UBERTI 1873 TRAPPER CARBINE, 16" carbine.

I have been looking at getting a lever gun in .357 (had a marlin in .357 and sold it a few years ago).

Your thoughts on the rifle?

Pics of yours?

I have one in 45colt love it. My short rifle stays in the safe ever since I got ot.

I had one in .44 Magnum and regret selling it. I think they are AWESOME.

 I find myself tempted by Cimarron's 1873 U.S. Marshal IT Carbine .357 Mag

Henry X model perhaps???

Would rather have a more traditional lever.

Ruger 1894?
https://www.marlinfirearms.com/s/model_1894Classic

I'd be curious in photos of some uberti/cimarron guns in the wild. They have some classic looks.

Uberti seems to have a really good reputation. I know a handful of people who have them and all of them are very happy. I am going to end up with a 73 of some sort eventually.

Phew, thank you. Those are gorgeous. Do they perform as well as they photograph?

They are a division of Beretta now.

Ah, I believe it's Benelli.

I'd say so. These are 200 yd. targets.

 

These are 300 yd. targets fired prone unsupported. The BP load is very accurate, but the wind strung it out horizontally.

The Uberti 1873 is a proven performer in cowboy competitions.

Beretta owns Benelli too

I have had several.
For .357 use I prefer the 1892 type.
The vertical elevator guns such as the 66/73 models won't feed .38sp in a .357 gun without modifying the ammo or the gun.
If the gun gets modified then it will not feed .357 length ammo.
The 38sp is too short to work in the elevator.
You can handload it out to work but if you don't reload thats a no go.
The 1892 Win and the Marlin 1894 designs will feed both 38 and 357 without modification.

The guns themselves are well made and a joy to use.

I bought one and it was missing the step ladder which adjusts the rear sight,  so it shoots a foot or two high at close range and there's nothing I can do about it.

I've called and emailed Uberti with no answer.  It was the 16" version 38 spl/357 magnum.  Zero customer service.  Maybe I'll try again (or I'm missing something) but I'm not happy with them.

Not recommended.

That’s a cool version, 18” barrel and a shortened length of pull.  Standard is 13”. what did they shorten it too?

I’d like one in .357

I got an email back from Cimmeron.  12.5” they said, an inch shorter.   I think they measure their stocks differently though.  It seems some measure from butt to metal of the action, not the face of the trigger.   The winchester 73 I think comes as a 13” Lop.

Anyways I am leaning toward that model for the relatively compact dimensions, lop, and that it still does 9+1 or even 10 by some reports.   I will forgo the winchester/Miroku 1892 for now that I have wanted for 3 years but cannot get without paying a 45% markup.

My FFL buddy said he would look for the Mashal IT for me.   Hopefully they’re around at his suppliers.

Um, no. The CAS guys who shoot '73's in .357, shoot .38 Special. There's nothing to modify in the rifle. Once the cartridge is in the elevator, it's a straight shot into the chamber. When I was competing I shot a '73 Uberti .44 Magnum and used .44 Special loads with short bullets. They fed like shit through a goose. My '92 was a different story. Mine, a .357 would sometimes throw .38's out when cycling the lever, so I loaded my .38's to .357 length until I could get into the rifle to correct the problem.

The part you need for your rear sight is in stock at Taylor Firearms, VTI Gun Parts, Item #61, and MidwayUSA. Take your pick!

But if your rifle is shooting a foot or two high at close range, you need a taller front sight.

@ggibbs  Thanks!  I'm assuming I need a gunsmith to solder the ladder on?  I'm not very mechanical but have done some very basic manufacturing.

I met a guy a few months ago who said he collected lever guns and I asked if it was normal for a lever gun not to have vertical adjustment, and he said it was possible.  Still, the no response from Uberti and it's omission doesn't leave me with a good feeling.  Anytime I buy a gun that needs work straight out of the box, I usually won't buy from that company again, and especially if they have no customer service.

You're welcome. No, the sight goes into the dovetail on the barrel. No soldering required.

Where did you buy the gun? That’s where I’d start. Sometimes importers or dealers have better lines of communication than the manufacturer.

I've had this Taylor (Uberti) 1873 for 13 or so years now. It's one of my favorite rifles. It eats .357 or .38 special without a problem. I'm sure you'd be very happy with one if you like the style and action of an 1873. Mine has been great.

Attached File

Solid guns , plenty of parts and smiths to work on em.

Very simple, smooth, reliable action.

I had a couple of Marlin 94s in 357 over the years and they are just clunky and  not reliable in my experience.  

The 73 feeds straight walled cartridges better than the 92 or 94 ever could.

It was one of the online shops and IIRC, not cheap.

I'll try Uberti again sometime, but like I said zero customer service.  I did buy the ladder (elevator) and there's not much on the internet on install, and in fact it looks like they don't come with them on the few videos that are out there.  So I'm starting to think on the trapper models there is no vertical adjustment.  The online manual doesn't even go into sight adjustment.  I was fiddling with it today and you can raise the sight system vertically, almost like the grenade launcher sights on Yugo AKs (so that the sighting system is an inch or two high off the barrel), but that does not make any sense to me in so far as a handy shooting rifle.

I've been around guns a long time but not lever ones, and it seemed like why not get the 16 inch version in 38/357.   Call me crazy but rifles should have both vertical and horizontal sight adjustment.  Let's say there is an obvious way to adjust the sights vertically but after hours of searching online (and calling and emailing Uberti), just nothing.

My next step is to call a gunsmith or just put the gun in the back of the safe, just like where it was before.  Maybe they are trying to replicate history or something, but there is now way for me to find out.

@OP  call Uberti to see if they even answer calls and also check out the extremely basic user manual online.  That should give you some clue.

@AlaskanFire  you make a good point, but that is sort of the risk of buying online.  Lower margins = less customer service.  I like my online shops, but there has been mistakes.

It's not the end of the world.  The gun is accurate, though the vertical adjustment is totally wrong.  Why do I have to jump through so many hoops to figure it out?  I've spent hours on this.

I've zero issues with my 1873 feeding either .38 Special or .357 Magnum.

It's been rock solid

The Model 1873 is really shines as a cowboy action shooting rifle as the Model 1873 action is very slick and very fast, and that’s due to the toggle link design. However, cowboy action shooters also generally shoot mouse fart loads that meet the absurdly low floor established for CAS and SASS shooting. It’s my major beef with the whole concept as while they go all in on period correct dress, they shoot wimpy loads that no self respecting cowboy would even consider, preferring speed over historical accuracy and practical ballistics.

However, along those lines, the 1873 is an old design and there’s a good reason Winchester asked John M. Browning to design a replacement.  

The 1873 is a toggle link design is a weak design and head space had a tendency to grow as the toggle links parts stretched.  To be fair, it is stronger with modern steel alloy, but it is still a comparatively weak design.

It was never designed originally for magnum pressures and while it now uses stronger steel, and while the bolt thrust of the .357 Magnum isn’t as bad as the bolt thrust of the larger case head diameter .44 Magnum, it’s just not my first choice for a rifle I’d use with a steady diet of .357 Magnum ammunition.  Feed it a steady diet of .357 Mag or even worse .44 Mag and the head space is going to grow over time.

It’s not an issue with the CAS/SAS shooters and I suspect other users don’t shoot it enough with full power loads to cause major issues, or they just don’t notice the excessive headspace when it happens.

—-

The Winchester Model 1892 is a shorter, smaller version of the Winchester 1886 designed for use with shorter pistol class cartridges like the .44-40, .38-40, .32-20, and .25-20.  As a downsized 1886, it is incredibly strong and the Rossi version of the 1892 (the Rossi 92 manages the .45 colt case head sized, 65,000 psi .454 Casull with no issues.

It can manage full power .357 and .44 Mag loads as well as 32,000 psi .45 Colt loads without breaking a sweat.

The same applies to the modern Miroku made Model 92 as well as the Armi Sport/Chiappa reproduction of the Winchester 1892.

The Armi Sport 1892 is butter smooth out of the box and it’s very well made.  I have an Armi Sport 1892 Takedown rifle in .45 Colt, and it’s a pleasure to shoot.




I also have a Rossi 92 20” carbine in .45 Colt (shown on the bench below along side the Armi Sport in the rest.  



Out of the box a Rossi 92 is going to be functional but needs a tune up before it will be a s smooth as an 1892.

Replacing the ejector spring all by itself will get you about 75% of the way there.  Steve’s Gunz sells a DVD walking you through the disassembly, cleaning, tune up and reassembly. He also sells the DVD in a kit with a new ejector spring and a new stainless steel magazine follower as the plastic followers eventually split and start hanging up in the tube.

Basically, the full tune up includes:
- changing the ejector spring;
- shortening the hammer spring;
- shortening the magazine spring;
- thinning the loading gate spring;
- polishing the cartridge guide detents;
- polishing the lever detent; and
- polishing the cam surfaces on the bolt.

The end result is a very slick action.  Not in the 1873 class, but still very slick.





I also have a 24” Rossi 92 rifle and a 20” Rossi 92 short rifle, both in .357 Magnum.  Both are 2 MOA accurate with a tang sight with 158 gr factory Federal 158 gr JSP ammo or hand loaded Hornady XTP ammo.  Velocity with the 158 gr federal load is 1840 fps and 1820 fps respectively.

Going back to my experiences with the Uberti 1873 Trapper Carbine in 38/357, after some research, I believe this is the sight currently on my gun https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1004574730?pid=455227.   As you can see there is a numbered bar with a slider on it.  When folded down, I cannot figure out how to adjust the elevation of the sight and it is way off.  I think that it's maybe intended that you raise that numbered bar before you shoot and put the slider on the desired number for proper elevation.  The problem is 1) that eliminates quick shooting because you have an extra step before you shoot (it's a short handy gun, so quick shooting would seem to be important) and 2) there is little to no tension on that slider so it's not really viable anyway.

That's my update.  BTW I got Stoeger's (the importer) telephone number off an online catalog and I pressed them to ask if my gun should have an elevator (step thingy), and they said yes it should have one.  The guy I spoke to was nice but I don't think they really knew.  Maybe my next step is to dovetail in a different rear sight.  I'm not a lever action guy and just wanted to try one out.  It's short, handy, and capable of good accuracy.  Heck if I could dovetail in a picatinny rail and red dot to replace the rear sight, I'd consider that too.

I'm new to all this.  Maybe the sight is historically correct, or the sight is adjustable (though there is no mention of sight adjustment in the manual), or something else, but it's looking like I need to replace the sight on what is a fairly expensive gun.

Is there a notch in the bar when raised? If so that's exactly how it's intended to be used. Folded down up close and the flipped up for long range. I'm guessing the markings don't add up to actual ranges but you can mess around and figure out what is close.

That sight is intended to be used folded down for closer ranges and flipped up for longer ranges. There is no elevation adjustment and may require a front sight change. It is historically accurate.

Upon further research (the internet), it sounds like these carbine rear sights very often require filing of some kind.  Like filing a deeper notch in the rear sight.  That's a new one to me: filing a rear sight.  But if you file a deeper notch, you obviously can't add material if you change ammo or made a mistake.   I may try it..... it doesn't sound hard to dovetail a new rear sight, but as a new person to lever guns, I didn't realizing it would require that sort of thing..... or this amount of research.

If you'll look above at my 1866 Uberti 44-40, it has a ladder sight. When I acquired the rifle, with the ladder sight folded down, it was shooting low at 100 yds. So it was just a matter of selecting a load (I chose a 220 gr. cast FP @ ~1300 fps) and carefully filing the front sight down until POA=POI at 100 yds. As luck would have it, when I flipped the ladder sight up and set the sight at its lowest position, the load was pretty much on at 200 yds. For the sights to be on at 300 yds. I had to run the ladder sight up to around 350 yds.

So if you want to use the ladder sight you'll have to settle on one load then regulate the sights to that load. Or you can just go to VTI Gun Parts and buy and adjustable rear sight.

Yes, there is a notch.  If you can imagine and look at the picture there are basically two notched sights as I now understand it.  One is in front when the bar is folded down (which is WAY off on vertical adjustment, and is also not vertically adjustable), the second is on the slider on the numbered bar when you raise it up.  The numbered bar had very little friction like it wouldn't hold very well if you kept cycling the gun.

I finally found a forum discussion in a cowboy shooting forum on this same issue, but even there, they were like, "get out a file".

I might try and dovetail a picatinny rail like the Pearson Universal if it'll work and then a micro red dot.  It'll probably go to the back of my safe until I got a free weekend.  If it's easy to change sights on the dovetail, I think I'm decent enough with a file to work it with my gunsmithing "skills" (I've had a gunsmith tell me I have no business even mounting a scope on a deer rifle, but I do, and have accurately shot many deer).

I bought the Cimarron U.S. Marshall Indian Territory I referred to above in .357.  I have the same problem, it shoots 14” high with slow .38 special LRN.   No adjustment to help on either sight.  The rear is all the way down and my front sight is part of the barrel band.  It needs to be about a tenth of an inch taller.  After trying various ammo and having no luck getting anywhere close to sighted in I reached out to Cimarron.  They had no idea how to fix it with that barrel band front sight but sent a call tag a week or two later after they checked with Italy.  That part was decent.  I shipped the gun back via my FFL, gun in plastic sleeve oiled up nicely, tucked in OEM box, which was repacked in bubble wrap and outer box that the distributer originally shipped it in.  Weeks later I get my gun back with a skin tight over box taped around the original box.  Oh boy, I am expecting the worst.  Well no cracks or gouges and I looked hard for any as it was packed poorly, the inner cardboard cutout material to hold the rifle was shredded from the gun being handled.  Test target, no data, no note of findings or work performed.  Just three circa 1” groups on paper.  Already my mind is thinking negatively.  They never shot the gun beyond ten yards to see where the sights hit at 25 or 50 yards.  The groups would be bigger if they were from 25 or 50.  Well I wouldn’t say anything until I went to the range and hopefully I’d be pleasantly surprised.  

Well after a week plus of shitty weather I went to the range and I was surprised.  Now the gun was 14” high AND 9-10” right at fifty, clear off the target.  It’s now worse than when I sent it in.  Further examination shows the front sight is heeled way over left and the mag tube appears twisted off as the band is the same part.  I suspect it is shipping damage and not their armorer’s adjustment but with no statement of work performed, I’m just guessing.

I guess Cimarron thinks a fragile sticker equals sufficient packing material.

To say that I am disappointed is an understatement.

I’d have to take 1/10” off the rear sight blade.  There’s not quite that much meat on the rear blade to spare.  Other guys suggested milling a slot and inserting and pinning blades on the existing front band or brazing or silver soldering brass or steel to the top of the blade and filing to fit.

I'm pretty happy with my Uberti 1873 Special Sporting Rifle in .45 Colt

Attached File

Mine 1873 Sporting Rifle .45 LC 24 1/2"

Nice, is that stainless, plated, coated?  I like.  @Polska_Kielbasa

Get both!!!



(My vertical elevator 1873 is unmodified and feeds .38spl just fine.)