Uberti Merriam’s Turkey
“Where the hell did he come from?” I turned back from watching the turkeys that were moving off 100 yards away to see a 2-year-old tom facing me in full strut, just yards from my decoys. He’d come in silently from the other direction. Slowly, I raised the Uberti Hunter Revolver. Following the crisp trigger break at three and a quarter pounds, the 185 gr Sierra JHP went into and through the tom’s spine just above the tip of his wishbone. He crumpled on the spot nine yards away with barely a twitch.
I harvested the tom using Uberti’s new model 1873 Hunter Revolver in .45 Colt on my third day of hunting Merriam’s wild turkeys in Wyoming’s Black Hills. While the revolver supplied to me by Uberti’s parent company (Benelli USA) for testing was chambered in .45 Colt, it is also available in .44 Magnum. The well-made revolver is based on their 1873 Cattleman single-action series, but features the longer Uberti 1860-style grip, which helps accommodate recoil and mildly gloved hands. My hands are average in thickness and fit most large sized gloves. The Uberti’s grips fit me well, even with the light gloves I wore turkey hunting.
About the Uberti
Known for their attractive and period correct replica firearms, Uberti has broken the mold with this offering. Out of the box, the Hunter Revolver looks like a pristine, perfectly blued 1873 Single Action Army sporting a 7½” octagonal barrel, case hardened hammer, and very nice walnut grips. However, there’s one exception, the cylinder is not fluted. Further distancing itself from the Colt SAA of yesteryear, this firearm is designed to be a modern hunting handgun. As such, it comes supplied with a Picatinny rail that mounts to the top of the pre-drilled and tapped barrel with three included screws. The gun sports a MSRP of $829.00.
To ready the revolver for my hunt, I wanted a scope that was small, light and would look good on a SAA. So, after cinching the Picatinny base down with 25-inch pounds of torque on each screw, I mounted a Leupold 2X pistol scope using their PRW2 rings. I have found these rings with their cross-slot mounting system to work very well in securing scopes to handguns. The complete package loaded with 5 rounds tipped the scale at just58 oz. (compared to 46 oz. out of the box). Now that is a comfortable amount of handgun to pack and hunt with, especially considering it is only 13 inches in overall length.
Uberti Optics
Spring weather in Wyoming is a crap shoot. When a few nice days finally arrived, it was time to see if the Uberti would shoot as good as it looked. Because the revolver is intended to be a hunting handgun, I approached testing and evaluation the same way I would line out any new revolver in order to get it ready for a hunt. This meant working up a variety of handloads.
All my loads relied on new Starline brass and Federal large pistol primers. They were purposely kept to what should have been near or below SAAMI pressure specs. for the .45 Colt(14,000 psi). Even though the same frame and cylinder are used on the .44 Magnum chambering, the milder loads were constructed with the intent to pursue wild turkeys at ranges I knew would be less than 35 yards or so. There was no need for hotter rounds. Although, the gun should easily handle 180 gr to 200 gr bullets between 1,100 to 1,200 fps, plenty for deer at reasonable ranges.
On the Range
A variety of loads were tested using Accurate #5, Unique, Trail Boss, and Hogdgon HS6 powders. Atop the various powders, I seated four different bullets: T&B Bullet’s 255 gr (.452) poly-coated lead Keith style SWC; a similarly molded traditional lead 255 gr (.452) SWC cast by West Coast Bullets; some softer cast 250 gr (.453) LDRN; and Sierra’s 185 gr JHP (.4515). The top performing loads where the poly-coated SWC using Unique at a velocity of 740 fps, and the Sierra 185 JHPs pushed out of the muzzle at 925 fps by HS6.
All accuracy and precision testing was done off a homemadebitty bag, on a bench, from the kneeling position to simulate the type of shot I most consistently use when hunting. The poly-coated lead bullets produced 3-shot groups of 0.75 inches at 25 yards, while the JHP’s averaged just under an inch. These loads, as well as all the others, were fired using the revolver’s field safe capacity of 5 rounds, since this model of gun should always be carried hammer down on an empty chamber. Touching off five shots opened the 25-yard groups up to a combined average of 2.5 inches for the poly and JHP bullets with all powder chargestested.
Uberti Accuracy
Overall, shooting precision from the Hunter Revolver’s 1:16 RH twist barrel was good. Seventeen different loads were fired yielding 25 yard, 3-shot groups that varied from 0.375 inches to 2.25 inches, averaging 1.2 inches. 5-shot groups for these same loads ran between 1.75 inches and 4.75 inches and averaged 2.75 inches. The poorest performing load by far was the 250 gr LDRN pushed by Trail Boss at cowboy action bullet speeds. Its groupings were over double that of all the other loads. This was likely a result of the larger bullet diameter, as cylinder throat diameter and forcing cone design can cause affect performance of lead bullets.
Firing the Uberti was some of the first shooting under my belt after recovering from arm surgery, and consistently accurate hand gunning is a perishable skill. So, I suspect my test groups would have been a little tighter if I had more range time prior to testing. Because, after spending more time on the range shooting the Uberti and practicing with my chosen 185 gr JHP huntingload, I was able to put 5 shots into just under 2 inches at 50 yards. Another nice thing about this load was that a 25 yard zero produced a perfect “maximum point blank range” for the hunt I was planning, with shots between 15 yards and 50 yardsimpacting within an inch and a half of each other vertically.
Overall, shooting and hunting with the new Uberti 1873 Hunter Revolver was really fun! The gun is well made and very attractive. Plus, given my ranching / cowboy background, I was totally captivated with the traditional Colt SAA platform and octagonal barrel – especially in a handgun designed for hunting. The crisp trigger with about a perfect pull weight for hunting and the gun’s accuracy really pulled it together for me. Finally, the test gun’s cylinder gap of six thousandths of an inch provided a good balance for shooting lead and jacketed bullets.
I Had to Keep It
There are some things to consider as I decided to purchase the test gun. Finding quality leather to pack a scoped SAA will require a custom holster and, given my shooting style, extended replacement grips may be a consideration for controlling hotter loads. Further, to ensure reliability on hunts, replacing the flat trigger spring with a coil spring setup up is a worthy consideration, since the flat trigger springs of SAA’s have a reputation for snapping in two at inopportune times.
Summery of the Uberti
To put a bow on my experience with the Uberti Hunter Revolver- it is a good choice for the handgun hunter looking to take anything from varmints to medium sized game within about 125yards. What is also very cool, is that you can do this with a light weight and well handling hunting revolver. One that harkens back to a time and place that is pure American cowboy. And you know… I suspect if Tom Selleck’s character, Matthew Quigley, was more partial to pistols, he’d use this one.
Joe Sandrini