Review: Cimarron 7th Cavaly (pic heavy)

[OD#3]

Hey Fellas, I took delivery today of one of the Cimarron/Uberti 7th Cavalry revolvers.  This was the first SAA clone I've owned since the early 90's, when I bought an EMF Hartford.  That ASM was lots of trouble and a real disappointment.  So I was very pleasantly surprised by the overall quality of this piece.  I'd scoured the forums for info on these before I bought it, but pics were few, as were details.  I thought I'd give my impressions along with some detailed photos, so the next guy will have an easier time deciding.

First impressions were great.  The action was very smooth, the case colors were darker and more colorful than the old Uberti washed out gray, and the timing appeared perfect.  Here it is fresh out of the box.





I didn't care for the knurled base pin screw; it spoils the looks.  But I found the included original-style screw buried in the bottom of the box.  The hand was expertly fit, so the chambers parked exactly in the center of the loading gate on half-cock.



I expected cast checkering on the hammer, but this knurling appeared to be cut.  Closer inspection revealed it to have been done via laser or some other type etching.  It is shallow but attractive and gives good purchase for the thumb.



There was no endshake to speak of, and cylinder gap was very tight.  I didn't measure it, but the eyeball says that it is very good.



The cylinder is smooth and nicely beveled.



Here are a few "authentic"-looking markings, starting with the last four of the serial number on the cylinder.











I like the trigger guard bevels.  That says "1st gen and earlier 2nd gen" to me.  By 1970, when my Colt was made, these bevels had shrunk to barely a line.  Now Colt just gradually tapers from the trigger out to the frame sides, polishing the edge.  Pietta does that as well, and that one little area was what steered me away from a GWII or Cimarron Frontier model.  I know it is silly, but some aesthetic details that really shouldn't matter to me do.



The grip cartouche is laser engraved.  I'd have much preferred a stamping. 



"US" and patent dates.



I do wish Uberti followed Pietta's lead and used a firing pin bushing/recoil plate.  I hope this doesn't develop burrs.



The cylinder bushing was a nice fit, though.  And it required no force to remove with my fingers.



Ugly but necessary proof marks.




Cocking effort was much less than on my Colt.  I expected to find a narrowed mainspring, but this one is standard width.



Laying it side-by-side with my Colt mainspring, however, revealed that it wasn't as thick as the Colt's.  We'll see how it holds up (Uberti spring is on the right).



Standard trigger return and bolt leaf spring.



The hand looks rough in this photo, but it was smooth where it matters, and I can't fault Uberti's work on the leg height.  Again, the chambers park dead-center of the loading gate, and the bolt pops into the notch precisely when the trigger engages the full cock notch.



Sadly, the cam isn't a separate pressed-in stud like Colts (I think Pietta uses the separate stud now too).  And it was a tad rough.  You can see where a tiny burr on the bolt leg is scraping across it.  I dressed the cam down very lightly and removed the burr on the bolt leg.  My "fluff and buff" included a little polishing of some tiny burrs on the bolt top as well.  There was just a slight grittiness felt as the bolt was sliding into the notches before.  No "after" photos of the work, but here are the bolt and cam as received.





I wish Uberti applied more preservative to the bore.  My initial cleaning left a lot of rusty bore patches behind, but the cleaned bore fortunately didn't suffer any pitting that I can see.  Here she is all cleaned up and with the proper base pin screw installed.





I hope this review is helpful for those trying to decide whether or not to get one of these.  My overall impression is that this is very high quality for the money.  I paid about $500 from Grabagun for this.  That is about 50 bucks more than my EMF Hartford cost me back in the early 90's, and that ASM was a real disaster. 

I've two things left to do to this one:  shorten the base pin (don't you just hate that useless swiss safety?) and tweak the timing.  I noticed after I got it back together that the timing wasn't quite as perfect as I initially thought.  The bolt is just a tad late, rising at the end of the lead.  I think there's about 1/4 of the bolt top face protruding over the bolt stop notch when it pops up.  I don't want the notches to get peened, so I guess I'll have to strip it back down and remove a little from the bolt leg.  Fortunately it is late instead of early; I can fix that myself.

[Crossdrawnj]

Very nice review. I purchased a replacement base pin from Belt Mountain Enterprises rather than altering the original. My reasoning is if I sold or passed the gun on to someone else, they'll have the gun as it came from the distributor. Enjoy.

[Frank Dalton]

I purchased mine about 6-7 years ago, and the cartouche on the grip is stamped, not engraved, so the later production numbers must have changed to laser. The color of the grip on mine is also that Italian red color finish with high gloss coating. Serial # 206XX.

The finish on yours look a lot better than the "plastic coated" one from earlier production.

Mine also was fairly gritty when cocking it, something I had never encountered with other clones. After a thorough cleaning, inside and out, it works much better.

I got mine from Buffalo Arms.

[Trooper Hook]

My 7th Cavalry is one from 2001. The box label is marked 10/01/01. The date stamp on the frame is BP for 2001. Mine like Franks has the inspector stamp stamped not lasered on the grips. I also have the famous (infamous) red colored grips. The knurling on the hammer appears to be stamped not engraved like yours.  My serial # is P06XXX . Mine is marked for E company 7th Cav. Does anyone know when Cimarron began offering the 7th Cavalry model?

[OD#3]

I suppose that a bit of an update is appropriate.  First, I was successful in getting the bolt to rise a tad later, and my little "fluff and buff" smoothed what was already a pretty smooth action.  This has a lighter hammer spring than my 1970 Colt, and the cocking effort between the two is noticeable.  But the Uberti is at least as smooth now.

I ran into a problem with the case rims wanted to catch on a small shelf in the recoil shield.  This shelf is to the left of the hand window, where where the tighter headspace area begins as the rounds are being rotated up under the firing pin.  Uberti did a poor job blending this and left a sort of ledge where the case rims could catch.  The rims were also occasionally snagging on the area adjacent to the loading gate shank...




I slightly beveled the area next to the loading gate shank and blending the recoil shield transition, being careful not to touch the actual area where the rims would be upon firing...



A dabble of cold blue over the area hides it very well...



For some reason, what had once appeared to be perfect timing at half-cock was no longer.  The chambers were parked a little left of where they should be, and my hand-stretching attempts were unsuccessful.  A new hand from VTI not only cured this, but needed absolutely no tweaking whatsoever; the revolver is just about perfectly timed now.  The chambers are slightly left of exact center, but they are very close, and the trigger engages the full cock notch precisely when the bolt stops the cylinder.  That is all I've had to do to the action.

I shortened the base pin, but I wasn't pleased with the surface finish anyway.  It works, but the turn lines running the whole length gave it a gritty feel when removing and installing this, suggesting future wear issues with the frame holes.  However, the pin itself may have been the only thing subject to wear, because it felt a bit soft to me--way too easy to cut and round the end when I shortened it.  Colt actually had in stock (they're out now) what they called their BP frame base pin.  I assume that the retaining notch is deeper on these.  Anyway, it was only about 25 bucks, so I bought that, and it was a perfect fit and very smooth. 

My first range trip showed that this revolver shot over 6 inches to the left at 15 yards.  So I turned the barrel to the left, clocking it about a millimeter.  A subsequent range trip showed that to have been too far, as it now shot about 6 inches to the right.  So I turned the barrel again, splitting the difference.  I haven't been to the range since, but I suspect that it is probably good to go now.  I was actually pleased that my initial barrel turning produced such a large shift to the right, because the front sight was noticeably leaning after such a small adjustment, and I wouldn't have been happy leaving it that way.  Splitting the difference produced only a barely noticeable lean.

I still think this is a pretty good revolver for the money, even if I did have to spend some time and $46 in parts to get it where I wanted it.  For all the traffic on the internet lately about how good the Pietta SAA's are these days, I can attest that I found this Uberti to be higher quality than the Cimarron Thunderball stainless (Pietta) I picked up recently.  Although the Pietta was more authentic in some construction details (firing pin bushing, ejector rod stud on barrel, appearance of hammer, shape and dimensions of internal parts, etc.), my example was exceedingly poorly fit and timed and required extensive work.  Come to think of it, I'm going to start a new thread about that disaster.