About the 73 replica strongness: some years ago while practicing with a friend on shooting range, came another guy we knew, member of french and US CAS chapter.
He showed us is new buy, an original 73 rifle in 44WCF. Finding a place on the range he began to shoot, trying to hammer steel gongs.
All his shots were high. The noise was thundering, the speed looked "speedy" and the impact in the berm was closer to big bore gun than 44WCF.
After 25 cartridges we came to look WTF was going on.
Not too much trained in reloading and assuming the large case capacity our "stuntman friend" was shooting 44WCF loaded with spherical powder close to H110, to the 44mag power level with 200grs lead bullets.
We stopped him immediatly, scanning the old rifle for breakage. Nothing to note, no play, no crack, nothing, except strong leading.
So, not to promote such dumbness i think 73 in good shape are far more stronger than we commonly think.
Normaly with the better steel used today, the closer tolerances of manufacture and the slight modifications any modern 73 repro of good quality like the Uberti, can be used safely with the more powerful CAS loads and even a bit more if you need it.
Dom
