The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Got the chance to buy this Uberti Cattleman from a friend. He was big in to pistol shooting and then when the ban came, he bought this .44 muzzle loader; about 1999 he thinks. A friend of his is an engineer and he has modified the rear of the cylinder so it will take large pistol primers. He has also done a lot of work on the circular bit in the middle of the back of the cylinder (excuse my ignorance) as there was a problem with these originally.

So large pistol primer on rear of cylinder, then fill chambers with normal pistol powder and then uses a .45ACP bullet. Has a loading tool which facilitates this. Reckons he has fired hundreds of rounds like this with no bother and has it listed on his ticket as a muzzle loading pistol. Barrel states ".44 Black Powder Only".

It's beautiful, feels lovely in the hand and would go with my 1873 Uberti lever action.

Hmmmm... hands up who would be nervous firing that...??

I dont see what the attraction is. But what ever floats your boat I guess.

What is 'Normal Pistol Powder'? What quantity of 'Normal Pistol Powder'? If proofed for Black Powder only I would suggest that you stick to Black Powder or Pyrodex.

"then then fill chambers with normal pistol powder and then uses a .45ACP bullet. Has a loading tool which facilitates this. Reckons he has fired hundreds of rounds like this with no bother and has it listed on his ticket as a muzzle loading pistol. Barrel states ".44 Black Powder Only".

When you go beyond what the gun was intended for and especially with vague "non" load data like "then then fill chambers with normal pistol powder and then uses a .45ACP bullet. ". you are on your own. If something untoward were to happen on the range with this gun then using nitro in a BP proofed only gun could invalidate any insurance you have.

Personally I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole especially as there are good provenanced, properly proofed nitro muzzle loaders out there. Besides the safety aspect I suspect that you would have problems selling it as I suspect it is illegal to sell a BP only proofed gun for a nitro use, it is definitely not good practice and dubious at best.

Your post suggests that you are uncertain about this gun as well, if so in this case I would take heed of that uncertainty..

From what you have posted , it is clear that the gun is out of proof .
If the current oqwner sells it , he is commiting an offence , and the Proof House does go after people who sell unproofed guns.

He can send or take it to the Proof House and have it proofed for Nitro only or Nitro and Black Powder .

However , according to Uberti , their Black Powder guns should never ever be loaded with Nitro powder .

If anyone was ever injured by a Black Powder gun blowing up when loaded with Nitro , the gun owner might find that he has no insurance .

As has already said don't even think about buying it. If you really want that model of black powder then buy a new one, Krank's have one listed in their catalogue.

Stay away from it, bloke sounds mental!

I've had mine for 12 years or so. Bought it new from Kranks and still going strong when used properly, the way it was intended.

Yes there are issues with the cylinder pawl stretching frames as this is a lot more proud than on the cartridge version, and that is what transfers recoil to the frame due to the B/P redesign of this. The original would have the recoil forces concentrated against the standing breech, via the case head.

As I said, mines been great for a dozen years without the "butchering"....

Lever357 wrote:
So large pistol primer on rear of cylinder, then fill chambers with normal pistol powder and then uses a .45ACP bullet. Has a loading tool which facilitates this. Reckons he has fired hundreds of rounds like this with no bother and has it listed on his ticket as a muzzle loading pistol. Barrel states ".44 Black Powder Only".

This is terrifying... I'd not fire this gun if you paid me!

What could possibly go wrong?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_XNWeMqCT0