I just picked up my new Cimarron 1873 Short rifle in .45 Colt yesterday I ordered it through my smith/ FFL. First off when we unboxed it at the smiths shop, he immediately noticed a very small hairline crack in the stock, where the straight grip meets the receiver on the left side. We're not sure it goes all the way through, but he's gonna call and see if he can't get a new stock shipped out to him. So we're gonna have to see where that leads. That being said, the fit&finish is flawless. It's a brand new gun, so it's stiff, but last night while watching Lonesome Dove 😁 I kept working the action, and it's a lot smoother now. I ran some .45 Colt snap caps through her a bunch of times and the loading gate is getting smoother as well., and she cycled those snap caps really really good, and I can't believe how fast it cycles, so I think I'll make my COAL the same as the snap caps. She's got a heavy trigger, I measured the pull weight and it's consistently 7 1/2 lbs! It's heavy but still a good trigger, there's no creep, and it breaks clean. I just slugged the barrel, the actual measurement is .4505, so figure .451, I'll size my cast boolits to .453, that should work pretty well.
I'll tell ya'lll it's one purdy un, that's for sure, I've wanted a 73 for a very long time, and aside from the stock issue that I have no doubt will get worked out, I'm pretty impressed with the rifle.
Paul
Wrap the stock in rawhide for that authentic repair to a cracked stock.
I don't know how Cimarron will respond now, but when I worked there they would not send you a new stock. They will probably request you return the rifle, which means you better not scratch up anything else (or shoot it!). Then they can either replace the stock if they have one or send you a different rifle. HOWEVER, your dealer should have made a UPS (or Fedex or whatever) claim for shipping damage. Since it appears he didn't do that, you just might be out of luck with Cimarron. Hopefully not. Won't know until you call them, but I'd leave it in the box until you know if they want it back. Good luck.
7.5 lbs seems a bit heavy but it doesn't slip so it's definitely a good trigger for a lever action. If you want it lighter you can adjust or smooth the contact surface a bit.
This post by JarvisWard has the earmarks of AI and I've reported it for review.
I did too but forgot to post it.