Abilene, SASS # 27489

Only the first 400 or so were the "primo" guns, so with that s/n it will have some mixed parts and might not eject as far (mine is one of those, CB009xx) but it is still an excellent gun out of the box and that current price is great but still another day to go. I paid $300 NIB for mine 4 years ago from an old dealer getting out of the business. He'd had it a long time and didn't realize the real value! A couple years ago I paid $700 for a Norinco with Coyote Cap action job. Both those are excellent. I resisted '97's for a long time because to me they "weren't cowboy" though I enjoyed seeing one used skillfully. Had to get one for WB and tried it for CAS and gee, this is fun! Shotgun, SxS or '97, is my weakest performance with fumbling shells and I rarely practice, and I'm a hair faster with the SxS because I have smaller hands, but I shoot the '97 more for smokeless just because slam-firing is so darn satisfying.

I think the whole reason the 93/97 was banned for CAS was due to the perceived advantage the large port would give to single loading. (Well, I believe some personality clashes were also involved but that's not the point). I think it was @Deuce Stevens SASS#55996 who made a video a few years ago of dry firing one of them to test this theory and he showed it NOT to be an advantage, in fact a disadvantage with shells flopping around. I don't remember details and it's possible he was just loading over the top and perhaps loading from the right would be better? I don't know. Perhaps it should be revisited.

Howdy Occ-Anch. Above is good info but you often can't have a gunsmith check out a gun first. You might find one at a swapmeet, pawn shop, whatever. So here is some stuff to look for that I copied off the wire years ago: Posted on SASS WIre by Outlaw Gambler 11-2-11: When buying from another cowboy you will hope he knows what he is selling another cowboy is in good condition. But to be sure, in addition to the previously listed items, here are a few more. 1. Look at the bore with a bore light, the older black powder guns had lots of pitting in the barrels and most of it is in the chamber area. 2. Open the action and with your thumb slowly push the bolt forward, watch the shell flag, it should come up as you slowly push the bolt forward. This is your first line of defense against an out of battery discharge. If the flag doesn't come all the way up when bolt is closed, there is a safety problem. 3. Open the action and move the end of the bolt up and down and sideways, the rule of thumb is if it moves either way more than a quarter of an inch the rails in the receiver may be worn beyond repair. This will also keep the bolt from cocking the hammer all the way since it will ride up over the top of the hammer. 4. Look at the hammer, is there excessive wear on the top crown? See last sentence in #3. 5. If a takedown, hold the barrel and mag tube in one hand and the receiver in the other and try to screw or unscrew them. They should not move. 6. Put an empty hull in the mag tube and work the action. The action should pick the spent hull out of the tube, it may not chamber it due to it being longer. If not just insert the same hull into the chamber and close the action. Now do two tests, with hammer cocked try to open the action - it should not open but rather be locked in battery. The second test is with hammer down, work the action to be sure the hull is extracted and ejected out of the gun. By no way is this a complete test of a 97, it would take too long to describe everything to look for but this will give you an idea of some of the major items. Finish is purely cosmetic and up to the individual. Hope this helps and good luck. Posted by Pof Fuller Bullspit: Barrels are measured with a dowel. Mark a dowel at 18". Make sure the gun is unloaded. Close the action and drop the dowel down the barrel. The barrel needs to be longer than the 18" mark. On a take down, make sure that the gun is tight, but doesn't have a lot of spacers. You want some room on the takedown adjustment. Also check the mag tube. These can get worn and then they don't stay in place. It is very disconcerting to have your mag tube slid forward as you try to work the action! Make sure it will feed dummy shells from the magazine. Make sure the flag works. It should not fall down too easily. Make sure that the action is locked up before the hammer can fall. Hold the trigger down (gun unloaded) and close the action. If the hammer falls before the action is closed this can be adjusted, but do check. Check for cracks in the wrist.

If you want new I recommend Arizona Custom. They fit pretty darn good without any fitting. Of course you have to glue the spacer yourself. https://azcustomgrips.com

I assume this was made for mounted shooting?

BTW, anyone coming to Regulators Revenge this weekend, a cold front blows in Sunday. Not frigid, just cooler, but very windy. I guess that's good for blowing smoke away but wear a hat with stampede strings if you have one!

I subscribe to a periodic email listing current auctions from antiqueguns.com . I've never bought or even bid on anything from them but it is fun to see all the pics and some various models I'd never heard of. Seems like some of their prices are high but what do I know? So this week there is a Marlin top-break revolver in .32 centerfire. Looks a lot like the S&W's and others of the late 1880's. The text said this was the last revolver model sold by Marlin. Well heck, up til now I never knew Marlin made revolvers at all! Does anyone own a Marlin and/or shoot it for pocket pistol matches? Here is the one I saw: https://www.antiqueguns.com/shop/079-1025-p0326-marlin-m-1887-da-revolver-in-32-cf-90-blowout

Rye, if the hand spring is broken it will still rotate the cylinder if you point the gun down while cocking. If you point it up, it won't. That is the classic symptom of broken hand spring. Now, if it is cracked it might be iffy. edit: I will just add that I've only ever broken two hand springs. One on a 1901 Colt, and one on an older '61 Uberti w/ Kirst. My other Colts, two 3rd gen, one 2nd gen, another 1st gen, have never broken one nor have about ten Uberti conversions with leaf springs.

I will take them. PM sent.

They could still be ivory even if no mentioned in a factory letter. If you can't tell visually, like Cholla mentioned, try to stick a red hot needle into it on the inside. Ivory will smell like burnt hair. Nice gun.

Yikes. Best of Luck and prayers.

I know a guy whose Boogie rifle was having issues and turned out the spring hole did get bored into the FP hole.

This is what I do as well. Long ago I was given a bunch of old .38 police training ammo (lead SWC) in nickle cases when they switched to semi-autos. I'm still shooting it in my BP pistol ammo. I lose at least 10% to cracks every time I shoot it now. So I just recently bought some once-fired nickled brass off the Wire that I will start using for this and I'll just toss the old ones as I shoot them.

If it was fine and then suddenly it wasn't, I'm guessing it got bent somehow.

Howdy Whammy, There is no extractor spring in a standard Uberti. The Extractor itself is the spring. But that failure in the video is not normal wear, plus your comment about a spring makes me wonder if yours has been gunsmithed to have a little spring under the tail. If so I'd suspect it broke or fell out. And no storing it closed shouldn't matter.