My Cimarron 1873 stable

[Abilene]

I posted about getting a new .357 18" octagon 1873 last summer.  Well, I finally shot it this past month.  Before putting on the buttcover, I took the covers off my other '73's for a "family portrait."  The last time I did this ten years ago or so, there were 3 '73's and a '66.  The '66 is in a safe 90 miles away so it didn't make this photo shoot.  These were all bought and used for CAS.

I arranged them by barrel length. Here is a quick story of each, starting on the left.
 
1. 16" Trapper saddle-ring carbine, 45 Colt.  Got this one in 2005. Replaced my Navy Arms stainless '92 which I was not shooting anymore after getting a couple toggle guns! It holds ten 45 Colts with OAL of 1.58", but the last round is really hard to load and must be straightened up on the carrier before levering the first round or it will jam.  After the first 1500 rounds of 45 Colt, I started shooting Schofields in this carbine.  They load into the gun much easier and shoot fine.  2410 rounds through this one now.  It mainly is my Wild Bunch gun, smokeless only.  It has my poor-man's action job but no short stroke.  If I ever get good at Wild Bunch, then maybe. :-)

2. The newest, 18" octagon .357, checkered straight stock.  Cimarron calls this a Saddle Rifle. Got it last summer (2020) but didn't shoot it until 2021. All the others are different calibers, but I decided to get this one to be a main match gun and let my oldest .357 carbine become a backup (not that it has ever had any problem. It was just an excuse to buy another gun). This one was much stiffer out of the box than all my other toggle guns, and I decided to give it to a gunsmith for an action job.  Three of my others have had my "poor man's" action job, adjusting the spring tensions by turning their screws. After that, this one was still too stiff with lots of friction in the bolt assembly, so I gave it to a pro, as I'm getting to the point where I have more money than time. It has a C&I 3rd gen short stroke and a skeletonized carrier.  Honestly, it feels great but no better than my oldest '73 with the "poor-man" action.  As of today, a whopping 390 rounds through this one!

3. 19" charcoal blue carbine 44-40, bought in 2003. 4733 rounds through it, more BP than smokeless. No short stroke, just the poor man's action job.  This will likely be my NCOWS rifle when I finally make it to a match, though a 32wcf original '92 may used for that as well.  No saddle-ring on this one.  I had my only part failure with this gun, a year ago or so the little screw broke that holds the carrier spring and needed to be replaced.  Was this a result of the poor-man action?  No way to know, but even if so a single screw in 20+ years is pretty good.

4. 19" charcoal blue carbine .357.  I won this at "Range Wars" at Tin Star Ranch in 2000, one day after buying my first toggle gun, a 44 spcl '66.  It was made in '97.  I didn't shoot it for 6 weeks, thinking maybe of trading it since I was a big-bore guy when I started out, 44 and 45. But about that time Cimarron came out with the '51 Richards-Masons which are .38 only, and I began my love affair with those and decided that .38 is okay.  This carbine has 9500 rounds through it.  When I shoot BP in it, I like to use .357 since it holds more FFFg.  This gun also has had two bulges in the barrel, both near the middle, for many years.  This, I believe, was from loaning it out.  However, it still shoots great.  I put an Uberti short stroke kit in it a few years ago, and this last year put in a skeletonized carrier.  It has the poor man's action job.

5. 20" deluxe pistol grip 32-20, bought in 2013.  Cimarron, through a spreadsheet error, accidently ordered fifty too many of these.  So they were blowing them out at distributor cost.  I got the best piece of wood out of the lot. This has 2410 rounds through it.  Uberti 32-20's use .38/.357 bolts, extractors, carriers, etc and they are known for having extraction problems as a result.  The 'smith at Cimarron shaved the bottom of the extractor so it sits lower in its slot in the bolt.  It helped but after a couple thousand rounds it failed to extract again.  I haven't shot it in a few years, just haven't gotten around to working on it.  I plan to take out the bolt and send it to a good 'smith to fit a new extractor, possibly retrofit it for a coil spring under the rear of the extractor.  Then this will be my "gamer" BP rifle. It also came from Uberti with rather horrendous headspace, so I ordered a C&I 3rd gen "three dot" SS kit with the added length. Headspace is still pretty poor.  I was at Cimarron a lot when I got this one and so took advantage of the small workbench there to thin the various action springs, like a "real" action job.  :-)  Feels great, but again no better than the rifles with poor-man action. Even though the barrel is only 20" it is pretty heavy being a .32, but when the buzzer goes off that is not really noticeable and the weight does help hold it steady.

Yes, I like good wood!  The buttpads had to come off for this photo-op.  Yes, you can get even nicer wood by special ordering it, like Cliff does!  But about one in every fifty to 100 Uberti buttstocks will be outstanding, with another 10% or so having decent to really nice wood, another 10% with a little figure, and the rest that are "railroad ties" as one coworker liked to call them.  If you get to pick when a large shipment comes in, and/or have friends there to pick for you, it definitely helps.

For those folks who may wonder about the poor man's action job.  See here:
http://www.davidscottharper.com/shoot/PoorMan.htm

[Abilene]

Couple more.

[Coal Creek Griff]

Those are some cool photos! I specially like the first one in your first post and the last one in your second post.

Griff

[DeaconKC]

Just beautiful!



Adopt me?

[Abilene]

Thanks.  The striping in the stocks changes with the angle and it was hard to get an angle where they all looked good.

When I won the first carbine at the Range War banquet is when I met Mike Harvey.  I went up to him to thank him for the gun, and he said "that has some nice wood on it, doesn't it?"

Besides the freebie and the distributor priced 32-20, the other 3 were bought at or below dealer cost.  I have been very fortunate in my cowboy gun buying! 

[Phil Morris]

Beautiful 1873s!  I'm proud of the one I own and you give me something to aspire to. lol

[Major 2]

Very nice ....

[King Medallion]

Sweet looking bunch!

[Cliff Fendley]

Nice looking bunch. I guess I've been lucky with the 32-20 I haven't had those problems with mine.

[The original bad bob]

Spectacular collection of 1873's 

[Baltimore Ed]

Wow, Nice collection, you could open Jimmy Stewart's Winchester Emporium but it looks like in a rush it would be very easy to grab the right ammo but carry the wrong rifle to a shoot. My toggle guns are all very different. A 30 inch '73 musket, a 30 inch sporting rifle , a '73 Trapper and a '66 brass musket.

[Abilene]

Yes, Ed, my collection are pretty common models.  Yours is quite eclectic!