Sporting Lad,
Why heck, It's Saturday and I don't work on Saturdays ..... NO, wait, I don't work at all (mostly), I'm retired. But let me throw my nickel into the hat.
First, Open Top "type" guns from Uberti are "KITS." Well packaged, pre-assembled Kits. They are NOT finished. In 99% of the guns, the fit of the Barrel to the Arbor is ....... well, it isn't. The hole in the barrel lug is drilled to deep, or the Arbor is too short. Depends on how you want to describe it. Before your gun will run correctly, you need to fix that. You do have me confused (it's easy to do) with your description of the gun being a "Colt Navy" (1871). It's either an 1851 conversion or it's an 1871/72 Open Top with Navy grips.
Anyway, there is very good tutorial on "The Open Range" by one of our partners in crime, Larsen E. Pettifogger. Go read the article. Until you fix the barrel to arbor fit, overtime you take the gun apart and put it back together, you have a different gun. UNTILL you read Pettifoggers stuff (most excellent stuff), drop by your local hardware and pick up some 5mm Stainless split washers. drop one down the barrel hole and then shove the arbor in and fit the wedge. Currently, when you push the wedge home, the barrel jams against the cylinder face (look for the scratches). With the washer in there, it will register pretty near correct and the same every time. Even if you whack the wedge.
Coffinmaker