Uberti 1858 Remington "kit"

[Oregon Bill]

Have one of these due in from Midway tomorrow. Looks like all it will need is to have the grips fitted and finished, the frame and cylinder polished and blued and the trigger guard polished. I will cold blue with Brownell's Oxpho, knowing full well the shortcomings of all cold blues. Will try to post a before and after. On sale at $250, the Uberti was still $50 more than the finished Piettas on sale at Cabela's, but I wanted the Uberti authenticity and the dovetailed front sight.

[Dick Dastardly]

Ho the fire.

Slug the barrel.  Frequently the Uberti and Pietta guns have under size cylinders compared to the barrel size.  If the chambers are too small your gun will never shoot accurately.  The cure is to have the chambers reamed to match the barrel.  Also, check the barrel forcing cone.  You may find it too abrupt and want to ream that some also.

Hold center!

DD-MDA

[Oregon Bill]

Thanks Dick. Will do.

[Oregon Bill]

Uberti arrived today. Barrel slugs .440 to the lands and .456 in the grooves. Cylinder chambers are .450 and lightly chamfered. Throat looks good and muzzle is nicely crowned.

[Dick Dastardly]

Were I you, I'd have the chambers reamed to match the groove diameter.  You don't want gas leaking around the bullet and depositing solder on the inside of your barrel.  Big Lube bullets are designed to match the barrel size, not the chamber size.

DD-MDA

[Blackpowder Burn]

+1 what DD said..............

[pony express]

If you ream the chambers to .456, would even .457 balls be big enough to work well? that would be shaving just .001", assuming that the balls were perfectly round, it should work.

[Dick Dastardly]

Big Lube bullets for the 44 C&B guns are lube sized to chamber fit.  Since they drop a mite oversize they are easy to lube size for an interference fit.  All the lube is captive in the lube grove and no wads, over bullet smear or other messy adjuncts are needed.  Simply dump in powder, set the lube sized bullet with the rebated base straight and proud in the chamber mouth and press home.

DD-MDA

[Pettifogger]

I would NOT ream the chambers.  You don't want to wind up with an odd ball size ball.  Even .457 balls are getting harder to find and the companies have jacked up the price since they have not made any Ruger Old Armies for a while.  The Uberti is set up to use .454 balls.  Piettas use .451.  I have never had one that did not shoot accurately even though the throat and bore size are not ideal for what many people would set up for a centerfire cartridge.  Several people seem to go nuts about slugging the barrel before they have even shot a gun.  Slugging is only necessary IF there is a problem.  Think of how many tens of millions of guns that have never had their barrels slugged and shoot just fine.  Remember the KISS priniciple.

[Noz]

I had the chambers reamed on a pair of pretty Ubertis a while back.  They never shot consistently after that. I'd leave them alone.