EUROARMS 1873 .357 Rifle

[Bear Claw Chris Lappe]

Need your help folks, while I love SA pistols, I'm not at informed on rifles, and someone has offered me am 1873 /357 magnum in like new condition, made by "EUROARMS, BRESCIA, ITALY"

I'm not a CAS competitor, just want a decent rifle to enjoy with my .357 sixguns.

Were these OK guns?  And what would be a good price on a nice one?

[Pettifogger]

Very well made guns and one of the few other companies besides Uberti to make a decent 73.  Discontinued years ago and there are no spare parts.  However, if you are not a competitor and it is in good working condition, it should last for a long time.  HOWEVER, even though it is a .357 the action is not strong.  It is not a gun to try and shoot super hot hand loads through.

[Bear Claw Chris Lappe]

Thanks, I'm bouncing around the "net" looking for info' on them, and found a forum where someone said they will not feed .38sp ammo, anyone know if that's true???

[Advertising]

[Pettifogger]

Depends.  Read this and you will be able shoot .38s.

http://www.theopenrange.net/forum/index.php?topic=5274.0

[Bear Claw Chris Lappe]

Thanks, gonna have to think about that.  I tend to shoot a lot of .38's, and not sure I want to have it modified, when I can get other brands that feed them already.

[Pettifogger]

Did you read the article?  There really isn't a "modification" just some polishing of the feed ramp.  Most of the ammo shot out of 73's is .38 Special.

[Long Johns Wolf]

Chris: I have one of these Euroarms Win 73s. Mine was originally in .44-40 ("long" cartridge) and converted to shot the .44 Colt ("short" cartridge). I use her for years now in CAS activities and she never let mey down. During the conversion process nothing was done to alter the carrier.
This might indicate that "yours" might cycle the shorter .38 Special cartridge just as well as the longer .357 Mag.
Incidentally the initiates told me that the Euroarms 73 is much closer to the dimensions of the original Win 73 than the Uberti one.
Long Johns Wolf

[Bear Claw Chris Lappe]

Thanks, I saw the part about milling and thought it was a much more involved modification.

Would $450.00 be to high for one in like new condition?

[rebsr52339]

You kidding!!!       If you don't want it, I do. Just let me know where it is.

[Bear Claw Chris Lappe]

Just got home and found a message from him, should see it first hand this afternoon!

[Bear Claw Chris Lappe]

Here she is!

I met him to check it out, and "like new" turned out to be an understatement, after a thorough going over, I do not believe the gun had ever been fired.  I did not appear to have even been loaded, not a single mark on it.

I ran 2 boxes through it just now, and man does it shoot! (.357's, it will NOT feed .38sp's if you put more than 1 in it)

I feed a box of CCI Blazer Brass 158gr JHP's flawlessly and at 25 yards was dead on the sights.  I hit a Pepsi can with the very first shot.

I was almost as accurate with a box of 20 year old CCI Blazer aluminum cased stuff, but you really had to close the lever hard to get the extractor to go over the aluminum case rim, and it gouged them bad even then.  Will not use them in it anymore, but with brass cased ammo it was fine.

Here's a quick cell phone picture after we got done shooting, crappy picture with fingerprints all over the blueing.



Thanks for the help folks, I am really happy with this rifle!!!!

[Bear Claw Chris Lappe]

I found a website for Euroarms, and just out of curiosity sent them an email with the info' and serial number of this carbine and asked if they had any info' about it.....got a reply back, that it was made in January of 1973!