Uberti SAA 38-40 problem

[treebeard]

I have a 38-40 Uberti SAA revolver that will no cycle all my reloaded Starline cases. The cylinder stops when those rounds come around ans hits the shield area of the frame. This happens on about 10% of the cases. A few of the cases will rotate with a little force that leaves a scratch on the bases of the case. All of the cases cycle thru my Uberti 1873 rifle and several 38-40 original 1892's. I ran the problem cases thru the Uberti 1873 with no problem and then measured them in my dial caliper at Speers trim to length of 1.295 and they all passed with no room to spare.
I am hoping the problem may be as simple as me being inconsistent in operating the full length resizing operation and not a problem with the die or worse  if the charging holes are tight.

[Pettifogger]

.38-40 ammunition is all over the map spec wise.  If you look at a loaded factory Winchester .38-40 round and then compare one of those rounds with a fired case they don't look anything alike.  The factory round has a long taper.  The fired rouinds typically have a fairly distinct shoulder.  The problem is that most dies no NOT push that shoulder back far enough.  Just take the cylinder out of the gun and drop in your reloads.  They should drop in with a "tink" right up to the rim.  The area of the recoil shield where the firing pin protrudes on a revolver is tighter than the rest of the frame.  This is where the rounds headspace.  When the rounds come up to the recoil shield rounds that are a few thousads to long will bind.  The solution is to ajust your dies DOWN so they set back the shoulder a little more.  In many cases the dies cannot be adjusted lower so dedicated .38-40 shooters turn or grind a few thousads off the bottom of the sizer die.  Frustrating but that is the nature of a 100 plus year old cartridge with guns that have widely varying chamber specs.

Almost forgot.  Onother thing to check is the area around the firing pin.  On Ubertis they have no hardened steel insert around the firing pin like a Colt or Pietta and will often get a little burr from the firing pin pounding the frame.  If there is a burr stone it off.

[treebeard]

Thanks Pettifogger -your suggestions gives me a good direction to go. I did look at the recoil shield and it could use a little stoneing.

[Johnson Barr]

Had a similar issue. I chased all the chambers with a finish reamer and all those problems went away. Mass produced machining of cylinder chambers can never over come finish hand-reaming and polishing. Then of course there are throat diameters and forcing cones to deal with as well. Just another day in Frontier Six Shooter paradise.

[Bibbyman]

Many of us have found that shorting the sizing die 1/32 or a little more will push the shoulder back just enough to chamber in the Uberti chambers. 

[Cholla Hill Tirador]

  38-40 empties fired in any of my 100+ year old Colt's will not chamber in either of my ancient Winchesters, the chambers are that different.
  So, set your die as low as it will go and try again.

CHT

[LonesomePigeon]

I've had a similar issue with my new Uberti Flattop Target .44-40. Like you said, some of my black powder handloads would not cycle all the way around. I did some research and found out about the recoil shield "shelf" on Uberti's that is sometimes too abrupt and needs to be smoothed out. I filed it a little bit but that didn't help. My mistake. The real problem was I wasn't seating my primers all the way. I was using one of those Lee loaders where you hammer the primers in and I just wasn't seating them right. I switched to an RCBS Automatic Priming Tool and that solved the problem.

[treebeard]

I polished some rough areas on the recoil shield where the cylinder rotates a new charging hole. I then reloaded 50 rounds making sure the resizing die was down as far as it would go. All 50 rotated thru normal cycling with no problems. My gut feeling the polishing of the shield was the key. If I have any more problems I will take a little off the resizing die. Thanks for all the help!
By the way I seat my primers using an old Ideal 310 Type Tool. I find the "feel" of seating the primer all the way is very distinctive.