Crappy Uberti Screws Strike Again

A good part of my gun collection was made by Uberti. However, a pet peeve of mine is that the scews they use to build their guns are apparently made from cheese. For the price of these guns it's reasonable to expect that the screws will be hardened, not cross threaded, and not over-torqued, as they often are.

Today I detail stripped my 1992-vintage Uberti 1851 Navy. It was working fine but filthy inside and in need of a thorough cleaning.

One of the things I found was that the screw that holds the bolt/trigger spring in place was cross threaded at the factory. I lucked out and had an 8-32 tap so I was able to chase the threads in the frame, but I don't have an 8-32 die. (I ordered one from Amazon after discovering this.) However, the screw itself is trashed and even if I had the die I don't know if I'd be able to restore it.

So, I went to VTI Gun Parts and sent them emails to check stock on their set of properly hardened replacement screws, and also a spare hand spring while I was at it. (For whatever reason their website doesn't report live inventory.)

One of the other weaknesses of the Italian replicas is the spring for the bolt and trigger. It's flat steel and prone to breaking. I haven't broken one myself but prevention is good, so I went over to Wolff Gun Springs and ordered wire replacements for my Uberti and Pietta single actions. I'm told that Piettas use the springs for EMF Hartford guns, so I ordered 4 of those along with three Uberti replacements.

<grumble, grumble>

Quarter Inch Hand Impact Driver

If you mess with guns long enough you'll eventually run into a stuck screw. In the past I've been able to free some of these screws by soaking with Kroil, but other times I've had to drill them out using my milling machine and extract them with a screw extractor.

Another option is a hand impact driver that takes 1/4" bits commonly used in gunsmithing screwdriver sets. I bought this one from Amazon:

I've never used one of these before and it did not come with any instructions for changing which way it rotates. Naturally, it came setup to turn right, when I needed it to turn left. A minute of googling lead me to this short and informative video from Down Under:

The small driver I bought doesn't have the separate coupler shown in the video, but by clamping the narrow part in my vise I was able to change the direction of rotation.

I used the driver today to loosen the mainspring screw on my 1992-vintage Uberti 1851 Colt Navy percussion revolver, which I detail stripped for the first time. (Better late than never. Even though it was full of sludge, because it was oil soaked there was no corrosion. I don't recommend this, for the record.)

New Hammer for the Marlin 1889

In November of 2020 I bought a Marlin 1889 sporting rifle chambered for .38 WCF (AKA .38-40). The Marlin 1889 was the first side-ejecting lever action, leading to the rifles that Marlin has built ever since. When I got it I discovered that the half cock notch on the hammer was chipped. It held OK at full cock but when placed in half cock, as you'd use it when hunting, the hammer could be pushed off. This was obviously no bueno.

At the time I bought it I was unable to find a replacement. This is a hazard of collecting old guns that have been out of production for decades, or in the case of the 1889, over a century.

Actually, the full cock notch doesn't look so good, either.

At the beginning of July I did an Internet search on a lark and found that Old Arms of Idaho had a few in stock, and I decided to take a chance.

It worked out splendidly, dropping in with no fitting required.

A few days later I took the rifle to the range.

I shot the rifle with my black powder handloads in Starline brass. One oddity of guns chambered for .38 WCF is that the chamber dimensions and cartridge dimensions allow for a lot of case expansion. The British military had a similar situation with the chambers on their Lee-Enfields and .303 British ammunition. The result is that if you full length resize the brass for reloading, it work hardens the brass leading to short case life. To wit:

The good thing is that I didn't know the case split in half until after I tried to eject it and got out only half. The bad thing is that I noticed several other cases had splits and needed to be trashed.

Since I have two rifles in .38 WCF I am now sorting my cases by rifle and will adjust my sizing die to only neck size the brass. This is a hassle, especially given the current scarcity of .38 WCF brass. Unless I run across something I really want at a price I can't pass up, I won't be buying any more guns in this caliber because of the hassle.

Offhand Practice with my Cabela's Hawken

Last weekend I took my Cabela's Hawken to the range for some offhand practice on both Saturday and Sunday.

The rifle was built by Investarms in Italy and is very similar to the Lyman Trade Rifle, which was also built by Ivestarms. I'd wanted a LTR for years but it was never offered in a left handed version, so I got the Cabela's rifle instead. A very similar or identical rifle is also sold by Dixie Gun Works, as well as muzzle-loaders.com.

A few years ago I replaced the factory sights with a Lyman white bead front sight and a 57 SML aperture sight. I also replaced the factory nipple with a Hot Shot. I keep the original in the cap box as a spare.

Anyway, it's a caplock .50 caliber muzzleloader. The load I shot both days was:

• 70 grains of 3Fg Goex black powder
• 0.020" patch lubed with Bumblin' Bear Grease from October Country
• Hornady swaged 0.490" round ball
• CCI No.11 percussion cap

On Saturday, I shot with the peep sight's insert in place. This gives a smaller aperture which should allow better accuracy, at the expense of light transmission.

Decent, except for that one flyer above the bull.

When I went back on Sunday I removed the sight insert and used it as a ghost ring. This is what I'd do if hunting with the rifle.

Not quite as good but still minute of deer at the ranges I'd be shooting at. My final shot of the day was at a steel gong approximately six inches square, and I got a good solid hit.