Hope picture works!..... I have always liked the Schofield model, but am particularly partial to the 1st Model with it's latch.....the 1st Model latch blends into the lines of the revolver, rather elegantly, at least to me. Like many, I had an ASM/Cimarron model, which had problems......contacting Cimarron, at the time, got me a very poor response.....mine spit lead like a cobra.....cylinder/barrel/forcing cone not aligned quite right......buddy had a problem free Uberti.
I am a Uberti fan boy, but the 2nd Model latch just didn't look good. When I was with a certain company, it was discussed to drop ASM and have Uberti make a 1st Model for this company....never happened, and ASM about broke the company with returns/repairs of most of it's offerings......but that's another story.
About this time, S&W came out with their "2000" model Schofield....a 1st model in 45 S&W, however it had a floating firing pin, and some contours way off. A few years ago, I saw an add for Uberti, with a Schofield prominently displayed.......what struck me was the gun pictured, had a 1st Model Latch!!! I also saw several auctions on GB for Uberti Schofields, that pictured a 1st Model for the auction.....contacted a few and you'd have thought I was talking Mandarin, as most had no clue what I was talking about....finally one said he uses "stock photo's from the manufacturer".
I contacted a good friend at Uberti, one who would know of such things, and yes, they had made 1st model latches for a "contract", but the contract had expired and extra latches were used in some production as a substitute for the common 2nd Model.....Uberti had no more 1st model latches........
Last year, on GunBroker, I spied a pair of Uberti Schofields, imported by Stoeger, and they had the 1st Model latch.....but they were 5" guns, and I wanted 7" barrels.....which are exspensive to buy....I bid, but was knocked out as I wasn't going to go high enough for a pair with the wrong barrel length.
Continuing to search, I located some of the latches recently, then set out to aquire a 7" 45 caliber Uberti Schofield....which I did, and retro-fitted the 1st Model latch, and now have an elusive Uberti 1st Model Schofield!