Sixgun Sheridan Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 Pards, I recently bought a used, roughly 10 year-old Uberti Schofield in .45 in virtually brand-new condition. However I noticed something last night, the barrel-cylinder gap is huge. Cylinder endplay is around .004", and with the cylinder all the way back the gap is a whopping .013" (measured with feeler gauges). With the hammer cocked or with the cylinder loaded the gap is .009". I haven't fired it yet but I've never seen a revolver with that much daylight showing through. Is it something I should be concerned about? If so, since it's not under warranty is there somebody you can recommend to repair it? I think I now know why somebody sold it off without hardly ever having fired it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muley Gil SASS # 57795 Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 Shoot it first to see how it does. You might try wrapping a cylinder of cardboard, loosely, around the barrel/cylinder gap and see how much lead/powder spitting occurs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driftwood Johnson, SASS #38283 Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 Howdy While a bit excessive, that does not sound like a huge barrel/cylinder gap to me. I have a couple of antiques with barrel/cylinder gaps that are larger than that. The Gap on this 44-40 Merwin Hulbert is .012 when the cylinder is pushed all the way forward (the correct way to measure barrel/cylinder gap) and .016 when it is shoved back. But that is mostly because this is an open top revolver, and the barrel tends to bend down slightly over time with open tops. Still, I have fired it many times with Black Powder cartridges with no ill effects. Interestingly enough, the gap on this original 1st Model Schofield is .005 with the cylinder forward, and .010 with the cylinder back. Not bad for a gun almost 150 years old. Incidentally, it looks so good because it was refinished at the factory in 1957. I have never taken an Uberti Schofield apart, but I suspect the only way to deal with this is to add some metal to the front of the cylinder bushing. This will reduce the endshake, but make the larger dimension of your gap the permanent gap. Conversely you could add some metal to the frame area where the bushing contacts it, to the same effect. Excessive endshake can be more damaging than a wide cylinder gap. Endshake allows the cylinder to slam back in recoil, battering the frame, eventually making things worse. On the other hand, one of my 2nd Gen Colts has a bit of endshake, and I was warned about this happening, but after using it as one of my usual main match revolvers for a long time I have not actually seen the gap getting larger. Perhaps some other Uberti Schofield owners will chime in with some measurements. I suggest you simply try shooting it and see if you are getting any unacceptable lead spitting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawman Mays Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 1 hour ago, Sixgun Sheridan said: the barrel-cylinder gap is huge Are we talking about the distance a bullet will travel before entering the barrel, also known as bullet jump? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sixgun Sheridan Posted March 20, 2018 Author Share Posted March 20, 2018 39 minutes ago, Lawman Mays said: Are we talking about the distance a bullet will travel before entering the barrel, also known as bullet jump? Talking about the physical gap between the barrel and cylinder face. All revolvers have a certain amount of gap but I can't believe Uberti considered this to be within specs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driftwood Johnson, SASS #38283 Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 Howdy Again I am a little bit unclear on what your barrel/cylinder gap is. With the cylinder pushed all the way forward, and using your feeler gauges, what is the gap? Just for reference, the recommended B/C gap for a Colt SAA is .006 for jacketed bullets and .008 for lubed lead bullets. Endshake should be 0, but one or two thousandths is common. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sixgun Sheridan Posted March 21, 2018 Author Share Posted March 21, 2018 Cylinder pushed forward: .009" Cylinder shoved back: .013" Total endshake: .004" There is hardly any visible wear internally so it's been like this since it left the factory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driftwood Johnson, SASS #38283 Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 Like I said earlier, a little bit excessive, but not huge. I really would not sweat it very much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sixgun Sheridan Posted March 21, 2018 Author Share Posted March 21, 2018 Thanks. Hopefully when I finally manage to get to the range with it it'll be a good shooter and I can stop worrying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.