Uberti 1873 .44-40 bore anomalies?

Oregon Bill · January 06, 2025, 09:22:37 AM

Sooo, I was just looking at Uberti twist, land and groove dimensions for their 1873s in .44-40 and encountered two wildly different sets of specifications.
Dixie says their Uberti 73s have a 1:36 twist, .004"-deep rifling and land diameters of ..424 and groove of .432.
Cimarron in their Uberti chart lists the following for .44-40 rifles: 1:20 twist, .4215 land and .429 groove.
Is Dixie all wet, or does Uberti make two different .44-40 barrels for their Model 1873s? This does not make sense.

https://www.cimarron-firearms.com/bore-groove-twist

https://www.dixiegunworks.com/index/pag ... lica+Rifle

Oregon Bill · January 06, 2025, 07:53:12 PM

Quiet here, but at least my question has been glanced at 62 times. One must keep hope alive.

Abilene · January 06, 2025, 09:40:54 PM

Seems like I've seen people griping about Uberti's twist rate in the 44-40 a few times over the years, don't remember any details, but I think it was on this site.

David Battersby · January 07, 2025, 07:38:09 AM

My 25 year old 1873 SpaghettiChester (Uberti) has a .429 groove diameter. I am sure I checked the twist rate BUT that was two decades ago. I can tell you that it is accurate out to 200 meters with 240 - 250 grain bullets and Reloder 7.

Oregon Bill · January 07, 2025, 09:29:50 AM

Thank you gentlemen. More data points are a good thing.

Coffinmaker · January 09, 2025, 10:15:40 AM

Hey Hey Hey

I'me going to be of NO help. However. The disparity between Dixie and Cimarron may well be a simple difference in "Timing." Like, "When" was the information gleaned from sample examples?? Uberti has ben known, in their storied past, to just up and change various and sundry dimensions for no real apparent reason, although I can well understand changing the bore of current production .44 Caliber guns to .429/430, from .427/428, to match the rest of the industry standards for .44s

Now, this missive doesn't necessarily provide any real answers for the OP. However, it is Thursday morning and it's too damn cold around here to go do ANYTHING. Ergo I'm some bored and needing something to do before lunch time and as it turns out, this is IT!! Understanding, if you've read this far, It's Too Late, 'cause here ya are and ya can't go back. Iffin you just happen to be wondering about your own Uberti Rifle, simple. Just slug the bore and get out the calipers. DONE. BURMA SHAVE

Johnson Barr · January 10, 2025, 02:33:43 PM

Little time back I started 'slugging' the barrels of my CAS shooters for no other reason than feeding their barrels the correct diameter cast bullets. All my .44-40 marked Italian barrels mic at .429". Not an issue for the long guns but, my revolver barrels all slugged .429" with the cylinder throats coming in at .427".

I also have some originals; rifles and revolvers marked .44-40 and they all slug out at .427". My final decision has been to load all my black and smokes-less .44-40 CAS loads with .427 cast bullets. At CAS rifle distances and the 50-60 yards at my NCOWS posse range there seems to be no problem dinging steel with my Uberti Henry, 1866 or 1873 rifles.
At one point I gave thought to reaming all the cylinder throats on my Italian revolvers to .429". Taking that .002" of steel out of 6 cylinders (36 chambers) was more work to me than just simply loading .427" bullets.

Coffinmaker · January 12, 2025, 09:46:13 AM

Hiya Sir Barr

Actually, for a 429 Bore, proper Bullet/Throat diameter for lead bullets would be .430, just to use a round number. The benefit of corrected throats is somewhat less felt recoil and a bit better accuracy. HOWEVER: For SASS/CAS/NCOWS target distance and load, I'd have to agree, reaming all those throats would be somewhat of a GROAN!! Although, in my storied past, when I had my Shingle out I did spend considerable time fixing handgun throats that were far enough "off" to be problematic.