Italian 1873 Winchesters

[Dave T]

Who makes the best, most reliable, or perhaps a better way to put it is trouble free clone of Winchester's venerable 1873 lever gun? Of course chambered for the 44 Winchester Center Fire.

Dave

[mehavey]

My opinion ?
Taylor's Commanchero'd Uberti `73
http://www.taylorsfirearms.com/long-...ero-rifle.html
of which I have two (44-40 & 357)

... like melted butter

[Model12Win]

The Cimarrons, made by Uberti, have a great reputation. From what I've read, most Italian '73 copies are very good.

[gyvel]

The Miroku Winchester 73s are probably the best made, but I don't know if they are available in .44WCF. And they are expensive.

[Bishop Creek]

I have owned a Uberti 1873 44/40 for over decade now, and it has been trouble free and very accurate. Being chambered in 44WCF it handles black powder cartridges quite well with very little clean up do to the bottle necked .44 case.

[44 Dave]

Why do all these "new '73s" have multi piece firing pins is it an improvement or some safety thing?
My original is easy to tear down and none of those small parts.

[JWT]

The Miraku made Winchesters are indeed nice rifles. Very well made, accurate, great shooters.

[Branko]

mehavey, that's really good, exceeds my expectations of a repro 1873.

[Dave T]

gyvel and JWT,

Thanks for the heads up on the Miraku Winchester. Found a Short Rifle on GB and bought it. Might have it as soon as next week. I was not even aware of these and now I own one…well, on paper anyway. I appreciate the info.

Dave

[4V50 Gary]

Can anyone answer 44 Dave's question about the multiple piece firing pin? Why the deviation? I'm curious too.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Why do all these "new '73s" have multi piece firing pins is it an improvement or some safety thing?
My original is easy to tear down and none of those small parts.

Howdy

Apparently the new Model 1873 rifles being produced in Japan by Miroku have a two piece rebounding firing pin. The replica Model 1873 rifles that have been produced for decades in Italy by Uberti do not.

I agree, a two piece firing pin in a 1873 lever gun is redundant.

Almost from the very beginning the Winchester Model 1873 incorporated a trigger block. This is no modern 'lawyer dictated' safety, the engineers at Winchester in the 1870s felt that since the Model 1873 fired the more powerful 44-40 cartridge than the earlier 44 Henry Rimfire cartridge, a trigger block would be a good idea.

Here is a photo of an Uberti replica 1873 rifle with the lever fully open. The two arrows are pointing to the trigger block. It pivots slightly on a pin set into the lower tang. When the lever is closed, it pushes the longer portion of the trigger block, indicated by the arrow to the right, up. This causes the front portion of the trigger block, indicated by the arrow to the left, to rotate up, allowing the trigger to be pulled. A leaf spring rotates the trigger block down as soon as the lever is opened, and the trigger cannot move back until the lever is closed. This has always been a very reliable safety device, the trigger cannot be pulled until the lever is completely closed.

So any additional safety device on the 1870 Winchester is redundant.





I will add that for a long time in the Cowboy Action shooting world it was fairly common to remove the trigger block. The stock trigger block spring is quite stiff, and those shooters who wanted to shoot super fast felt the trigger block was slowing them down. However with the trigger block removed it is possible to have an out of battery discharge if a finger accidentally brushes the trigger while closing the lever. This can cause bad things to happen. So over the last few years there has been a lot of information in the Cowboy Shooting world recommending against removing the trigger block. There are after market springs available now that are not so stiff but still present enough pressure to make the trigger block function the way it was designed way back in the 1870s.





To answer Dave T's original question, for a long time the only Winchester 1873 replica available was the one made by in Italy by Uberti. Companies such as Taylors or Cimarron are importers, they do not manufacture firearms, the 1873 replicas they sell are made by Uberti. For a long time there has been a myth that the firearms imported by Cimarron are somehow better, or have superior fit and finish to the firearms imported by other companies. This is a myth, they all come off the same assembly line, and other than some superficial details such as marking, or barrel configurations, they are all the same inside.

For a short while Chaparral was also making a replica of the 1873 Winchester, but these are no longer in production. The Chaparral 1873s received mixed reviews, and replacement parts were either non-existent or hard to find.

Around 2013 Miroku in Japan began producing the Model 1873 again under the Winchester brand. There are those who object to a Japanese rifle being labeled Winchester, but the current Winchester Repeating Arms Company, which is owned by Fabrique Nationale in Belgium, is the legal descendant of the original Winchester company, and as such they can put the Winchester trademark on anything they want to.

So the choices for a Model 1873 today are limited to the Uberti replicas or the one made in Japan by Miroku. The Japanese rifle is probably higher quality than the Italian ones. Miroku is well known for high quality and has produced other lever guns, the Winchester Model 1886 and Model 1892 are a couple, over the years. The Miroku Model 1873 is also a bit more expensive than the Uberti version.

The Uberti 1873, although not of quite the same quality as the Miroku, interior fit and finish of the parts tends to be a bit rough, they are still a quality firearm. Two advantages of the Uberti over the Miroku is replacement parts for the Uberti are easily available, replacement parts for the Miroku are not easily available. The other advantage is a cottage industry has sprung up around the Uberti 1873 for after market parts aimed at the Cowboy Shooting world. Even though the two designs are basically the same, parts are not interchangeable between the two manufacturers.

One other comment. For many years the method of attaching the firing pin extension to the firing pin on the Uberti rifles was different than the original Winchester method. A couple of years ago, Uberti modified their design to be pretty much the same as the original Winchester firing pin design. I am pretty sure the Miroku version of the rifle uses the original Winchester set up for attaching the firing pin extension to the firing pin. I have not had the opportunity to tear one apart, so I do not know how the two piece firing pin affects the method of attachment.

The Miroku 1873 is available chambered for 357 Magnum, 44-40 and 45 Colt.

The Uberti 1873 is available chambered for 357 Magnum, 44-40, 45 Colt, and believe it or not there is a carbine version chambered for 44 Magnum. I have even examined one. Personally I would not want to own a toggle link rifle chambered for 44 Magnum.

[Bootsie]

There was a 3rd Italian maker of Win 73s in addition to Uberti and Cheparral, the company Armi san Paolo/Euroarms.
They made a 19" round barrel carbine version and a 24" octagon barrel rifle version, calibers available were .38/.357 and .44-40.
These Win replicas were made between the early 1970s and the end of the 1990s.
They are "slimmer" than the Ubertis because their measurements are close to the 19th century original. Its firing pin is one piece.
A well maintained ASP Win 73 will make an excellent base gun for a CAS main match rifle.
Long Johns Wolf

[gyvel]

Thanks for the heads up on the Miraku Winchester. Found a Short Rifle on GB and bought it. Might have it as soon as next week. I was not even aware of these and now I own one…well, on paper anyway. I appreciate the info.

Congrats! The down side to the Miroku 73s is that they are almost too pretty to shoot. LOL!

I was taking ammo cost into consideration when I bought mine, so I got a .38/.357.

[Dave T]

gyvel,

Although I played in the cowboy action game for about 10 years, starting way back in 1987 and shooting strictly black powder cartridge, I'm too old and busted up now to compete any more. I'm not worried about ammo cost but I do want the few guns I have to be as authentic as I can get them…without the cost of being original 19th Century firearms. As an example my first handgun, getting back into these guns, was a USFA pre-war black powder frame model.

Dave

[Driftwood Johnson]

I do want the few guns I have to be as authentic as I can get them…without the cost of being original 19th Century firearms.

Howdy again

You might be surprised at the cost of an original Winchester Model 1873 vs a modern replica. I found this Winchester Model 1873, chambered for 38-40, locally a couple of years ago. It was made in 1887. The bore is pitted, no surprise there, but the rifling is still strong and it hits everything I aim it at. There is not much blue left on it, but the brown most of the metal has faded to is as 'authentic' as you can get.

I grabbed it because it only cost a couple of hundred dollars more than a brand new Uberti replica.

And I only shoot it with Black Powder.

[Dave T]

Like I said earlier Driftwood, I did the black powder cartridge thing for ten years. And I used to have your gun's duplicate only mine was made in 1889. It was so badly pitted I had it re-bored to 44 WCF. If I did my part it would shoot 6" groups off a rest at 200 yards, and that was with my BP hand loads.

After shooting a match with two revolvers, a rifle and a shotgun, I spent more time at home cleaning the four guns and the brass than I ever did shooting the stages of a match (LOL)

I just don't want to go back there again. I do have all the chronograph data I collected from those days so I know what the performance the original loads gave in all the standard barrel lengths. I'm kind of looking forward to the load development it will take, done casually at my age (smile), to product the black powder performance with smokeless. It'll be fun and keep me off the streets at night.

Dave