Hey Fellas, I took delivery today of one of the Cimarron/Uberti 7th Cavalry revolvers. This was the first SAA clone I've owned since the early 90's, when I bought an EMF Hartford. That ASM was lots of trouble and a real disappointment. So I was very pleasantly surprised by the overall quality of this piece. I'd scoured the forums for info on these before I bought it, but pics were few, as were details. I thought I'd give my impressions along with some detailed photos, so the next guy will have an easier time deciding.
First impressions were great. The action was very smooth, the case colors were darker and more colorful than the old Uberti washed out gray, and the timing appeared perfect. Here it is fresh out of the box.
I didn't care for the knurled base pin screw; it spoils the looks. But I found the included original-style screw buried in the bottom of the box. The hand was expertly fit, so the chambers parked exactly in the center of the loading gate on half-cock.
I expected cast checkering on the hammer, but this knurling appeared to be cut. Closer inspection revealed it to have been done via laser or some other type etching. It is shallow but attractive and gives good purchase for the thumb.
There was no endshake to speak of, and cylinder gap was very tight. I didn't measure it, but the eyeball says that it is very good.
The cylinder is smooth and nicely beveled.
Here are a few "authentic"-looking markings, starting with the last four of the serial number on the cylinder.
I like the trigger guard bevels. That says "1st gen and earlier 2nd gen" to me. By 1970, when my Colt was made, these bevels had shrunk to barely a line. Now Colt just gradually tapers from the trigger out to the frame sides, polishing the edge. Pietta does that as well, and that one little area was what steered me away from a GWII or Cimarron Frontier model. I know it is silly, but some aesthetic details that really shouldn't matter to me do.
The grip cartouche is laser engraved. I'd have much preferred a stamping.
"US" and patent dates.
I do wish Uberti followed Pietta's lead and used a firing pin bushing/recoil plate. I hope this doesn't develop burrs.
The cylinder bushing was a nice fit, though. And it required no force to remove with my fingers.
Ugly but necessary proof marks.
Cocking effort was much less than on my Colt. I expected to find a narrowed mainspring, but this one is standard width.
Laying it side-by-side with my Colt mainspring, however, revealed that it wasn't as thick as the Colt's. We'll see how it holds up (Uberti spring is on the right).
Standard trigger return and bolt leaf spring.
The hand looks rough in this photo, but it was smooth where it matters, and I can't fault Uberti's work on the leg height. Again, the chambers park dead-center of the loading gate, and the bolt pops into the notch precisely when the trigger engages the full cock notch.
Sadly, the cam isn't a separate pressed-in stud like Colts (I think Pietta uses the separate stud now too). And it was a tad rough. You can see where a tiny burr on the bolt leg is scraping across it. I dressed the cam down very lightly and removed the burr on the bolt leg. My "fluff and buff" included a little polishing of some tiny burrs on the bolt top as well. There was just a slight grittiness felt as the bolt was sliding into the notches before. No "after" photos of the work, but here are the bolt and cam as received.
I wish Uberti applied more preservative to the bore. My initial cleaning left a lot of rusty bore patches behind, but the cleaned bore fortunately didn't suffer any pitting that I can see. Here she is all cleaned up and with the proper base pin screw installed.
I hope this review is helpful for those trying to decide whether or not to get one of these. My overall impression is that this is very high quality for the money. I paid about $500 from Grabagun for this. That is about 50 bucks more than my EMF Hartford cost me back in the early 90's, and that ASM was a real disaster.
I've two things left to do to this one: shorten the base pin (don't you just hate that useless swiss safety?) and tweak the timing. I noticed after I got it back together that the timing wasn't quite as perfect as I initially thought. The bolt is just a tad late, rising at the end of the lead. I think there's about 1/4 of the bolt top face protruding over the bolt stop notch when it pops up. I don't want the notches to get peened, so I guess I'll have to strip it back down and remove a little from the bolt leg. Fortunately it is late instead of early; I can fix that myself.
I'll try and post this in the "review" forum as well, just in case this isn't the best place for a clone review.