I received some new equipment for a sport I sort of took up recently. I decided to give CAS a try. After some research I decided to go for a Uberti 1873 short rifle and a pair of Uberti El Patron revolvers with a 5 1/2" barrels, all in .45 Colt. The El Patron is a factory tuned Cattleman 1873 with checkered walnut grips. Both were basically dead on with my first load and produced 4" groups at 25m offhand. The triggers are light, crisp and at the same weight for both revolvers. The sight picture is excellent and easy to pick up. The hammers have small checkered areas on the spurs. The checkering is just right - enough grip for cocking and smooth enough to spare the skin. As SAA clones the handle well and fit my hands perfectly.
The short rifle has a really smooth action and had POI at POA at 50m out of the box. I was able to produce a 4 1/2" group offhand and with iron sights. Optimized loads might improve that a bit.
Overall I am happy with the new guns. Their precision should be more than adequate for the distances and target sizes at CAS.

Interesting. Really good arms for Cowboy Action Shooting are EYE-TALIAN?? What is the world coming to?

Max, I see that you post from Germany. Does this mean that our cowboy sports have taken root in the old country?

Checking out Wikipedia, it seems that Uberti has provided replicas for most of the recent, good Westerns. Aw, shucks...

M_a_x... good luck with your new sport... I have a couple of friends that shoot CAS here in Florida...video is of a friend's wife

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9RMeg34C6g

I have a Uberti Cattleman in .45colt too. Mine's not the fancied up El Patron model, but I love it. The trigger is fantastic, I can't imagine how good the trigger on the El Patron must be! Mine shoots to point-of-aim perfectly with 250gr RNFP bullets. I tried some 200gr once, and that was a disaster. Shot several inches low. I kept lowering and lowering the powder charge, until the thing felt like a .22short, but it still shot low. But put in the heavier bullets - perfection! These SAA clones are naturally pointing guns. You almost can't miss with one. I wouldn't jump right to "easy to pick up" on the sights. They are period authentic, which generally means "not that great". But they work. I put some orange paint on my front sight and that helped immensely. I don't shoot CAS - I imagine sight paint is forbidden there.

I have a companion Rossi M92 lever action rifle in .45colt. I love that rifle. I did my own action work on it and it really tuned up nicely. I shoot my Uberti-abandoned 200gr loads in this rifle since I can easily adjust for elevation with the tang sight. So it wasn't a total waste buying a batch of those 200gr bullets. My favorite bullets for the Uberti are Missouri Bullet "Cowboy #1" (250gr RNFP). I also like Bayou Bullet 250gr RNFP's. Powder? Everything seems to work well for me in .45colt, so I use a variety. TrailBoss, Unique, Bullseye, TiteGroup, W231. Theoretically, the case-filling TrailBoss or the position-insensitive TiteGroup should be best, but the others work just as well in my experience.

I think .45colt is my all-time favorite cartridge. Probably wouldn't be if I didn't reload, it's a little too expensive to buy commercially for my tastes. Those big cases are easy to reload for us fumble-fingered individuals. And they last forever, since it's a low pressure cartridge.

The oldest known revolver was built in Europe (The worlds oldest revolver - Youtube). So it´s only fair when we catch up building fine CAS guns.


Yes, it has taken root in old Europe. The shooters are really different from the usual crowd. I like that.

I like the Uberti Cattleman too. A friend shoots a pair of it and I got to use them in class for obtain my certificate and my star. That friend also thinks the trigger of the El Patron is a dream.
I went for the El Patron as the usual jobs are already done and it was not that much more expensive.
The El Patron has a slightly wider rear sight and front sight blade. That makes a significant difference in picking up the sight. Sight paint is allowed for CAS. You can paint your sights as black as you want. That´s more interesting if you shoot stainless steel revolvers.
I considered the Rossi 92 too. The 1873 won as it´s an iconic rifle that should have been in most western movies and made an appearance in "Firefly". Or maybe I just wanted to have one ( with that color case hardened receiver it´s a real beauty).
For me the .45 Colt comes as a close second to the .44 Rem. Mag. but it´s a photo finish. I reload too. I use 6.7 grs of Vithavouri N320 behind a 250grs H&N truncated cone bullet or a 230grs H&N truncated cone bullet (different OAL). The rifle does better with the 230 grs, for the revolver there is no real difference. I am contemplating trying black powder loads too. I am not really satified with loading data I got from fellow shooters though. Pouring 19grs of Swiss #2 and some cereals in a cartridge does not seem right.

I bet you start casting soon. Makes it even cheaper when you are lobbing big lead.
i like the 357 mag with 38 special rounds. A pinch of Alliant Red Dot and lead wheel weights go a long way.

You are right, sort of.
I started casting bullets and making patches for my .54 Rocky mountain hawken rifle and my German jäger rifle some time ago.
For cartridge I prefer H&N bullets. They are galvanized with copper and have a resin coating. The bullets allow hotter loads and do not leave any lead fouling in the barrel. For now I decided to buy the bullets for the .45 colt and spend the saved time shooting.
BTW: Reloading is more expensive than factory ammo. Longer and more frequent shooting sessions do more than compensate for lower price per round . As long as reloading and shooting are affordable fun, I do not care. Other people spend money on their hobbies too.

Quite true! But you can easily delude yourself by only considering the cost of the components, conveniently ignoring the cost of your equipment and time!

Once you're set up for reloading, then adding a new caliber is basically free (not quite, but very cheap usually).

You've got to think of reloading as a hobby of its own, with its own cost of admission. But it's a hobby that just so happens to support your other hobby, shooting.

Yeah, after I found out how slowly one reloads with a home setup, I did a quick calculation (how much is my time worth?) and decided just to stick with the cheaper factory ammo.

So for those who are saying the El Padron or the Cattleman has a great trigger, just how good is it? I often hear that every revolver needs to be taken to a gunsmith upon purchase to smooth out the trigger. With the extra expenses and the enormous wait time, who'd even choose a revolver over a semi-auto these days? But if these revolvers are as good as semi-autos, then maybe?