Uberti 1873 short barrel

[TomBullweed]

I bought a Uberti '73 in .38/.357 with a 18" barrel at the recent Givhan's Ferry match.  It was shorter than I typically like, but the half-octagonal barrel and better-than-normal wood 'spoke' to me.  They said that it would hold ten cartridges.  I later found out that it holds ten .38's but only nine .357's.  Sounds like I should just shoot .38's, but the .357's group tighter.

The mag spring seems very stout.  Has anyone messed around with shortening a spring like this to allow ten rounds of ammo?

[Abilene]

That gun should hold ten .357's.   How much of that tenth round can you get in, and what is the OAL of those rounds?  My sixteen inch .45LC '73 will hold ten .45's with an OAL of 1.58".  The 16" model has a special spring and mag tube cap, but still...  If I was to guess, I'd say Uberti put the spring for the 24" model in your rifle. Have heard of them doing that before.   Taking off the mag tube cap can be "fun" because it is often really tight and it's hard to find a good tool to remove it.  But once removed, if you find the spring is overly long try cutting it so that about 4" extends out of the magazine.  Good luck.

[Fontana Vic]

Overall length of the .357 cartridge is most likely the problem. You should be able to solve the problem by shortening the mag tube spring. Don't take off to much.... I'd start with about 6 or 7 coils, then put it back and check it. If that's not enough, cut a few more off. You need to be aware of how much space is needed for the 10th round to be inserted by measuring how much of the round is not going into the tube.... this will help you gauge how many coils need to be taken off.

FV

[TomBullweed]

My oal's are 1.6" but the crimp is in the groove.  I have started loading .38's and will probably do so for the future. 
The distributor recently removed comments on their website about the magazine capacity.
Thanks for all off the input.

[Jefro]

The mag tubes are very dirty and some times rusted, even in brand new Ubertis. Clean the mag tube and replace mag spring and follower with the SS ones, Longhunter sells them. Start with about 4'' hanging out. 38sp is all you need for CAS and less expensive. Good Luck.

Jefro