Uberti 1873 cattleman firing pin

[SFC]

I just received my Uberti 1873 cattleman six shooter and tore it apart to clean it.  I removed the hammer, but never messed with the firing pin.  Upon reassembling, I noticed the firing pin in the hammer is loose.  Plus, the hammer won't go all the way forward.  The firing pin will not align with the hole.  Anyone know what to do besides sending it back to Uberti for repair?  That takes along time. 

[stepnmud]

Sounds like you have the base pin a bit to far forward. See if it the base pin will slip out just a bit and let the hammer fall completely. Also the firing pin will normally have a small amount of movement to help it center itself with the firing pin hole in the frame.

[Arcey]

Maybe too far back..................

SFC, try lettin' the hammer down - after you make sure it's empty - while pushin' in the base pin retainer.  If you have the base pin "pinned" in the leading groove instead of the rear groove, the pin will move forward a touch and the hammer will go where it's supposed to.  In the second groove. Ya need ta be careful with that.  Bein' sloppy cost me five misses one mornin'.

The firin' pin movin' around a bit is normal.

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[SFC]

That worked.  Pin too far back.  Rookie mistake. 

[Judge Lead]

Cylinder pin safeties. Don't cha love 'em.

My dear wife went into a category shoot off and got into all sorts of bother because the pins were too far in and the pistols would not fire. She finished the demo, but was extremely upset. This option has now been removed and the pins go all the way home so there will be no further mishaps like this.

Regards

[Arcey]

Aggravatin’, Judge.

My particular one was fairly new.  I like ta put a couple three boxes thru ‘em before I pull ‘em down to re-spring the things.  I can see where things are rubbin’ on each other that way ‘n take care of polishin’ that down while I got it apart.

Had the chance ta catch the error when I took it out the truck ‘n put it in the cart.  Had ‘nother chance at the loadin’ table.  Ain’t like I didn’t know ya could botch it up stickin’ the base pin back in.

Beep…  Click, click.  RO yells hand it off.  I did.  Don’t want no one arguin’ with me when I’m runnin’ the clock so I don't argue.  Get to the unloadin’ table.  They’d cleared it ‘n told me the hammer was hangin’ on sumthin’.  Felt like sayin’, ‘No shi…..’  Just said ‘Yeah, thanks.’ Made sure it was clear, repositioned the base pin ‘n stomped my l’il feet back to the cart.

Damned if I weren’t POed……  At me……

Ya kin cut ‘em or order new ones with a single groove.  These days I just make sure I’ve got it right when I put ‘em in the cart in the parkin’ lot.  Lesson learned.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

I bought a used Cattleman a couple of years ago that had one of those stupid two position pins in it. It is a nod to the government to allow it to be imported. If it was made here in the USA it would not need that stupid pin. In past years Uberti was installing a special safety device directly in the hammer, and those could be troublesome too. At least you can replace the stupid 2 postition pin. I replaced the one in my Cattleman with an aftermarket pin from Belt Mountain.

Unfortunately, Belt Mountain's website seems to have been having some problems recently, I have not been able to acess it. But you can buy the pins from Midway.

[RRio]

You can also push the pin to the safety position, put the gun to full cock, and scribe a line on the pin from where it is sticking out of the frame, then use a dremel tool with one of the thin slitting disks to cut off the excess. Then put a small chamfer on it where you cut off the excess.

I've done that to all of my guns that has the 2 position cylinder pin. Works like a champ!

[Arcey]

Used a 'Carolina Lathe' on mine.  Chucked the thing in a drill 'n walked the thing into the grinder.  Dressed it out with the Dremel.  Just have to watch the heat is all.

[Four Eyed Floyd]

That worked.  Pin too far back.  Rookie mistake. 

Don't feel bad we are all rookies at some point and I had the same proble with mine but didn't have a forum to find out so I just had to experiment until it worked. 

[Virginia Gentleman]

I replaced the base pins on all of my Cimarrons and nitre blued them after I was done with no problems.