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Uberti '66 & '73: Short stroke kit made by Uberti. Opinions or reviews.


"Big Boston"

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The other day I saw an advertisement for a '66/'73 short stroke kit made by Uberti. P/N AS5. What appeals to me is that it is in stock and available in Canada.

 

With my '66 in 38 Spl I installed a PGW short stroke kit, (Not Super short) and it's worked well for me. CAS is my main hobby and since setting up in 38/357, I've added other calibers. I now have a '73 in 45 Colt and one in 44-40. I've left them as issued, it's not that I don't want to short stroke them, it's just pretty spendy to import a kit from the U.S. 

 

Does anyone have any experience with the Uberti kit? If so, how would you rate the product? how easy was the installation? any issues?

 

Thanks, Big Boston.

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I have an Uberti SS kit in my .357 '73 carbine.   It was a drop-in with no fitting and works great.  I don't know if this is the same kit you are describing.  This was the same kit that Uberti was putting in a very few factory SS rifles that Cimarron and perhaps Taylors were importing at the time (maybe 10 or 15 years ago), and may be the same kit that was being put in the Beretta '73's.  I know that a lot of gunsmiths did not like that Beretta SS for some reason and would replace it.   This kit consists of the links and an all-blued lever (used the stock lifter arm), and is about the same stroke as C&I 3rd gen.  I don't think it was ever offered to the general public as a kit for sale, but I was working at Cimarron at the time and got one.  Hope that helps.

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The Beretta/Uberti ss in one of my rifles is extremely smooth, not the shortest throw, I would compare it to cut and weld,/ 3rd gen short stroke.

Does the kit come with lever?

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A friend of mine replaced the SS that came in his Beretta 73 with one from XX. He gave me the one out of the Beretta and I installed it for a lady in our club. She has used it for many years with no issues. I had no issues with it. If what they are selling is the same, I wouldn't hesitate getting one. 

 

Snakebite

 

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I just bought a uberti 1873 competition rifle in 45lc... it came short stroked from the factory - just a tad longer that the PGW super short stroke kit i have on my 38spl 73....  Still needs a bit of action work - going to Huckleberry tonight

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22 hours ago, Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933 said:

You need to post an actual link to the ad as I have never seen a Uberti kit for sale in at least the past 15 years.

 

https://www.wolverinesupplies.com/ProductDetail/UBEAS5_-Uberti-Short-Stroke-for-Kit-Winchester-1873-

 

Keep in mind, that the price is in CAD. In USD that would be $169.73. In addition Wolverine is not a discount store, prices are close to MSRP.

 

My last kit was imported, and cost me $300 CAD, or $237 USD. back in 2018.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Yesterday the order from the supplier arrived. I've leveled the crushed limestone on my driveway and it's raining, and the Uberti short stroke kit is todays project.

 

If there is enough interest I'll document the evaluation of this kit. I've attached page 1. These write-ups are a bit above my pay grade, and take some effort and time on my part. A couple of likes would be encouraging. 

The Uberti Short Stroke Kit AS5.pdf

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There's a big discrepancy between the catalog page and reality, it seems.   Your link to the catalog page advertising the kit says

"Installation does not require the purchase of a new finger lever, the stock Uberti lever will work with this kit."

 

But your picture and description indicate that the kit DOES include a new lever.   And that the lever does not match the shape of a factory original lever. 

 

A discussion of that point might be useful to add to your write-up of the kit.

 

good luck, GJ

 

 

 

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Good Luck indeed. IMHO more than good luck is required. 

 

As Garrison Joe stated, The kit comes with a new finger lever, and does not include a new carrier lever. IMHO, the write up is wrong, lost something in the translation to English. Of course, without any instructions, it's hard to tell if the parts require machining to blueprint or not. I'm guessing they should be plug and play.

 

After a couple hours of attempting to put these pieces in my rifle, I gave up and put all the original pieces back in. I'm no gunsmith, but I've worked on and fixed a fair number of guns. This one had me baffled. 

 

One of the first issues was fit. The center link pin would not fit in the new finger lever, a bit of 800 on a mandrel remedied that issue, and the same method was used on the links to get them to drop onto the pins in the bolt. 

 

Here's where the steamboat ran aground. At the point in the stroke that the carrier lever is about to do its thing, the bolt is trying to cock the hammer and the links bind on the center link pin. Geometry up to that point seems good. The center link pin hardly moves in the link slot, a smooth and frictionless motion. As soon as the center link pin has to slide in the slot, things come to a halt. Oh, you can force the lever through to the end, but in reality it takes more force than I'm comfortable in using. Not knowing or being able to guess where the design and/or manufacturing went awry, it is hard to continue. Bottom line, I'm not impressed. 

 

A few years back I installed a Pioneer kit in my '66, and other than fine tuning the timing, installation was only moderately difficult. The instructions and videos available on the Pioneer site are fairly detailed and accurate, I had no issues with the instruction or the parts. I did have to grind a bit more clearance for the ladle, to make loading smoother, but that was it. 

 

So, sorry to disappoint, my intensions were good, but the parts beat me. I would not recommend the Uberti AS5 Short Stroke kit to anyone.

 

I did measure the arc that the finger lever operates on with the kit installed. It is app 60º. The kit would offer a nice shortening of the stroke.

 

Big Boston. 

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Yeah, a short stroke kit ALWAYS should include a new lifter arm (carrier lever).   That is where fitting takes place - mostly on the pad in contact with lever which elevates the lifter arm as the lever starts to close.       And once fitted to a lever and links, the lifter arm might have to be built up if it were fitted to a new lever/links set.

 

I'd say punting on that "partial kit" is the wise thing to do.  

 

After putting several kits in myself, I favor the C&I sets, as they have good instructions included and the work is straight forward.   Plus it's easy to get a link set that minimizes headspace, if you ever need to do that.  

 

good luck, GJ

 

 

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10 minutes ago, Garrison Joe, SASS #60708 said:

Yeah, a short stroke kit ALWAYS should include a new lifter arm (carrier lever).   That is where fitting takes place - mostly on the pad in contact with lever which elevates the lifter arm as the lever starts to close.       And once fitted to a lever and links, the lifter arm might have to be built up if it were fitted to a new lever/links set.

 

I'd say punting on that "partial kit" is the wise thing to do.  

 

After putting several kits in myself, I favor the C&I sets, as they have good instructions included and the work is straight forward.   Plus it's easy to get a link set that minimizes headspace, if you ever need to do that.  

 

good luck, GJ

 

Well, maybe (probably) I was just lucky with my older Uberti kit.  Besides needing no adjustments, didn't need to modify the carrier either, which the C&I kits need (although I do have C&I in other guns).  I don't know how it compares visually to the parts Big Boston pictured above, nor am I going to take them out of the gun to compare. :)

 

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Ofttimes it takes a a day or two to digest all the details of the experience. When things go well, not much experience to analyze, when they don't go as planned, you have to examine a lot of details. 

 

First, let's dispel the supposition that the Uberti short stroke kit is not complete because it does not have a new carrier lever included. The Uberti AS5 kit includes new links, and a new finger lever. The new finger lever has sufficient metal added to the pad that activates the carrier lever to work with the shortened stroke. When I examined and compared finger levers, the pad wasn't the only difference. The angle between the pivot point/center link pin and the pivot point/lever stops that contact the lower tang is also a bit different as well. IOW, the new finger lever and links are designed to work together. 

 

Theory: The brass carrier and stock springs increase the force required to work the lever, as does any added friction or binding.  When I installed my other kit I replaced the carrier with an anodized aluminum one. And, I installed it in a '66 with it's brass frame. It's my contention that the brass frame reduces the friction for any movement of the bolt. In my '73 I removed the carrier and loosened the springs, removing that added friction from the equation. I still had a issues with bolt movement. The geometry is such that near the end of the stroke, the link is pulling down too hard on the bolt. Or, IOW, the bolt is resisting rearward movement because of the angle that the links are at the end of the stroke. If I lift up slightly on the bolt, the action works smoothly. I would have removed the bolt and examined it and the frame for issues, but I'm the lucky owner of an Uberti with a very tight pin holding the bolt together, it will not budge. 

 

Therefore, I decided that because my '73 works rather smoothly in stock configuration, and the short stroke kit was more of a whim than to correct any flaw or condition, I would not continue with the installation. 

 

When I installed a short stroke kit in my '66 I chose the PGW standard kit, as I felt I needed just a bit of stroke reduction, and didn't want to loose too much of the mechanical advantage that a long stoke affords. BTW, the kit in my '66 reduced the stroke arc to app 62º. The next time I have it apart, I compare those links to the Uberti ones.

 

The toggle link rifles are somewhat like the 1897 Winchester shotgun, a bit more involved that they first appear. 

 

Time to move on to another project, TTFN.

 

BB 

 

1630969526_StockUbertileverwitharm.thumb.jpg.8d363a56eb0ff743453e909dc86a5f5a.jpg

The finger lever in this picture is off a deluxe 1873, it has a pistol grip. I did not want to disassemble my rifle just to take a picture and the only spare in my drawer was from a deluxe, so I used it for the picture. And yes, it does have a slight bend. The finger lever is not from the rifle that I was short stroking. 

 

Below it is the Uberti AS5 finger lever with a stock carrier lever. 

 

1895640177_UbertiKitleverwitharm.thumb.jpg.d3bfb1e9e8060bbbee544ef0674e736e.jpg

 

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Is your rifle a "pistol grip"? The picture of the "stock" lever appears to be slightly bent to fit the pistol grip version. The AS5 lever is completely straight, as if for a straight stock version. May be why it does not fit your rifle.

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On 10/28/2021 at 10:39 AM, Ranger Dan said:

Is your rifle a "pistol grip"? The picture of the "stock" lever appears to be slightly bent to fit the pistol grip version. The AS5 lever is completely straight, as if for a straight stock version. May be why it does not fit your rifle.

He said the curved lever was a spare he had in his drawer. He only used it for illustration purposes because he didn't want to tear down his rifle just for a picture.

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