Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Uberti Dragoon Cylinder Flash Gap Problem Fix

I bought a 3rd Model Dragoon about a year ago. It was my second open-top Colt repro revolver after a Pietta 1851 Navy.

The Pietta had some minor fit and finish issues, but I got it new for cheap. The wedge and arbor slot and flash gap had no issues. Tapping the wedge in more or less had no effect on the flash gap between the barrel and cylinder.
And it should not.
You should never drive that wedge in more than snug to avoid enlarging the wedge slot or boogering the wedge anyway. It is not necessary.

I use a 6 ounce soft-face hammer with one rubber face and one soft yellow plastic face, and a wedged hickory handle. (Vaughan SF-6 soft-face hammer) It is the perfect gunsmith soft-face hammer IMHO. Anyway, I choke up on the handle and just gently tap with the yellow soft plastic face to seat the wedge.

However, the Uberti Dragoon, while beautiful in fit and finish, DID have a problem with the wedge affecting the flash gap spacing. Tap it in less and no problem. Tap it in more and it would lock up the cylinder. Not good. I put up with it for a year but it annoyed me.

Visualizing the problem and wondering why the Pietta 1851 was fine while it's big brother Uberti 1848 Dragoon was not did not produce an answer, so I researched it on the internet.

An old hand with open-top Uberti Colt repros stated that they have a habit of producing some open-top guns with a too-short arbor or a too-deep arbor hole in the barrel, depending on how you look at it. He stated that you can confirm this by dropping a tiny washer down the arbor hole and seeing if it affects or solves the problem.

I used a brass washer which was slightly smaller than the arbor diameter at the end, and the problem WAS solved. (.036" thick) (You should be sure that you can get it out again if it is not the correct thickness, so look in the hole with a flashlight for burrs, and oil it well first.

You might need to file your washer to a different thickness or find a thicker one. And you may need to carefully stone the end of the barrel afterward with slip stones to adjust the flash gap a tiny bit. Then after polishing it smooth a bit, you can cold blue it and oil it.

I would do nothing however until you shoot it 50 shots or so after the washer is inserted, especially if the revolver has few or no shots fired.
Then reevaluate the situation and think hard about it before you do it.

And if you are not comfortable with doing this work, or you do not want to risk your warranty being voided (if applicable), then don't do it.

Exercise your warranty rights or find a black powder revolver specialist gunsmith and turn it over to him.

That's correct....the Uberti arbors are ALWAYS too short while Pietta makes their revolvers with correct arbor length. Both Uberti and Pietta come with pros and cons and you found the biggest one with Uberti. But like you said, you've got a method to fix it with washers. Just keep dropping washers into the arbor hole until you find the barrel will not properly mate with the frame and make a note of the gap. There a gunsmith who has a solution which include JB Welding a spacer to take care of that gap plus drilling a hole in the arbor then installing a set screw which allows you to control the depth of the wedge without changing the cylinder gap. The reason that's nice is if you want to holster the revolver and not have the wedge still way out the side which could interfer with holstering.

p.s. I have both Uberti and Pietta revolvers and I still prefer the Uberti for overal fit and finish. They are just prettier!