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Hi folks

Posted this on another forum last night, thought it might be interesting for someone here too.

I own two Uberti made Remington 1858's. One black powder model from 1978 and a modern nitro conversion. Check out the pics further down the post.

The 1978 one was owned by a relative of mine from new before I transferred it to my certificate a couple of years ago. It's had a busy life being shot about once a week for a good twenty years or so at least. It was cleaned and oiled between sessions, so he tells me!
The 2014 one is a brand new nitro conversion from Anvil Conversions. Apart from having a Nitro proofed cylider it's a stock Uberti 1858. I've put around 400 rounds through it in two years.
What you might find interesting is the difference in quality between a pre-CNC machine era Uberti and a modern one, - check the cylinder close-ups - and how little rifling is present on the old one.
To be fair the 1978 one has had a busy life and is thoroughly worn-out. It still shoots surprisingly well, considering it's condition. (Bit like me!) I'll be scrapping it for a new one at some point.

I was wondering if the shallow rifling was typical of Uberti's of this age? Or is it that mine is just plain worn out?

For interest I took some measurements with a Lyman dial caliper;

• Black Powder cylinder chamber dimensions 0.445
  Black Powder barrel dimensions 0.430 on the grooves, 0.437 on what's left of the the lands, best as I could measure
  Nitro conversion cylinder chamber dimensions 0.447
  Nitro conversion barrel dimensions 0.430 on the grooves, 0.455 on the lands.

I'm including a pic of a 0.457 ball I slugged the 1978 era barrel with, you can barely make out the rifling marks.

Anyway I though this might be interesting for someone. Maybe Tac can comment on the rifling question?

Thanks - Paul M.

And the pics ;
Two revolvers together

Barrel close-ups showing the rifling

1978 vintage cylinder

2014 Nitro conversion cylinder

Slugged 0.457 ball from the 1978 barrel

I've just had a look at an 1967 Uberti Griswold copy that I have and would say that your 1978 Uberti was not only well used but abused.

The barrel has obviously rusted and been cleaned out at points during its life and the cylinder mouths have been deformed due to poor alignment if the loading lever when used.

Some of these early made repros were not the best as they were made to a price point for the US market but Uberti had a reputation as one of the better makers/assemblers.

I think in this case it an apples and oranges comparison due to the hard life the older Uberti has had.

Indeed, that's why I've posted the pictures.
To be fair I did pay sod-all for it.