Tale of two guns...
My first Uberti (2017) was the Colt Lightning in .45LC. It was a beautiful rifle and I spent the time polishing the internals so it was very slick and reliable.
I had issues with pretty severe blowback and went through lots of reloads, crimped harder, learned to anneal, slugged the barrel, cast the chamber with cerrosafe and was just about to start loading .454 bullets to see if it would seal better. Before doing that I had a local gunsmith do a chamber casting just to make sure I was going the right direction. Well, he casted the chamber plus 3 inches and found the bore diameter was .449. Luckily I didn?t go .454. He contacted Uberti and they said to send it in and they?d look into it.
5 weeks later my gunsmith said Uberti determined the rifle was unsafe and irreparable. They indicated I should pick a different rifle from their 2019 catalog. There aren?t any Colt Lightning?s in the 2019 catalog! They?ve dropped it from their product line. I ended up contacting the original retailer for a credit (approved by Uberti) and applied it to a Uberti 1876 in 45-60. That was delivered in about 7 days.
Gunsmith called me to pick it up. Just before walking out the door he asked if he could cast the chamber and 3 inches again. He came up with .454. He packed it up and sent it back. Uberti checked it and said it was in spec and they sent it back. I pick it up in the next few days. Gunsmith says I?ll have to shoot .455 or .456 bullets. What? So I?m going to have some questions...
once I get my hands on it. This has cost me some extra bucks with dies, bullets, new sights, shipping and FFL fees all over again. Not very pleased with that.
Anyone else have a tight barrel like this?