Observations on a new Armisport Spencer 45 Schofield

[justforthefunofit]

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I just purchase a Armisport Spencer 45 Schofield.  The caliber is a little oddball, but you can find it or load it.  I purchased it becasue the 45 Colts are not to be found.  Why, I have no idea other than the fact that the dealers say that the makers have not shipped any in yet.  They have been waiting for several months for stock, and probably wont have any till september or october.

The gun comes in a nice plastic hard case perfect for shipping and such.  Now I don't keep 45 Schofield naround the house, I have some nice ammo coming via ups but I have a new toy also I want to play with.  Just to see how it would work, I inserted a 45 LC into the chamber.  Figured it would go part way and stop when it hit the neck.  It chambered beautifully.  Both it and a 454 causal will chamber manually.  Now I would not recommend shooting the causal.  That test requires a bench rest and a long string.  The 45 LC in a cowboy round however has the same characteristics as the 45 Schofield just a little longer and the gun appears to be chambered for it.

Now the spoiler, the thing will eject the round quite happily.  It just won't feed it from the magazine.  I suspect that may be why Armisport has not shipped any into the country.  Any thoughts?

[PvtGreg]

Wow - Justforthefinofit,

I had the EXACT same issue with a 56-50.  I had to send it to ArmiSport repair center.  Here's the address:

Chiappa Firearms
6785 W 3rd st.
Dayton Ohio.

I can't find the number, but I'll try to find it and email it to you.

According to the invoice they had to rework the carrier.  Of course the parts list doesn't list a carrier - I think they're talking about the upper block, but am not sure.  Does it cycle all the way down on the down stroke?  Might try and see if the follower pushes the round up far enough for the upper block to catch it.

I additoinally had to do a LOT of work myself to get it smooth.  See this post: http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,38682.0.html

It took 6 months to get it back.  Some have reported it taking more than 8 months to return.

You might try to return it to where ever you bought it, although I had no luck doing so with Cimarron.

Good luck sir, I wish you the best. - Pvt Greg

[justforthefunofit]

Pvt Greg

I hope it does not need to be repaired.  I think the problem is simplier.  The overall case length for the 45 Colt is 1.6" with the bullet and everything.  The case length is 1.285".  For the Schofield the overall length is 1.43" with a case length of 1.1".  I think the problem is that the LC round is too long to feed through the loader.  I will know when my ammo arrives if that is the case.  The importan thing though is that the thing will chamber happily the 45 colt so it could be used in a sharps type mode.

I begin to think that the feed problem is why they have not shipped in any of the 45 LC models.

[Herbert]

Is it a carbine with the Lane extractor or one of the early ones with the twin extractors,if it will chamber a 1.6 inch long cartridge it can be modiyed to feed this round by moving the cartridge stop fowards .2 inch very easy withe the Lane extractor or the Cartridge stop on the Twin extractor modle

[Two Flints]

Why not just wait until you get the Schofield rounds from UPS and test them out before doing any modifications to the Spencer   If you do the mods yourself, forget about returning the 45 Schofield Spencer to the selling dealer

[justforthefunofit]

Oh I havent modded the gun.  It is factory fresh.  I was just curions as to if the rounds would chamber and they do streight from the box.

[justforthefunofit]

Well, I sent the gun back.  The dealers gun smith agreed that it was defective from the factory.  The replacement functions but the action and feed seem sloppy.  Perhaps a good cleaning will help.  It is a little fussy.  If the shell is too short (180 gr ultramax) it will not feed.  If it is the 230 gr ultramax it feeds but the ammo can get twisted.  I can tell some differences in the firing mechanism.  The original did not require the rifile to be half cocked.  The new one does.  The older one would chamber 45 LC this one it is too long.