Uberti 66

[bladeracer]

It seems I now own a shiny brass rifle by the name of Uberti
Pretty heavy thing but feels good in the hands.
Have to make some ammo for it so I can have a play tomorrow.

[Daddybang]

That's a great looking lever BR!!

[bladeracer]

That's a great looking lever BR!!

It is quite pretty
I know absolutely nothing about Uberti so I'm just doing some research to try to ascertain the exact model and age.

[Stix]

Looks good...
Is all the leather your addition or did it come with it...?

[Noisydad]

These new- fangled designs are amazing! Can’t imagine what they’ll think of next!

[Daddybang]

That's a great looking lever BR!!

It is quite pretty
I know absolutely nothing about Uberti so I'm just doing some research to try to ascertain the exact model and age.

Yeah I'm the same I've seen them advertised and that's about it. Looks solidly built will be interesting to see what ya dig up on it

[Supaduke]

Very handsome rifle, what calibre is it?

[bladeracer]

Looks good...
Is all the leather your addition or did it come with it...?

Nope, picked it up just like that. Belonged to a young woman who has gotten out of Cowboy Action.

[bladeracer]

Very handsome rifle, what calibre is it?

.38 Special. Can't quite get my head around that yet
I'll have to trim some brass for it.

[bladeracer]

It's the Yellowboy Short Rifle.
https://www.uberti-usa.com/1866-yellowboy-rifle

And the CL code indicates 2013 production.

[juststarting]

Screw you, Bladeracer, screw you!

[Gun-nut]

Beautiful rifle, that brass receiver looks absolutely amazing. Congrats on the purchase

[bladeracer]

Screw you, Bladeracer, screw you!

I think there might be a bit of a queue JS
My dealer says that if I find a .357 he'll happily buy the Uberti off me.

3.84kg though. Pretty hefty alongside the Marlin '94 .44 Mag at 2.95kg.

[Gwion]

These new- fangled designs are amazing! Can’t imagine what they’ll think of next!

Nice pick up BR.

[in2anity]

B-e-a-utiful blade. Should be an absolute hoot to plink with. You getting that one for PCCLAS mate? Also are you gonna throw a tang on her?

I’m picking up my 24” Chiappa 92 tomorrow - so bloody excited!!

[bladeracer]

B-e-a-utiful blade. Should be an absolute hoot to plink with. You getting that one for PCCLAS mate? Also are you gonna throw a tang on her?

I’m picking up my 24” Chiappa 92 tomorrow - so bloody excited!!

Yep, PCCLAS.
Not sure with the sights yet. I'll try the full buckhorn that's on there now and see how I go.
I can't see any easy way of mounting a peep anywhere other than the tang.

[juststarting]

Great looking rifle. Love the octagonal barrel.

[Noisydad]

Just out of casual interest - besides BR with this lovely thing and my Uberti built 1860 Henry, does anyone else here have a repro 1860 or '66 or '73?

[Daddybang]

3.84kgs is a good solid rifle how's the thrown length ?

[in2anity]

Yep, PCCLAS.
Not sure with the sights yet. I'll try to full buckhorn that's on there now and see how I go.
I can't see any easy way of mounting a peep anywhere other than the tang.

Good for those ribs of yours mate I've got a marbles coming for my 92, although it's taking it's sweet time to get here... it's frustrating because i'm not going to measure/waste my handloads through it until I'm confident I can shoot it consistently (developing handloads with buckhorns is just too variable for me).

[bladeracer]

3.84kgs is a good solid rifle how's the thrown length ?

Due to my shoulder I doubt I can throw it very far at all. Much easier to throw the Marlin

What does "thrown length" refer to? It's very comfortable to shoulder. The woman is quite petite so I was surprised she liked it like this. Without removing the leather I can't tell if the butt stock has been altered from stock length. It would've been helpful if Uberti specified the overall length of the rifle. It's 995mm overall as is with the 500mm barrel.

I thought about getting the .357 Mag to reduce the damage to my shoulder by the .44 Mag. The extra weight of this should help even more, I'll be surprised if it doesn't shoot like a .22LR

And my Henry Classic .22LR has arrived at the shop just now so I'll have to go in again for that one.

[bladeracer]

Good for those ribs of yours mate I've got a marbles coming for my 92, although it's taking it's sweet time to get here... it's frustrating because i'm not going to measure/waste my handloads through it until I'm confident I can shoot it consistently (developing handloads with buckhorns is just too variable for me).

I am bothered by not being able to mount a scope for load development. I was figuring on just drilling it for a Winchester side-mount...until I noticed how incredibly well-fitted the receiver is. This must've been made by hand, the joins in the brass are just barely visible lines. I don't think I can bring myself to be able to drill this one. Where the wood meets the brass is no different either, the wood could simply be a sticker that's been wrapped around the brass, except a sticker would leave a discernible edge I don't want to have to drill the tang either as that is stamped "Mod 66 SPORTING RIFLE".

Cowboy Action is pretty close-range and the sight is fully down. I'm guessing she used it as a ghost ring for snap-shooting. I'll be using the notch which works surprisingly well on the Marlin, hopefully it'll be sufficient for now at least.

[in2anity]

She's a beauty mate

[Daddybang]

Sorry should be throw not thrown. Refering to how far down the lever comes when cycling. Some are short some are long.

[bladeracer]

She's a beauty mate

Considering I'm not actually a fan of lever rifles I seem to be getting a nice selection of them

[BRNO_Bigot]

Very handsome rifle, what calibre is it?

.38 Special. Can't quite get my head around that yet
I'll have to trim some brass for it.

Bahh - if it isn't the real, original .44 calibre rimfire with 28 grains of black powder, it's rubbish ....

Looks pretty good and - SHINY .... as we said in Firefly ....

[Stix]

Considering I'm not actually a fan of lever rifles I seem to be getting a nice selection of them

And a knowledge base to go with it...

So what would your top 3 recommendation's be for a reloader's first lever rifle be...?

[in2anity]

Considering I'm not actually a fan of lever rifles I seem to be getting a nice selection of them

And a knowledge base to go with it...

So what would your top 3 recommendation's be for a reloader's first lever rifle be...?

The one big benefit of a pistol cartridge is you can use a carbide die without any lube; that cuts out the brass cleaning step completely. And shooting lead in a pistol/straight-wall cartridge is "meant-to-be", meaning lower running costs and quite feasibly milder and more pleasant loads. Admittedly a rifle cartridge is a superior longer-range beast (for example the 30/30 still hits damn hard at 200m) - so IMO it really depends on your intended usage. If it's going to be purely for hunting and shooting factory jacketed projectiles, go for a rifle cartridge like the 30/30. With regard to brand, do not rush into buying a Marlin with a microgroove barrel - it's a uphill battle getting them optimized for lead bullets. Look into the Marlin CB rifles if you insist on a marlin. Oh and get something with as tight twist as possible - slow heavy bullets work great smacking gongs way out there.

If I had to pick one, i'd say a 45-70 - it's an extremely versatile caliber (if you handload for it).

[in2anity]

Considering I'm not actually a fan of lever rifles I seem to be getting a nice selection of them

Mate anyone would think you're in love!

Here's a sneak peak of my latest PCCLAS girl:

More photos to come...

bum.jpg (668.48 KiB) Viewed 7355 times

[bladeracer]

And a knowledge base to go with it...

So what would your top 3 recommendation's be for a reloader's first lever rifle be...?

I really couldn't be making such recommendations
You would have to be much more specific as to cartridge and purpose at least.

The main difference I've found in reloading is having to crimp the bullets due to the tube magazine. As long as you keep your brass trimmed to consistent length, the crimp happens automatically when seating the bullet, so you don't really need to worry about it once the die is set up. It's not a bad idea to flare the brass before seating cast bullets which adds a step, but that goes for rifle cartridges as well.

I will suggest avoiding Marlin MicroGroove bores if your intention is to shoot lead, it can be done but is significantly more involved than it should be. Honing out sizing dies gets boring very quickly, and having to cast very hard bullets also gets expensive.

I hadn't thought about hunting with the levers, but the .44 Mag hits damned hard with a 240gn bullet at relatively close ranges.
I can't say that I'm overly impressed with the reliability of lever rifles. Probably the best use of a lever would be for bunches of pigs, but without the reliability required I'd personally go with a controlled-feed bolt rifle. There is an awful lot going on there when swinging the lever. Going with a box mag rather than a tube would remove a large part of the reliability problems though.

For me, I like to be able to mount a scope for load development, which I can't do with the Uberti, and some of the other reproductions of the older designs, especially the top-ejectors are just difficult. A side-eject action allows mounting sights on top. It also allows you to use a brass catcher.
I also prefer an aperture sight over open sights, and not all designs make that easy either.

As for cartridges, I'd go with .44 Magnum and .30-30 as the main two, then either .45-70 or .357 Magnum depending on your specific requirements. While you can certainly load the .45-70 down to .44 Magnum levels, you are still stuck with feeding those huge rounds through the rifle. There are a bunch of other options but I don't think any of them do anything that those four (.357, .44, .30-30, .45-70) can't take care of very effectively. I am quite curious to try target bullets in a .30-30 single-loaded, but that means trying to identify an action with enough room for longer rounds, and that allows single-loading. The Marlin '94 for example allows single loading, the Model 66 certainly does not.

I put 50rds through the Henry as soon as I got home today. It's certainly a more effective feed design than the Norinco (which is a Winchester 9422 copy). For the extra $50 or so I would recommend the Henry, although I do quite like the Norinco. Off the bench at 100m and offhand at 40m the Henry groups roughly the same as the Norinco, although I don't like the Henry sight picture at all. I think I'm going to need a much finer front post for a start. Tomorrow I'll throw a scope on it and see how accurate it can be, then I'll put a Williams aperture on and see if I can improve my offhand shooting.