Misfires in Uberti Schofield

[Navy Six]

Went to the range today with a friend who brought along an Uberti Schofield in 45 Colt. Never shot one before and was anxious to do so. He had used the gun in Cowboy matches for a couple of years with no problems but had not used it for several years. Long story short, the gun continually mis-fired when I shot it to the tune of about half the rounds  not going off. Those rounds showed a light indent dead center of the primer. Checked for high primers in the remaining rounds of his reloads and there didn't appear to be any. I tried to shoot about 40 rounds with continued misfires. My friend shot the gun the same amount of times and there were NO misfires! We noticed a few times after I got a misfire the hammer was not all the way forward and almost appeared to be resting on the half-cock notch. I made sure to follow through on the trigger pull and was certain the trigger was all the way back against the trigger guard. There are no drag marks on the hammer or firing pin. Anyone have a clue to what happened?

[Abilene]

I'm not overly familiar with Schofields and so not sure if this is involved, but have heard several times that the action design on the S&W is such that you cannot touch the trigger while you cock the gun.  Takes some people some time to get used to this.  I'm not sure what sort of failure occurs with touching the trigger, but perhaps that is why it only misfires for you and not your buddy.

[Fox Creek Kid]

Perhaps you are shooting it two handed with high offhand thumb hold and rubbing the hammer thereby impeding the fall. Shoot it like a man, one handed.   

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[Cowtown]

One day I borrowed a friend's Schofield to take to a match. Fortunately I did not use it in the match as it constantly misfired. I discovered this when I shot it after the match. I was shooting one handed, slowly and deliberately and yet it was exhibiting some of the same problems you are describing. Upon further investigation I determined that depending on how high or how low on the trigger you placed your finger would determine whether the gun's hammer would fall all the way to the primer or not. Granted, this was an Army San Marco and not an Uberti. However the problem was maddening.

I returned the gun to its owner and showed him what the problem was. As far as I know he put the gun back in the safe and has not touched it since. It is a beautiful piece and I would love to see it work properly, if at all possible.

[St. George]

Did someone 'work' on it?

Maybe lightened the mainspring to 'help' the trigger pull when it was newer?

Look to the mainspring, and get a spare from VTI.

Scouts Out!

[Blair]

A light mainspring maybe an issue.

On S&W SA brake tops, there is a notch on the hammer that allows the hammer to be cocked just enough to disengage the latching system for the revolver to be opened for unloading and reloading.
This is just my opinion, but I believe the trigger sear maybe hanging up on the notch before the firing pin can set off the primer. I am not sure what maybe the cause of this. Perhaps it is too much finger tension on the trigger?
My best,
 Blair

[Pettifogger]

The Uberti Schofields have an internal hammer block/safety.  This block is not found on the originals and was added in order to allow the guns to be imported into the U.S.  Chances are you weren't squeezing the trigger as much as your friend and the safety block wasn't totally out of the way of the hammer.  These safeties are not all that reliable and sometimes malfunction no matter who is shooting the gun.   It is very simple to remove it and then the gun operates just like and original.

[Navy Six]

Thank you to all who replied. In response:
Fox Creek Kid--I shot the gun both one handed and two handed and there was no difference.
Abilene--my friend alerted me to the necessity to keeping my finger away from the trigger while cocking.
Cowtown--I discovered my finger was at the very top of the trigger(while firing)and wondered if it made any difference.
St. George--My friend is the original owner and the gun has never been apart.
Blair & Pettifogger--I suspected something along these lines. My friend has a grip like a gorilla and I'm pretty sure I wasn't pulling the trigger any where near what he does. He even kidded me about being too used to "Shooting Colts!"
Again, advice was appreciated.

[Reverend P. Babcock Chase]

Howdy Navy,

One person alluded to a light mainspring. There is a little screw in the front of the grip frame that, if tightened (clockwise) will increase the mainspring tension. you might try a little more tension. I know that too little tension on the mainspring creates problems with the trigger and cylinder bolt.

Reverend Chase

[Scattered Thumbs]

The Uberti Schofields have an internal hammer block/safety.  This block is not found on the originals and was added in order to allow the guns to be imported into the U.S.  Chances are you weren't squeezing the trigger as much as your friend and the safety block wasn't totally out of the way of the hammer.  These safeties are not all that reliable and sometimes malfunction no matter who is shooting the gun.   It is very simple to remove it and then the gun operates just like and original.

Had an Uberti Schofield for some time and removed said safety. Reliability improved tenfold and so did the trigger pull.

[Flint]

A note on mainsprings in top break S&W's... Pettifogger and others may have mentioned it in the past.

Part of the force of the mainspring presses the hammer into the latch (A notch in the Russian, and under the latch (similar to a Remington Rolling Block) on the Schofield.  Too light a mainspring will allow the hammer to bounce, and sometimes allow the revolver to unlatch and shoot open.  Other than hard 19th century primers, and earlier percussion cap habit, most 19th century guns were made with overly heavy mainsprings, but they seldom shot the latch open.....  (The ASM shot open for a different reason)