Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns .44 Russian

Just scratched an old itch and bought a Uberti-made .44 Russian Schofeld.

The directions clearly assert that the pistol has a hammer block which would mean that you do not need to keep the hammer over an empty chamber. Mine does not have the block! I called the distributor who said that, despite the directions, there are two versions -- one with, one without the block -- but same directions.

Also, unlike most other SAs, the cylinder rotates clockwise so the empty cylinder must be to the left on top not the righ. The directions also fail to mention this.

Everything else is fine on the piece. And it is after all period accurate w/o the block. Potentially unsafe yes in the hands of the ignorant -- but period accurate. At least I didn't learn the hard way like Three-toes McGurk.

Beware and be careful.

The grips are utilitarian at best. I'd like something with better wood but no one of the many on the inet seems to do custom grips for this one. Any suggestions?

1B

we need pics! Congrats!

Nice! we need a shooting report! Cool looking pistols; one was prominently displayed in the movie, "the Missing" with Tommy Lee Jones' character. To nitpick, they are not Schofelds, but actually copies of the #3 S&W .44 Russian.

I always thought a #3 replica and a Spencer replica in the same caliber would make a cool, if unusual revolver/carbine combo.

Cool pop gun! Yeah, those grips are.... "utilitarian". Uhhh in other words... UGLY. I bet you could have them checkered for not a lot of money?

DMc

Great pics Eathan.

Like the saddle too. I always enjoyed saddles with high cantles.

Very nice hogleg! I've always had a soft spot for topbreak S&Ws.



Yep, me too.

Yep me too on the 44 and the saddle. Matter a fact, that is a nice combo right there.

Thanks. Didn't want to hijack the OP's thread but somebody wanted pics. lol

The saddle is my Grandpa's. For many years it hung from the rafters of his well-house with baling wire wrapped around the cantle. Grandpa never understood or liked the concept of mechanized farming and though his horses and mules were all gone, always longed for them days done by. I have told the story before about how the Jackrabbits were once thick around here and Grandpa would see a big Jack a few rows over whilst cultivating and ease his pliers out of his pocket. Then he would throw them and get the Jack. He'd then send my Dad to the house for a bowl of salt water and clean the Jack right there for their meal. Anyway, this is what was always told. Sometimes Grandpa would use the Winchester pump .22 instead and it's down in my gunsafe right now. Grandpa was born in 1889, IIRC. He passed away in 1986 after raising a bunch of kids right during the Depression and toughing it out here on the edge of the Dust Bowl when lots moved out to the West Coast. I've often wondered if he'd have been better off just moving, but he not only stayed but bought a farm and paid for it during those years. He owned one handgun, but somebody stole it.

I'm sorry I don't have any suggestions for you 1B. I think the wood on them ain't that bad but it's mainly the fact that the Italians don't believe in putting much work into it. I've owned both that 2nd Model Russian and also a Schofield as far as repros go. Additionally, I've owned several original Smith and Wesson single actions. The grips on the repros tend to run towards "thick". The whole guns give the impression of bigger guns than the originals, though I don't have any measurements to know how accurate my impressions of them are. Were it me and I was displeased with the grips, I'd remove them and sand them good and then refinish them. I can't believe it would hurt the value, although I'm probably wrong on this score. Uberti tends to always finish their single action grips with the same type wood and stain. I'd get a good, dark walnut stain and then varnish over it or just sand and then oil them up with Linseed oil or the like. Remove the wood to your taste.

The originals aren't real pretty either...



Unless...

A catch-up note on my previous post. Returned the 44 Russian to the distributor. Their smith checked it out and said that it does have a hammer block! The problem was that I was releasing the hammer so slowly that it was bypassed. Any violent hammer fall activates the block. They still recommend hammer down on an empty chamber so whatever block is in there is not 100% reliable IMO.

1B

It's good that you got it figured out. If it "had not" had the hammer block, then the hammer should have rested on an empty "chamber". In your original post it seemed as if you thought the empty should be the next one in line. That was a recipe for disaster.

I guess I'm one of those rare individuals who feel the early Smiths were actually pretty attractive guns in their own right. For aesthetics, I rated it Colt SAA, S&W Russian and Remington a distant third.

Dan