EMF Armi San Marco SAA in 45 Colt

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deerslayer303

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Anyone know anything about the Armi San Marco SAA Repros? Were they any good?Any issues, etc? I have a line on one with a 7.5" Barrel. T

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This is it.
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Armi San Marcos are very good copies of originals and many parts will interchange. Like any Italian clone there are some better than others.
I love the one piece grips!
 
My ASM .44-40 is pretty good. I put on hard rubber grips to match my Colt and had FLG square the rear sight notch and tweak the barrel to zero.
 
With you Guy's reassurance I did. And I'm real happy I did. This thing is really nice. It seems to be an Old one for sure but hasn't been shot much if at all. It's the EMF Hartford CT. Model. Has the Proper fixed firing pin on the hammer. Well it has some movement but it's not the retractable Uberti Style Pin. The Pistol itself seems dimensionally smaller than my Cattleman. I'll have to compare them. I don't see the two letter date code stamp on it either like all the other Italian repops. I appreciate the help guys.

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A bit late now, since you've already got the gun, but Armi San Marcos doesn't have a good name with me.

Spoke to a friend who knows a bit more about them than I do, and he said he's seen several of their SAA repros and they were all good.

HOWEVER, I had one of their S&W Schofields (.45 Colt, not an exact reproduction) and while the gun looked absolutely beautiful, it did not work well. It "shot off the face" (meaning the gun unlocked and opened) at least once in each cylinder load AND would have one or two "first strike fail to fire" each cylinder as well. Standard factory .45 Colt ammo, not heavy loads.

It was a joy to look at, and a disaster to shoot.

Hope yours works better.
It should, there's less things to screw up in the SAA design.

Good Luck!
 
Thanks for the Reply 44 AMP. Someday I want to get a Schofield Repro, but I don't read good things about them, that and the price is not working man friendly right now

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Who's "FLG"? Is he someone whose initials I should recognize?
Click to expand...

Friendly Local Gunsmith. Down the road from FLD, Friendly Local Dealer.

HOWEVER, I had one of their S&W Schofields (.45 Colt, not an exact reproduction) and while the gun looked absolutely beautiful, it did not work well.
Click to expand...

That is how I came by my ASM SAA. A friend and I read a favorable review of the ASM Schofield by an Australian user in the SASS Cowboy Chronicle. He made it out to be better than the Uberti. So we each ordered one.

One of them did not work out of the box in the store, so FLD returned it and got another. When shot, ours did not kick open but they would not hit much, either. Mine was nine inches off to the left at 20 yards. His nearly as far. FLG ran a range rod down the barrels, or tried to, the barrels had enough curve that it would not go through.

We returned them to FLD who returned them to the importer who fooled with them a bit and then sent them back to Italy. Several months later, the importer offered us a refund. My friend took the cash, added to it, and bought a Colt, I applied it to a ASM SAA which was fine, with the changes noted to make it look and handle like my Colt.

ASM did not last long after that, and it nearly put the importer out of business.
 
Shot the Revolver just a few minutes ago. I got two rounds off. Not bad, windage is right on the money. But she shoots about 6" high at 10 yards. I can work with that. But it has an issue I need to figure out. The rims of the cartridges are hanging up somewhere on the recoil shield. In the area of the bottom of the loading gate. I was firing factory Armscor 255 grain LSWC. The rounds are not too long as the bullets are not where near the end of the throats. Its almost like the rims of the cartridges are too thick. I grabbed some of my reloads in Starline cases and it's not quite as bad but the rounds still drag some somewhere.

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The .44-40 cylinder I had fitted to my .44 Special Colt was tight.
It would not accept Remington ammo or brass at all. Winchester is best, Starline is OK if I don't try to use .428" bullets.
 
Both the Starline and the Armscor rounds would drop right in. But as the cylinder turns it binds up. So I'm thinking the cylinder is too long to accept the rim thickness of the cases. I wish we had a good pistol smith around here but we do not.

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I have an ASM Dakota tuned by Bob Munden . ASM is the only gun he would work on other the Colts. I shoot 45 Colt and I have no issues. Love it
 
The recoil shield changes to bring the rounds to the correct head space.
On both of my Cattlemen there was a ridge that would catch.
 

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Thank you for posting that pic Dave. I inspected it this morning. And that is exactly where the trouble is on this one too. I'll massage that area with some jewelers files and some sand paper.

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Upon further examination, the recoil shield on this ASM doesn't step up it's the same all the way around except for the loading gate area. There was a burr sticking up right by the hand that I took down. Not finished yet. Then there is another area right by the loading gate hinge that looks like the cases are scrapping by on as the cylinder rotates. I'm going to polish up the burr area, but not quite sure what I'm gonna do about the loading gate area.
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Taking that Burr down seemed to do the trick. Now it rotates around freely with no hang ups. I'll shoot it later to confirm.

On another note, y'all look at this base pin :) it looks horrible. It's rough and you can feel the tooling grooves. I'm gonna order another base pin for it. One for a Colt model P should fit this one, right? This is the later spring loaded button to release the pin.
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If you are going to shoot black powder the rough cylinder pin may hold more lube.
Also polish a little bit off of the face of the cylinder bushing will give you more cylinder/recoil shield clearance, but mind the head space.
 
That's a great point Dave. I didn't even think about that. I did chuck that pin up on a drill and with some oil and 00 steel wool, I made it much smoother. The tooling grooves are still there. So I'll just leave it alone. Because my revolvers will see a steady dose of BP rounds.

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