Well, I added another Cimarron '73 to my stable. About a year ago, an error was made on a spreadsheet and Cimarron ended up ordering 53 instead of 3 of this particular model: 20" deluxe pistol-grip 32wcf. Now that's a lot of rifles in a caliber that doesn't get a huge number of orders. So they discounted them heavily, as in, so much that I simply could not resist! And I already reload 32-20 for my brother's old Colt and I like that cartridge. So I looked through a few of the first 25 to arrive and found one with really nice wood. I wrote my name on a post-it and stuck it on the box. I wasn't there for a few months and when the next shipment came in, Chip at Cimarron spotted one with even nicer wood, so he moved my name to that one (thanks, Chip!). Well, after about a year they were all sold except that one and I was told that I needed to buy it or let it go. So now it's mine! It is my first pistol grip configuration.
It did have some issues. It had a tendency to fail to extract every so often and leave the empty in the chamber. The extractor is the same as the .357 extractor and was apparently not fitted well for .32 at Uberti. The hook doesn't sit low enough to catch the smaller rim of the .32 vs. the .38 The 'smith at Cimarron said he has had to adjust this on several of the .32's. He fixed mine up and that part is fine now. It also had a very stiff spring on the lever safety, and a very heavy trigger. The required deathgrip to make it shoot was not conducive to accuracy nor speed (not that I'm all that speedy). A D Texaz gave me an extra coil safety spring from the Smith Shop that he had, so I installed that. This required taking the rifle mostly apart, so I went ahead and did a little action job, thinning the springs. Lever works great now, no squeezing needed, and it has a 4 lb. trigger. The carrier on the .32wcf is also the same as the .357, so the loaded rounds kind of zigzag and under spring tension the last round loaded sits at an angle on the carrier and makes it very hard to lever as the rim catches under the frame somewhat at the rear of the carrier. This can happen in some guns made a few years back when Uberti failed to add a required bevel to that area of the frame, but this frame does have the bevel. Shortening the magazine spring helped somewhat. Anyways, after loading the last round I just stick the nose of another round into the loading gate and push the rear of the round on the carrier to the left which straightens it up. Put a Marbles bead on the front. Haven't put it on paper but groups well on steel! Only smokeless for the first couple hundred rounds. Need to get a .312 sizing die for my lubrisizer.
I will have to take a new pic of my "Italian herd" with this rifle added, and add it to the "Show us your 1873" topic.
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