bluing, and the wood was nicked a little. All the mechanicals seemed tight.
I found an Italian date code chart with which I hope to figure out how old it is.
I suspect the gun is probably 20 or 30 years old, but just an educated guess.

Any thoughts, comments, and experience on the quality level of older Uberti's versus brand new ones will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Brownie