Problem with last round on a Uberti SAA

[Pinto Being]

Pards,

Not bein' a gunsmith, all I can do here is tell you of the symptoms that I have on a Taylor Uberti SAA.

This hogleg was purchased new about 2 years ago.  It's essentially a Cattleman model.

When shootin' this gun at speed, it frequently refuses to fire the last round of a 5 round string.  Usually, it will not even fire the last round after cyclin' the cylinder 2X.

When cycled 2X, the unfired round usually has 2 hits on the left side of the primer and sometimes they are not even on the primer, but at least one hit may be on the head of the case.

My (ignorant) theory is that the gun is out of time and when all the other rounds are expended, the lack of weight in the cylinder allows the action to over-reach on the very last round.

What do you think? 

It's not a problem with a particular chamber, 'cause it always happens on the "last" round if I'm really workin' the hammer fast.

Thanks for your input, amigos.  This is a really nice gun and I'd like to fix whatever is wrong with it.

BTW, the cylinder on this gun seems really "free" in terms of free spinnin'.  This is uncharacteristic of the ol' Colt SAA's and the Uberti clones that I own or have handled, FWIW.




 

[Sagebrush Burns]

Pinto - you might experiment by loading one dummy round and four empty cases and see what happens. 

[Pinto Being]

I'll give it a try, thanks SB.

[Doc Sunrise]

Sounds more like timing and/or the hammer is able to come back to far, which drives the hand to far pushing the cylinder past cylinder barrel alignment.  That would account for the hits on the left side of the cartridge.  Also bolt cuts may not be clean and flat, allowing the bolt to pop out of the cylinder notch, or the cylinder is so loose that hammer draw is enough to distort the cylinder's rotation enough to cause misalignment.  Timing has too many issues that probably should be checked out completely.  My advice is have it checked out.

[Pinto Being]

Doc' Sunrise,

Thanks for the comments, pard.

I copied your info and am goin' to give the gun to a buddy to check out.  Will let you know when I find out what the scoop is.l

[Pettifogger]

Sounds like a case of over rotation.  Two things to check.  First, the hand spring.  If it is weak the cylinder will over rotate.  Also, you need to check the bolt spring.  They have a tendency to crack and you might not even notice it until you remove it from the gun and inspect it.  If you put in a wire bolt/trigger spring that can also contribute to over rotation.  If you have a wire spring, you might want to put the leaf spring back in and give it a try.

[St. George]

It's timing - coupled with 'soft' parts commonly seen in many clones.

The original design was never designed as a piece of 'sporting equipment', but as a tool - so it wasn't built for the sort of shooting seen today - new springs, bolt and hand are most likely going to be what fixes it.

As you look at the bolt and hand - check the 'star' on the cylinder for burring as well, and any other places that might indicate excessive wear or peening.

Remove 'just' the peening/burring with a hard stone - lube and try.

If that doesn't fix the problem - look then to spare parts replacement - but be advised that revolver timing is a tricky business and takes awhile to learn.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[Pinto Being]

Thanks Pettifogger and St. George.

I gave the gun to a buddy who is a gunsmith and we'll see what he finds.  I'll post what he finds.

BTW, I swapped the wire bolt spring that I put in it for the original spring and had the same problem with the original. 

Thanks for the suggestions, everybody.

[rifle]

There are times when a "free spinning" cylinder can take off like a bat outa hell and get ahead of the bolt. The cylinder notch passes the bolts position before the bolt can get up there to get in the notch. The peoples with the speed guns and the polished base pins and cylinder center holes sometimes have to "file a little off the bolts finger" that rides the hammer cam so it(the bolt) can get off the cam sooner and pop up onto the cylinder a little before the notch gets there so it's ready when the notch comes around. The parts like the bolt being loose on it's screw the way they are with some Italian clones doesn't help. The bolt being loose in an oversize bolt window in the frame doesn't help either. The bolt hitting in a shallow end of the cylinder notch instead of hitting in the deepest part in the middle doesn't help either. A hand that is a little too long can push the cylinder past the bolt too. Anywhooo...if yer gonna shoot that fast there are lots of things to consider beefin up or tightening up so things can function under the stress of the speed. Some prudent and handi-with-the-tools folks even deepen and lengthen the cylinder notches and lengthen the bolt so there is more metal to metal contact in both places to stop the spinning cylinder.

[Fox Creek Kid]

It's the bolt spring IMO. Have you replaced the bolt spring with a piano wire spring? Or are you a two handed shooter cocking with your second hand as fast as you can? If the latter it is momentum and the cylinder is "skipping". These guns were not designed for that type of shooting. If you want to shoot that way a gunsmith will have to adjust the bolt spring to come up early, in essence "un-timing" the revolver.

[Pinto Being]

Thanks Rifle and FCK,

I got the gun back from the gunsmith the other day and we'll see how she works.

He said after checkin' it out that he couldn't make it miss the round.

And yeah, I am shootin' this pistole 2 handed.  Mebbeso I'm makin' it do things that it wasn't designed to do, but my older SAA's seem to be able to keep up with me, so this one should too.

I'll let you know how she does on the range this weekend.

Did y'all bet on the Kentucky Derby?  Got a big BBQ set for tomorrow so we can all celebrate our big winnin's after the race   

[Marauder]

Cock the gun slowly.  watch where the bolt come up from the frame to lock up the cylinder.  Proper timing means It should lock up the cylinder just slightly before the hammer is fully cocked.  Do this for each cylinder. 

On many SAA's, if you start to pull the hammer back slowy, then finish cocking with a quick snap, the cylinder will over rotate.  If so, it needs a little more work.