Uberti’s Cattleman with a 3.5-inch barrel differs little from what other manufacturers refer to as a Sheriff’s model. In fact, without a good look at the bore, you can’t tell it apart from Cimarron’s New Sheriff. Moreover, the guns are closely related in areas other than configuration and caliber.
The box our Cimarron Thunderer came in had an Aldo Uberti sticker on it covered unabashedly by a Cimarron sticker. We have heard that the parts for many of today’s cowboy guns are made in Italy by Uberti and assembled by differ- ent companies.
But back to this test gun, which showed a fatal flaw. The Uberti .45 Colt was badly out of time, as illustrated by a number of spent cartridges we collected with multiple hits on the case faces. This is a flaw in assembly or quality control and was enough to disqualify the gun from the test out of hand.
In the short time we were able to spend with it, we must say that these guns are more fun to shoot in .45 Colt than they are in .38 Special. The .45 Colt is a modern cartridge, but it is more like a true cowboy load than most others—a nice, big, fat, genuine, “I’ll fill you full of lead” design that booms and smokes just like in the movies.
That our test gun was out of time was regrettable.This is a fairly easy flaw to fix, but due to this malfunction, we find it easier to recommend the cartridge and the barrel length over the gun itself.
