Schofield Woes.....!

[John Henry]

    I went to the range this past Saturday with just the pistols , Schofield, Remington 58, Colt 73 and Glock 22, all preformed well except the Schofield started acting up after three cylinders worth of ammo. Sluggish operation and and latch closing problem right at the last.
    I was using ffg black powder with lubed bullets in it that I'd made up for the remington 58 with  conversion cylinder, I figured it was just gummed up a tad so I sprayed it down good with moose milk and stowed it away to clean later.
    well I started cleaning it up today to put it back in the gun safe and found in short order in was still not latching very well. Some more eyeballing revealed that the barrel right in front of the cylinder where the top strap starts the barrel was stretching up with tiny tears starting. I also noticed for the first time this pistol has no noticeable forcing cone, if any.
    This pistol has had about 150 rounds shot through it, all cowboy loads, with maybe 50 rounds of that black powder so I can't believe it was due to overpressures of any kind, would the lack of a good forcing cone have caused this?
     How good is Uberti about addressing this kind of problem, anyone have any experiences with them? I've already looked at new barrel prices on VTI, they run $250 and mine happens to be the charcoal blue Founders model which I doubt they could match from their stocks. I don't want to pay to repair something that may have been defective so I plan to contact Uberti and see what they say...........Roy

[Trailrider]

Howdy, Pard,

I'm not sure about those small cracks.  They could be the sign of a real problem, especially if you are having difficulty closing and latching the gun completely.  You need to have a GOOD gunsmith, FAMILIAR with the Uberti-made Schofields look at the gun.  Cutting a forcing cone probably isnt' a big deal, although the presence of the integral topstrap/barrel may make it more difficult to get the tool into the breech end of the barrel.

FWIW, these guns were NOT intended for use with BP.  The use of BP shouldn't be detrimental to the gun (there are some folks who get away with it), but the gun will tend to tie up fairly quickly with the fouling.

I would contact Uberti, and ask them what they think.  Even if you have to pay for repair/replacement of the barrel, at least you can see what they'll do.

Best of luck.  Happy Holidays!

[John Henry]

Trailrider,
    After posting I went back and went over the Schofield again before I got in touch with Uberti to make sure I knew what I think I was seeing . What I thought may be the starting of stress fractures I believe is where machining has undercut the strap to allow clearance for the cylinder. Still don't know why the latch isn't closing the way it did before.
    The nub on the cylinder that engages the slot on the recoil shield engages way to tightly, when the barrel is latched down with slight force, the cylinder turns very stiffly . I attempted to take the ejector wheel out of the cylinder and it wouldn't unscrew. I'm soaking it in Kroil now. My thinking is the blackpowder residue may have decreased the tolerances somewhere and started this mess . My plan is to keep looking til I run out of ideas! Then turn it over to someone more qualified!

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[Max Doolin]

It does sound like the shell extractor assembly has come loose. If you had the cylinder off the frame and couldn't get it loose then I'd check the cam in the pivot that automaticly pushes the extractor, it may have gottin too much Bp residue in there and needs some polishing and or stoning.

[Max Doolin]

I shot mine today using 777 and I think I found another fix for a binding cylinder. What I found was even though the cylinder would spin free I couldn't get a reliable advance when cocking it, turned out to be the cylinder gap when the hand advanced the cyl. it also would push the cyl. up against the forcing cone, barrel creating a bind. I will be back after my next match or practice session firing them with a shim between frame and cyl. I might even try some goex again...

[Pettifogger]

Regardless of whether it is shimmed or the cylinder gap increased the Uberti Schofields will never work well with BP.  When Uberti set them up for the longer .45 Colt and .44-40 they left off the gas ring on the front of the cylinder.  It is going to foul quickly with BP.  It will foul a little more slowly with the subs, but you aren't going many stages (or even one depending on your load) without some cleaning.

[Max Doolin]

Well I won't say these guns are great with BP but I also don't have such a negative opinion, they aren't for most folks.
I don't think I'd ever use em in a major match but for a monthly they are FUN. Only time it binds is from the angle cut face on the cyl. I could resurface that an be ok I'm sure but, I like to take my time with em.


Quote: 8Ball - Dirty Dozen
"Always with the negative waves, man"

[Pistol Blaine]

Some things I do to keep my Uberti and Armi San Marco Schofields running smoothly.  Rounded off the sharp 90 degree edge at the back of the cylinder as I noticed fouling building up under the latch.  Just enough to break the edge.  Took both of them apart and stretched the hand a bit with a little peening to give it a bit more length and used a needle file to deburr the hand slot in the frame.  Also cut it a bit deeper towards the bottom of the frame to allow the hand to project a bit farther out for more positive pressure on the cylinder ratchet.  In a match, I give the front of the cylinder/cylinder pin a bit of a squirt with a blackpowder solvent and rotate the cylinder several times to keep it free of hard fouling.  Works for me and can keep them running through as many stages as necessary.  I do not shoot heavy .45 colt smokless loads through them.  Only light smokless, and the 28.0gr military blackpowder load with a 250gr bullet.  Mostly I use a .45 S&W schofield load.  25grs of blackpowder and 250gr bullet or a light smokless load.  Have not had any problems with either since the simple modifications.  Really do like them, just not as much as my Colt 1860 army revolvers.  And, I must get a pair of colt conversions!!!

[Virginia Gentleman]

Pistol Blaine:

Do you mean you can actually get one to shoot a match using black powder?  If so, that is amazing.

[Pistol Blaine]

Yes!, I can keep them running for all the stages.  As stock they seem a bit marginal for hand length and positive pressure against the cylinder ratchet.  By bringing the length of the hand out a bit and lowering the frame slot so the hand can project just a bit more seems to help.  I rotate the cylinders on all of my revolvers when shooting black powder between stages just to breakup any hard fouling buildup and some like the schofield need a bit of solvent at the front of the cylinder and base pin to help them along.  It works for me and these  revolvers are a lot of fun to shoot and just plain look good on the firing line.

[Virginia Gentleman]

How do you lengthen the hand?  Do you just peen it with a hammer?

[Pistol Blaine]

Yes.  Just draw it out a bit longer and reprofile,  Cleaning up the hand slot and just deepening the bottom of the slot a wee bit allows the hand to project further and bring a little more pressure on the cylinder. 

[Virginia Gentleman]

Do you need to re-heat treat it afterwards?

[Pistol Blaine]

Yes after you get it reprofiled, I use a casehardening compound bought years ago for small jobs.  Just adds a few thousandths but its enough. 

[Virginia Gentleman]

This is great information and I will try it after I get one of the other problems on my Navy Arms Schofield fixed.

[Pitspitr]

You know, this thing with the Uberti schofields not funtioning with BP is just another example of each gun being an individual. I had a "Wells Fargo" model (now my son's) that would shoot black all day. Now I own the Army model 7.5" barrel and you can't shoot a full cylinder of BP through it. I was really bummed when I found that out.

[Flint]

As far as the latch closing, it may be out of position.  When you remove the cylinder, you must remove the rear latch/cylinder stop screw and loosen the front one in order to tip the part up and release the cylinder.  After replacing the cylinder, close and latch the barrel/cylinder assembly and make sure the latch seats BEFORE you replace and tighten the catch screws, this will let the latch assembly seat itself.

[Grapeshot]

Say, Pistol Bayne!  Do you ever use bore butter on the Cylinder arbor to keep things loose?

[Pitspitr]

Update on the 7.5" schofield.
So far it's been a real lemon! After shooting it some more with smokeless, I found that it would bind up with smokeless too. Turned out that there was so little clearance between the area of the frame around the bolt and the cylinder that when the cylinder started warming up and expanding they would rub. It also had one tooth on the extractor gear that didn't always engage the hand. It also had no forcing cone. It took several trips to the gunsmith because everytime he fixed one thing it allowed another problem to show up. If I'd have realized how bad it was before I'd done some work on it, I'd have sent it back. I have 6 Uberti and my son has 2, this have been the only one that we've been the least disappointed in. I finally got it home again from the gunsmith yesterday and shot it again. I put about 75 rounds through it and it ran dependably, though I did have a couple fail to detonate on the first firing pin strike. (That could have just been the primers, not sure) Now that it has some clearance and everything else is working with smokeless, I'm going to try BP again and see what happens. I'd really like to use it and shoot BP at the GAF Muster in October.