A few days ago I decided to function test my '66 Uberti. I didn't have any boxed up ammo but did find a cartridge near the reloading bench. I loaded that through the loading gate (Winchester calls it the ladle), racked lever down, cartridge popped onto lifter, racked lever up to chamber.....UH-Oh!
Evidently the reason that cartridge was never boxed up was because it wasn't FL sized! Now I have a jammed receiver. Went on-line and took a crash course in "1866 disassembly 101". You definitely want good gunsmith screwdrivers for this as those screws are in there tight! In the meantime I did reload a few cartridges. Yesterday I took the rifle down, cleared the jam, polished off some burr edges on some parts with my HF diamond Swiss file set, lubed rubbing parts and re-assembled the rifle. I "proved the cartridges" with my Lyman multiple cartridge test block and slipped 3 cartridges into the magazine. Those cartridges did chamber, but took a lot of effort. Ejected great. So now my question is: are these guns finicky about what they will digest? OA cartridge length? The bullets were from Missouri Bullet Company, 140 grain SWC Cowboy Action #14. I just bought a box of factory loads so will try those today. Before I got this gun I was reading about it on a couple of cowboy action forums; it sounded to me like guys were shooting round nose ammo in them. In my rifle-cartridge lever guns, I shoot RNFP ammo to avoid recoil setting off any ammo in the magazine. Evidently recoil isn't great enough in a 38 Spl. to do this? Those of you who have this gun, I would like to hear of your experiences.
