Editing, rendering, and uploading to Youtube will take a while, so I don't know when I'll post it. But I decided to chronicle my work on a stock 1866 SRC from Cimarron. First, I don't know why ANYONE would shoot one of these before first disassembling it and giving it a THOROUGH cleaning. Coffinmaker, you've posted before about machine swarf in these, but I was unprepared for the abundance of both brass and steel shavings inside. I don't even know why there would be steel bits in there, but they were as numerous as the brass shavings. I guess I tend to forget how much work I've done on a rifle when I subsequently compare it to another. For instance, when I compared my Uberti 1873 to my Miroku '73, I was actually comparing the Uberti post home-gunsmithing to an out-of-the-box Miroku. But with the work on my 1866 basically completed, though I give the nod to Uberti for a more authentic rendering, the Miroku products are head and shoulders above Uberti in quality. This may be the last Uberti I buy.
Although purchased new and levered (by me) less than five times before I broke it down, the tips of the action springs already had significant wear. The average Joe who buys one of these, unless he's a serious CAS guy, probably isn't going to get into the guts for a while, and I shuddered to think what kind of damage that rifle would have done to itself had some average Joe bought it instead.
One interesting observation about the lever. This rifle shows a production date of 2014. But the lever still has a replaceable cam. That made it easier for me to work on it, because I could remove the cam and not worry about buggering up the rest of the lever while I stoned away that odd angle. But the replaceable cam was puzzling, because I thought this was discontinued long before 2014. Speaking of which, why are Uberti lever cams higher on the outside than the inside? This seems guaranteed to wear out the action spring tip, but it doesn't appear to be the result of sloppy machining; it looks very deliberate, and it took a good deal of time to stone this square.
Thanks to Coffinmaker for his previous posts about positive slam-down modifications. My '66 is in .45 Colt. And while my case neck annealing procedures have eliminated blow by problems for me, I elected to perform this mod. just in case. Fortunately, my hole drilled square and centered, and the tapping went smoothly. It really ended up textbook and I saved myself $35 bucks by not purchasing a spare lifter arm first. Since I'm not a competitor, I elected to only purchase a spare when/if I ruined the stock one.
I scrimped a little more and elected not to purchase one of the aftermarket ladles. I know that the Uberti one isn't as authentically deep as the aftermarket ones, but the Uberti one looked nice enough. I reinforced it by making and fitting a steel rib behind the tab and silver-soldering it in place. I surprised myself by getting it right the first time.
Now for the problems. I don't know how Uberti managed to install the bolt, because it just would not come out no matter how much I finessed it. Ultimately, I had to just pry it out, cursing and sweating and worrying about ruining the frame. There was no bevel on the back of the bolt to ease its passage out, so I ended up filing one myself prior to reassembly. There were already scoring marks on the boss in front of the rear frame toggle pin from Uberti assemblers' ham-handed installation of that bolt, so I don't know why they didn't just bevel the rear like all the other ones I've seen. The mainspring had deep grind marks across the top from left to right. It was a spring failure waiting to happen. The hammer face has a peen line across it from contact with the firing pin extension. This is the second Uberti I've owned with that malady. On my 1876, I stoned it smooth and had to Kasenit the face to keep it from reappearing. Is this just a common thing and self-limiting, or have I just been unlucky? I haven't addressed it on my 1866 yet; I'm waiting to hear from you all about that.
On the plus side, I actually managed to remove every screw without buggering up any--even the band screws and the magazine plug. BUT, I just noticed tonight after reassembly that the front sight is canted. Evidently, it is pretty easy to twist the front band prior to tightening it down, which cants the attached front sight. I hadn't considered that before I removed the magazine tube. I'm thinking that I'll have to take a screwdriver with me when I sight this one in and periodically loosen the front band, twist the sight, and tighten it back down until I have the shots centered. I expect this to be an aggravating and tedious range trip.
Of course, I had to remove the magazine tube and clamp it in a barrel vice to get the magazine plug out. But when I managed to remove the plug without damaging the slot (miracle of miracles), I briefly entertained the idea of removing its threads and drilling and tapping it for an original style retaining screw. Ultimately, I postponed that idea for lack of suitable screws and taps. But has anyone done this? Reinstalling the plug to a snug but not "Uberti trained gorilla" tight fit left it clocked to the left slightly. It is unsightly to me, but at least I can remove it for cleaning now.
I'm pleased overall with how this came out, and I expect that my memories of all the work required will fade in time, leading me to have a higher opinion of Uberti than I really should. I'm really starting to question what matters to me more--authentically shaped internals and design, or quality in construction. I chronicled some slicking up work I did on my Miroku '73 recently (which only took a few hours, compared to the 8-10 I lavished on the Uberti). I haven't edited that video yet either. But despite its obvious departures in internal construction authenticity, the build quality superiority over Uberti has inspired me to put a Miroku '66 in 44-40 on my "wish-list" at several distributors. If enough time has passed that the 8-10 hours work I invested in the Uberti has lost some of its significance with me, I just may put the Uberti up for sale.