Uberti Rifle-FTF Issues

[Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933]

Hopefully you will not take offense but from the back and forth in this thread it is obvious you do not know a lot about these guns.  Your best best is to take/send it to someone who does and let them analyze the problem and propose a fix.

[Garrison Joe, SASS #60708]

1 - the "centering" movement of the bolt as it approaches the chamber is quite normal.  Usually with a round being fed, the round helps with that centering.  With no round feeding, the nose of the extractor sliding into the extractor cut in the barrel face makes the bolt center up.  It's both normal and necessary, since there is very little guidance of the nose of the bolt provided by the rather floppy support of either the FPE or the the fit of the rear of bolt into the frame. 

 

2- the machining cuts showing in the top of the frame are also very normal.  They would not interfere with a good firing pin strike.

 

3 - although a picture taken of rear of the frame can be deceiving, there appears to be a lot of wear on the frame, with a burr being raised at the bottom and wear at the top actually coming all the way out to the outside surface of the frame.   Compare this to your 357 frame.....     

 

I'll second LEP's conclusion.  This gun will need a serious repair to the frame or FP assembly that would be best handled by a gunsmith with good tooling and measurement skills.

 

good luck, GJ

 

 

 

[Lucky Lead Pepper]

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

Hopefully you will not take offense but from the back and forth in this thread it is obvious you do not know a lot about these guns.  Your best best is to take/send it to someone who does and let them analyze the problem and propose a fix.

 

No offense taken.  I do not know a lot about these guns, but I am trying to learn.  The purpose of this thread was two fold for me. First I wanted to fix my rifle and get it back into action, but secondly I wanted to learn more about it.  I have learned new things about the 73, so that part was successful.  I will now hand it over to a gunsmith and see if I can get it back into competition form.

 

Thank you all for the useful information.

[Griff]

Another good thing about these types of threads, is that folks that have a similar problem and too timid to ask, are also educated.  Another thank you to Larsen and Garrison for providing detailed and comprehensive discussion of various causes and fixes.  Although my rifles have not developed this problem  in many years of service, it's good to know what to look for.  While I run my carrier dry, I've always kept my FPE very lightly greased, and found that fouling from even black powder loads in my 45 Colt rifles doesn't affect the FPE.

[Nickle]

On 6/6/2024 at 2:50 PM, Abilene, SASS # 27489 said:

I was just talking to Jim Bowie about this.  Bending the lever (open) will also decrease headspace, but too far and the lever safety won't work right.  I first heard about that quick and dirty headspace check from Nate Kiowa Jones, neat trick.

 

i just boight a 73 that someone slicked up.  Im guessing its a pioneer short stroke with bunch of aftermarket springs.  Gun looks new. 45 colt. 
  I partially sized a spent case and partially extracted the primer.  Then i chambered the round to seat the primer.  The primer after chambering sticks out of the case 0. 020”

 

anyone have any suggestions?
i like idea of fixing it myself without throwing money at it

[Nickle]

Pic of primer protrusion

I switched the short stroke kit into another 73 and it just changed the problem to the other rifle

Edited July 8 by Nickle

[Garrison Joe, SASS #60708]

Yep, swapping the short stroke links over to another gun and seeing excessive headspace on THAT gun is an excellent test!  You have extra headspace.

 

I'd email Will Shootem (Joe Alves) at Pioneer Gunworks and let him know you need longer links for one of his short strokes.  You may have enough measurements already to tell him what extra length you need to close up the gap to around 0.005" of headspace between bolt face and  case head when chambered.   good luck, GJ.

 

willshootem@pioneergunworks.com

 

FYI - in future, you can start your own post rather than tacking on to the end of a LONG 2 year old posting.  You will get more response doing that. Rather than "hijacking" a zombie post.  GJ

 

  

 

Edited July 8 by Garrison Joe, SASS #60708

[Nickle]

Thanks for advice. I thought about starting new thread but was concerned about people saying already discussed and use search feature etc. 
I have made contact after i posted here though with a local gunsmith who recomends tig welding bolt face and milling down.  He quoted $50 so seems like cheest fastest option so im planning on going in that direction. 
 Headspace seems to be a problem with used cowboy guns especially old henrys. I went to a gunshop that i knew had three 1860s plus 66s. These where 44/40s and 38.  I took headspace tools for those cartridges and sure enough the henry that i was going to buy had a bunch of headspace. 
i wanted 45 anyway but i didnt take any headspace equipement for 45 becuase i didnt know they had any up there.  I ended up buying two 73s in 45.  One brand new and the other slightly used but built cowboy action gun and sure enough big headspace problem 

[Garrison Joe, SASS #60708]

The search function on this forum is clumsy and weak, and although some workarounds exist, the forum software ought to do better. So, no, I don't think you will get griped at about not "just doing a search," but posting instead.  

 

Be aware that welding and re-cutting the bolt face will mean a longer firing pin is needed.  And maybe a non-standard extractor, too, unless the work is planned out real well.  "Stretching" the links (or making a larger knob on the forward link) is something that gunsmiths often do (welding and relocating the link's pin locations or shaping a new bearing surface on the forward link) which just moves the whole bolt forward a tad to close up headspace.  Meaning a replacement bolt should just drop in without work. You can read about that in David Chicoine's book "Gunsmithing Guns of the Old West" (available on used book market, and well worth it if you ever want to know the innards of one of our guns).

 

good luck, GJ

 

Edited July 9 by Garrison Joe, SASS #60708