Howdy
Uberti never completely eliminated the gas collar on the cylinder of their version of the Schofield. They shortened it. When they redesigned their Schofield for 45 Colt they made the cylinder longer than the originals in order to accept the longer 45 Colt round. But they did not correspondingly lengthen the frame to accommodate the longer cylinder. Instead they shortened the gas collar so the longer cylinder would fit in the same size frame.
If you read through my earlier post in this section I explain how the long gas collar functions to keep fouling blasted out of the barrel/cylinder gap away from the cylinder pin. Fouling blasted onto the cylinder pin is the main cause of binding in any revolver shooting Black Powder, S&W, Colt, Ruger, Remington, or any other brand. When the gas collar is long enough, it shields the pin from fouling blasted out of the barrel/cylinder gap. The fouling blasts out pretty much in one plane. If the collar is long enough, it sets the opening in front of the gas collar far enough ahead of the barrel/cylinder gap that the fouling does not get past it to bind up the cylinder pin.
Here are a few photos to illustrate the concept.
Although not a Schofield, here are a few photos of my S&W New Model #3. The concept is the same.
First, here is the front of the cylinder showing the gas collar. The gas collar stands about .165 proud of the face of the cylinder.
Here the barrel and cylinder are laid out next to each other so the relationship of the parts can be seen. Notice there is a considerable distance between the end of the barrel and where the cylinder pin emerges from the frame. Also notice the helical clearance cut around the cylinder pin. This feature was common on the arbor of a Colt Cap & Ball revolver. It helps create a space for fouling to migrate to without binding the cylinder.
Here the gun has been reassembled. Notice the distance between the barrel/cylinder gap and the front of the gas collar is about .170 or so, the length of the gas collar. This is the design that S&W came up with well over 100 years ago and it works beautifully for deflecting powder fouling away from the cylinder pin.
Here are some similar photos of a S&W Double Action 44 of mine:
Here is the assembled cylinder and barrel of an Uberti Schofield. I did not snug up the cylinder properly, but you get the idea. I measured the gas collar on this particular gun and it is only about .070 proud of the front of the cylinder.
Here is a photo of that particular cylinder. It is the one in front. You can clearly see the difference in the shape of the cylinder bushing. The cylinder in the rear of this photo also deserves mention. This is an ASM cylinder that Happy Trails modified by adding a longer gas collar to it. He also cut back the area on the frame where the gas collar seats to clear the longer collar.
Here is the modified cylinder with its gas collar removed. Ignore the screw driver bit behind it, that was just to keep it from rolling for the photo. Hap made these collars a slip fit, the originals were pressed in and were not removable. The narrow gas collar that Uberti machines onto their cylinders is an integral part of the cylinder. Incidentally, Hap's gas collar stands about .150 proud of the front of the cylinder.
Sorry, in case you want him to do the modification, Happy Trails is retired. But it is not rocket science once you understand the concept. Any good smith should be able to duplicate his results.
That's the story with why the Uberti Schofields do not function very well with Black Powder. The gas collar is just not long enough to effectively block the cylinder pin from getting coated with fouling when it is blasted out of the barrel/cylinder gap. The fouling is ejected with great force, and it easily finds its way past a short gas collar and gets deposited on the cylinder pin. Some shooters do have good results shooting these guns with Black Powder. I cannot explain why, but most do not get very good results. Generally speaking, if you want to shoot BP in an Uberti Schofield, use as much lube as you can on your bullets. I recommend the Big Lube bullets because they carry tons of lube and will go further in keeping any fouling that makes its way to the cylinder pin soft. I also recommend using the cleanest burning powder you can find. Goex is particularly dirty stuff, it leaves a lot of fouling behind. Swiss is the best and leaves the least fouling behind, but it is expensive. I find that Schuetzen is cleaner burning than Goex and leaves less fouling behind than Goex. Graf sells the same powder as Schuetzen, it is just bottled under their own label. I hear the new KIK is good stuff but I have no personal experience with it.