Uberti 45-75 Range Report

[Martini450]

Hello Everyone,

Well, I'm very happy to finally be able to post a range report.  As I pointed out in another thread, the barrel for my 45-75 with the SAAMI correct chamber arrived at Taylor's a few weeks ago, so I got out to shoot my Uberti '76 last Friday.  I was able to put together two different black powder handloads, as well as having 18 rounds of Ten-X factory smokeless ammo on hand.  The handloads consisted of new Jamison brass, Winchester Large Rifle Magnum primers, a single .030" over powder card wad, and a 350 grain RNFP with two grease grooves, lubed with SPG. The bullets were purchased from Black Dawge, as I don't yet have a mould.  The only difference between the two loads was the powder; one was 68 grains of Swiss 1 1/2Fg, the other was 67 grains of Goex Express FFg.  Powder for both was loaded via a 24" drop tube, and the bullet compressed the powder about 1/10" for each load.  Dies were RCBS Legacy. 

Since it was my first time out with the rifle and loads, all my shooting was at just 50 yards to get a feel for everything, and all was done from the bench.  Both handloads showed potential, and the Ten-X ammo surprised me with a group just over two inches.  The biggest problem I had was the trigger pull on my rifle, which is by far the worst of any gun I've ever owned.  In spite of this, and with heavy concentration, the rifle shot what I think are a few reasonable groups, considering the trigger pull.  Best five shot group with the Goex load was 3 1/10", with three of the five clustered into a half inch hole.  Best for the Swiss load was five shots in 1 9/10".  I really do think that with some load development and a trigger job, the rifle will be a tack driver. 

One thing I noticed with my Jamison brass was that none of it was the full 1.89" length.  I ended up sorting it out into four batches of similar lengths, 1.88", 1.875", 1.872", and 1.868".  The first three I loaded up without resizing, but I plan to run the shortest through the sizing die first to see if that will stretch them out some. 

All in all, I'm pleased with my rifle, and am looking forward to tinkering with loads for it.  The big thing now is to get the trigger taken care of.  Does anyone on the forum know of a gunsmith in Virginia they'd recommend?

[Cimarron]

It's good to hear that you have your rifle back, even with the stout trigger pull! 

[Martini450]

Yup, I'm pretty happy to have it back.  Regarding the trigger pull, I've been having a couple of good discussions with the guys over on another website, and they directed me to Cody Conagher's Cowboy Shop.  Cody is the guy that does the short stroke jobs on Uberti '73s for Taylors, so he's very familiar with the action.  I'm not interested in changing the action, but he emailed me back already and said he could probably do the trigger same day I bring it to him.  His shop is about an hour and forty minutes from here, and it's a nice drive, so I hope to have my trigger done in the next week or three.  Probably going to leave a Uberti/Cimmaron SAA with him for a trigger job as well.

I'll definitely be posting another range report with the good trigger.  No exaggeration, the pull as it is is easily fifteen pounds.  Other than that, it's a great rifle.