Howdy
I saw a video about the new Uberti design with the floating firing pin in the hammer about six months ago. The video was shot at a European gun show by a European gun person I respect a great deal. He has several videos out about Black Powder firearms and he really knows his stuff. However I was not aware that Uberti was going to stop shipping their revolvers with the more traditional Colt style lockwork to the US.
No, this has nothing to do with regulations for shipping revolvers into the US, the safety mechanisms Uberti already uses, such as the two position center pin, cover that. So it must be from an insurance liability standpoint with Uberti. It is simple to remove the stock two position center pin from an Uberti and replace it with a more traditional one piece pin, I did that with the one Cattleman I still own. So from a product liability standpoint I'll bet Uberti is just covering their butt.
Here is a link to the video. The discussion about the new Uberti mechanism is about halfway through.
Here is a link to a video put out by Uberti.
Note, in both videos the term 'transfer bar' is used. However, the mechanism does not employ a transfer bar in the sense of a Ruger transfer bar. More properly, I would call it an actuator. The mechanism actuates the firing pin and pushes it forward. A transfer bar transfers energy from a hammer to a floating firing pin.
I can understand a little bit that folks are upset about not having four clicks, but I can assure you that when you fire a revolver that has four clicks, you don't hear the clicks. If you do, you are cocking the hammer awfully slow. Not advocating the new system, but I was shooting Rugers long before I bought a Colt style revolver, and I never had a problem with a New Model Ruger or the reduced number of clicks. Listening to four clicks is great when you are fondling the gun while watching your favorite John Wayne movie, but it doesn't make much difference on the firing line. I would be more interested in how the new mechanism affects the trigger pull, because the trigger will have to travel farther to actuate the floating firing pin than normally happens to release the hammer from the full cock notch.
That sucks. I like the four clicks! Glad I have my USFA SAA. An SAA is not an SAA without the four clicks.
Not to be too much of a nit picker, but if the gun does not say Colt on it, it is not a SAA. Single Action Army is a registered trademark of the Colt company. Nobody else can put that on their revolvers or Colt will sue the pants off of them.
P.S. Despite what the first video says, the rule about only loading five in CAS is not going to go away. Even with a Ruger, you can only load five, with the hammer down on an empty chamber in CAS, so the Ruger guys don't have an advantage over the more traditional designs.
