I acquired this Uberti/Navy Arms 1873 saddle ring trapper a few months ago. It is chambered in 44/40.
The rifle looks brand new and I assumed it was a year or two old. I've been reading through a bunch of old posts on this forum trying to get a little smarter about this model as I have a bunch of lever guns but this is my first 1873. I found the thread on Italian date codes and looked mine up. The code on the gun is [AD] which is shown as 1978? My common sense tells me it is unlikely that this gun survived 43 years in this condition. I have attached a picture of the gun and the code. What do y'all think?
Phil