Best upgrades to the Uberti 1860 Army.

J

John Wesley Hardin

Inactive
I am curious as to what are the best upgrades to the Uberti 1860 Army. I have 2 Centennial New Model Army revolvers, and both are fitted with SliXshots nipples. What other upgrades are available for these revolvers?
 
You could send it to 45dragoon for a bolt block, cap rake and a general tune up and spring change.
 
I believe these have their arbor correctly fitted. If you sill have cap jams you may want a cap post added. If you run them hard and fast an action stop and bolt block would be a good addition.
 
J W Hardin, a New Model Army (1863) is a Remington. An 1860 Army is a Colt. I'm not sure if the Centennial revolvers were just the Colt series or whether they also made Remington models. Uberti makes both types. So, which revolvers are we talking about?
 
Hellgate,

Charles Pate's book "The Colt 1860 Army Revolver" (2018) uses the acronyms: OMA (Old Model Army) for the 1848 Dragoon, OMN (Old Model Navy) for the 1851 Navy, NMA (New Model Army) for the 1860 Army, and NMN (New Model Navy) for the 1861 Navy.

Jim
 
Hellgate, you are right, but incorrect. A New Model Army is in fact a Remington, however the Centennial 1960 New Model Army is an 1860 Army, considered by many to be the "true" 2nd gen Colt, as FAUL had a patent by Colt to produce them in the 1860s in Belgium. A patent that never expired.

Sltm1- you are correct sir. My Centennial's are Belgian made. They are very good revolvers.
 
Hellgate- The Uberti's are in fact Italian made, and the Centennial's are Belgian made. I was referring to both, as I would like to "tune" or "fix" any known problems to them both. So far, the only real issue that I have had with my Centennial's is cap jam. Even with the SliXshot nipples, I still get the occasional cap jam.

All of my revolvers are used for reeneactments, shooting paper blanks with floral foam.
 
J W Hardin, I stand corrected on the nomenclature. Thank you. One thing you can do to further reduce cap jams (someone called it the "Hellgate modification" after me who first described it to the SASS Wire) is to fill in the safety notch on the face of the hammer with J B Weld. One thing that can cause cap jams is the cap can get wedged into the little notch on the bottom of the hammer face and be pulled off the nipple after firing where it gets knocked off by the frame when you pull the hammer back to cock it. By filling the notch you create a flat hammer face that is less likely to pull off a cap. Doing the mod means you need to let the hammer down on an open (unloaded) chamber instead of between nipples on the safety pin. This limits you to 5 loaded chambers. That is no problem in SASS shoots because we only load 5 anyway.
Others have advocated carefully slightly rounding off the sharp edges of the safety notch to reduce cap grabbing without filling in the space thus preserving the use of the safety pins. YMMV My first Colt reproductions were made by Armi San Marco and did not have the pins between the nipples so it was no big deal to fill in the notch.
 
Thanks for the mention Hawg!

JWH, there is a lot that can be done to enhance the longevity and reliability of the open top revolvers regardless where they were made. Barrel/cyl clearances can be adjusted, soft screws hardened, surfaces contoured and polished, spring tensions corrected to proper amounts and/ or changed to coil for lifetime service. As Hawg posted, a bolt block and action stop are two huge steps toward protecting the action parts as well as cylinder notches.
A new addition to my service is an action shield. It keeps any cap fragments out of the action and allows the shooter the ability to dump any debris that falls down the hammer slot.
So, yes, there are a lot of things that can be done to the open top revolvers as well as the top strap revolvers.

Mike
www.goonsgunworks.com
Follow me on Instagram @ goonsgunworks
 
Thanks Dave!!

Well, it attaches to the hammer (so it's just along for the ride!) and basically covers the open area you can normally see when the hammer is in the full cock position. This is when "things" can easily fall into the action, its an open door!! The action shield curves up and back at the forward end and captures any fragment and keeps presenting the fragment each time the action is cycled. All the user has to do is turn the revolver upside down with hammer cocked and dump the debris!! Easy as falling down!!

Mike
www.goonsgunworks.com
Follow me on Instagram @ goonsgunworks
 
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