A few days back pard of mine got himself a new pair of Uberti Richards Transitionals in .44 Cal..
This pair was hand delivered to him by the German importer HEGE from the Gardone factory last week.
In other words 2016 production.
Interestingly they have the U.S. CIMARRON FIREMARMS, not the German HEGE barrel marking.
Yesterday my pard dropped them at his smith who is actually a conversion artist to have them altered into Richards 1s.
Because that makes them more suitable for his cowboy action shooting.
I was present and had a chance to take a first look at this 2016 pair.
Because its been years that I could inspect this type of pistols.
I did not disassemble them but noted two (2) changes compared to the Uberti R2s I knew before:
#1: the front sights were blued - steel? - whereas I knew them as brass ones,
#2: in all the Uberti Colt style conversions I had had owned and seen incl. an R2 the frame (part #1) and breech assembly (#492 according to Uberti Parts and Schematics List) were two separate parts.
But in this 2016 pair these previously two parts are now one solid piece of steel.
Out of curiosity I have a question for the initiates: when did Uberti implement this short-cut at the production line?
Long Johns Wolf