Uberti 1860 Army Long Cylinder revolver
Uberti 1860 Army Long Cylinder, another replica detailing the evolution of transitional Colt cartridge revolvers
Uberti 1860 Army Long Cylinder revolver
When in the second half of the XIX Century the metallic cartridge made its appearance on an industrial scale, it was clear to everybody that it would become a game changer in the world of portable firearms.
Right after the end of the American Civil War, the number of available black powder revolvers was so high that the idea of transforming them to breechloading systems accepting metallic cartridges was absolutely a priority. Not an easy operation anyway, but cheaper than putting together a new gun, and with the great possibility to use heaps of revolver parts lying in the warehouses after the Civil War.
But the breech-loading conversion of finished black powder revolvers took different paths in respect of the recovering of huge amount of spare parts to assemble cartridge revolvers.
The new Uberti 1860 Army Long Cylinder replica belongs to the transitional era were the use of bored-through cylinders and other technical modifications allowed to use metallic cartridges in the existing Cap&Ball revolvers.
Not an official conversion revolver, the 1860 Army Long Cylinder represents one of the cheapest adaptations from the use of muzzle-loading to breech-loading cylinders, realized by simply putting together available Colt 1860 Army black powder spare parts and adapting them to accept a newly machined “long” cylinder: nicknamed this way, as the cylinder seemed to be longer due to the absence of the rear rebated section typical of the 1860 Army revolver.
Originals had the hammer modified to strike the rim of the .44 Rimfire cartridge they were usually chambered for; a rear sight on the barrel breech replaced the V notch of the original black powder hammer; and the breech shield right side was milled to allow the cylinder to be loaded from the rear.
While maintaining the overall appearance of the original revolvers, the new Uberti 1860 Army Long Cylinder replica is chambered for the .45 Colt cartridge and features a modified hammer with the Uberti “Improved” safety system.
To better fit the needs of modern sport shooters, but unlike the originals, this new replica has a side loading gate and a spent case “manual” ejector housed in the loading lever.
Company notes
Established in 1959 by Aldo Uberti as a manufacturer of black powder Civil War era revolvers, the A. Uberti Spa company has gained over the years a fame for skillful craftsmanship of high quality historic reproductions and has expanded its production to a wide catalog of faithful Old West historic firearms, also used in many famous cinema and television productions.
Manufactured with exacting historic accuracy, nonetheless Uberti replicas carry improvements over the originals, making use of modern steels, modern production techniques and machinery, and design modifications that allow Uberti firearms to grant safety and set the standard against which all historic replicas of the American West are judged.