Looking at 45 Colt replica

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Hope all goes well for your friend Ric, have spent way to much of my own time in hospitals lately. Be there for your friend, it matters.
 

Ian

Notorious member
Yup. I've been to two funerals and only one birth in the last 11 days. Fortunately I can say that those who passed were both local legends who lived 100% and then another good bit after that on borrowed time and were lucky enough to bow out quicky and gracefully as their curtains fell.
 

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
Checked out my Cimarron "Pistolero", made by Pietta and their "value" line of SAA's. Since I bought this to actually use and carry this winter, the finish is fine but only the blued (black) steel parts are polished well. The brass grip frame is finished in maybe 600 grit but fits the frame very well as it does the walnut stock.

The cylinder is very tightly fitted to the frame and has very little side to side rotation. All throats are .452"- by the plug gauge well polished inside. Every chamber aligns with barrel according to my range rod. Action very light and smooth with cylinder lock dropping into the notch bevel smoothly. Very impressed for a "value" gun with a trigger pull of 2 pounds 10 ounces on the RCBS scale. Sights are very good for me as the rear notch is wide and square.

However, all is not perfect; barrel cylinder gap is .009" and there is about .002" to .003" thread chock. Not going to do anything with those potential issues until I shoot it a couple of hundred rounds.

Cimarron 45 Colt.JPG
 
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Ian

Notorious member
The thread choke is the only thing that would bother me, .003" is a lot in my experience and has caused hell for leading. .009" cylinder gap shouldn't be a big deal for a field piece.
 

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
The .003 is inexact because I don't have a way to accurately measure it. A .444"- gauge will go down the bore to the front of the frame. A .441"- slides through. From the rear, a .442"- will go about half way through the frame opening. FWIW, the bore is nicely cut, but the forcing cone is wide and sharply angled, but I have the tools to fix that.
 

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
Shot the 45 Cimarron yesterday for the first time, fifty feet off hand. Two five shot groups with LazarCast 250 RN's with 7.5 grains of Unique, vertical stringing but not bad. Next was RCBS 250's over 5.0 grains of Red Dot, not very good at all. Then Lyman 452424 over 7.5 grains of SR7625, round good group. And finished out the day with Lyman 452424 over 6.0 grains of Bullseye. Point of Impact was four inches low and one inch left for most groups, but I was getting tired by the time I got to the Bullseye load.

Brass brushed between loads and dry patched, just a touch of leading on the leeward side of the lands where the thread chock is. Major leading in the forcing cone, but I recut it last night with a Brownell tool. Trigger is worse now, gritty and catches but still almost too light. Not going to go chasing that for a few hundred more rounds.
45 Colt 7625.JPG45 Colt Bullseye.JPG
 

Walks

Well-Known Member
I had some that looked that good once. Colts, clones and even a U.S.F.A. but holster wear and Cowboy Shooting takes it's toll on SixGuns.
 

Ian

Notorious member
They're full of grit and crust from the factory. I tear down and clean all Italian revolvers before ever shooting them. Its a good time to put in a Wolf wire trigger/bolt spring and adjust the bolt tension to the minimum so the head of the bolt doesn't get mushroomed from snapping too hard against the cylinder.
 

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
Ian, thanks for the good advice! Disassembled the .45 and found it was "smooth" because of all the cutting oil carrying stuff over the surfaces. It looked clean, but wiping it with Ed's Red turned the paper towel black. Finally just took it apart and cleaned it in the ultrasonic machine. Then fixed the sear and forcing cone. Springs don't seem very strong to me, do I really need to replace them? Ric
 

Ian

Notorious member
You don't have to, the leaf springs have worked for 150 years. The reason I replace the trigger and bolt leaf with a wire spring has to do with the rate. A wire loads up a lot less at the compression end of its travel than a leaf of equivalent initial tension. With a Wolf wire spring the trigger will have a much more constant rate from take up through hammer drop and will have a lighter "pull". The bolt side of the leaf spring really loads up badly at the end of its stroke when cocking the hammer and when the bolt releases suddenly before the cylinder has quite indexed to the notch, it smacks the cylinder quite hard and I have found this to peen the bolt head into a mushroom which pretty soon becomes too fat to fit the cylinder notch. After carefully correcting three different Uberti cylinder bolts (one was my Dad's Cimmaron Bisley .45 Colt and was so bad I had to stone the sides before it would come out of the frame), I started replacing the leaves with wires and carefully tweaking them to give firm tension without the harsh slapping of the bolt or excessive trigger pull.

Another modification I like to make is to upgrade the cylinder base pin cross-bolt spring with a Wolf extra-power spring. Most of the Uberti SAA clones I've seen have two grooves around the cylinder base pin, one for normal operation and a second where the pin can be inserted deeper as a hammer block. Recoil causes the base pin to peen itself against the cross bolt, bump the bolt back against the weak spring so the sharp edge of the bolt's hourglass shoulder raises burrs all around the base pin's groove, and ultimately swage the base pin into the frame (seen that twice and numerous others that were beginning to chowder up before I intervened with stones, cold blue, and stronger cross bolt springs). One example required me to do some frame work and fit an oversized base pin after forcing the stuck one out with a hammer and punch. The replacement base pin was noticeably harder than the original which was akin to an iron nail. My Ruger New Vaquero came with a hard base pin, strong base pin cross-bolt spring, and wire trigger/bolt spring and has never had the slightest issue.

A pinhead-sized spot of blue threadlocker on each of the five grip frame screw threads is also a good idea as the darn things always seem to work loose, at least they do on mine.
 

Charles Graff

Moderator Emeritus
The leaf spring in my U.S.Ptd.F.A./Uberti was so strong, I had to go old school and place a leather pad between the spring and frame to tone it down and get a decent trigger pull.
 

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
The leaf spring in my U.S.Ptd.F.A./Uberti was so strong, I had to go old school and place a leather pad between the spring and frame to tone it down and get a decent trigger pull.
After cleaning and stoning off the burrs it is two pounds and six ounces. I don't want it any lighter with old man fingers.
 

Walks

Well-Known Member
Like I've said before I guess I'm luckier then most with My spaghetti guns. But then I had a TOP NOTCH Cowboy GunSmith go thru them after I put a 100rds thru them. I haven't bought a spaghetti gun in a number of years.

But I have replaced 2-3 bolt springs with the coil type, and those that have a cross bolt have very strong springs. Learned that the Hard Way when one of My Colts lost it's crossbolt spring in the middle of a match. Had to get a specialty "pronged" screwdriver for that from Brownells.

Years back, even before I started Cowboy Shooting I bought a special ground screwdriver set from Eddie Janis for the Colt SAA. Formed the Habit of tightening all frame and cross bolt screws when I took the revolvers from their case, before I slipped them into my holsters. Colts, Rugers and spaghetti guns.
 

Dale53

Active Member
I've had a Cimarron Uberti in .44 Special for many years. It shoots extremely well (under 1" at 25 yards off a rest). However, the generation 1 SAA sights are terrible. Just a slight "V" in the frame. Now, with aging eyes it's impossible. By contrast, my Ruger Bisley has excellent fixed sights and I can still use them with effect. I will say this, the Cimarron has beautiful color case, a very clean, light trigger, and with a 4 5/8" barrel a "Perfect Packing Pistol". Further, the dimensions are near perfect.

FWIW
Dale53
 

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
Dale53, The new ones have a large square cut in the frame and the front is 1/8" wide. While I am still looking for the "best" load, it appears I can just thin the front sight to get it to move enough to the right at 25 yards.
 

oscarflytyer

Well-Known Member
I've had a Cimarron Uberti in .44 Special for many years. It shoots extremely well (under 1" at 25 yards off a rest). However, the generation 1 SAA sights are terrible. Just a slight "V" in the frame. Now, with aging eyes it's impossible. By contrast, my Ruger Bisley has excellent fixed sights and I can still use them with effect. I will say this, the Cimarron has beautiful color case, a very clean, light trigger, and with a 4 5/8" barrel a "Perfect Packing Pistol". Further, the dimensions are near perfect.

FWIW
Dale53

Have to agree on the sights. But I have a bunch of old originals that have the same style sights. And yes, my old eyes suck. I love shooting them all, regardless!
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
the USFA's could be ordered with the regular rear U notch or you could get an upgraded pistol with a wider more square rear notch. [it was named after some SASS shooter long horn or something like that]
a trigger job of some sort and a couple of other tricks.

I'm glad I didn't get a trigger job on either of mine they'd be so light they wouldn't have a measurable pull.
 

Walks

Well-Known Member
I guess I was too spoiled by the 2nd/3rd Generation sights. The first couple of spaghetti revolvers I got had the 1st Gen V notch.
Grew up shooting those, hated the sights. Not hard to file open the V-notch.

But those revolvers with the FAT square front sights really stink. Can't see any light on either side of the rear sight. Guess that's why I haven't bought one in 15 years.

And it has just occurred to me maybe that was why SASS targets are SO Big & SO Close.

NOBODY CAN SEE THE BLASTED SIGHTS.

Just point & shoot.
 
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