You Will Shoot Your Eye Out

Lively Balance

Balance is lively and nicely centered between the hands. As a result, the Hunter Lite is particularly responsive even for a lever action, pointing and swinging beautifully. Being brand new, the action is tight but not sluggish, and it didn’t display any undesirable play or looseness. The trigger is a bit stout—right at five pounds by my Lyman digital trigger scale—but breaks cleanly.

Because the Model 1886 is a reproduction of a classic and might be used in cowboy action competition or similar shooting, I rousted out some of Black Hills Ammunition’s traditional 405-grain hard-cast lead ammo that’s loaded to historic (read slow) muzzle velocities of around 1,200 fps.

And because it’s beautifully configured to serve as a close-range brush-busting big game thumper, I added two of my favorite modern .45-70 hunting loads: Hornady’s 325-grain LeverEvolution ammo with the FlexTip bullet that permits pointed bullets to be used in a tubular magazine and Barnes’s VOR-TX ammo loaded with the 300-grain TSX flatpoint. Both loads offer enough velocity to be 200-yard capable, with a tough, controlled-expansion bullet massive enough to offer decent penetration.

 SEE PHOTO GALLERY

Finally, I included an intriguing brand-new load from Black Hills that features a 325-grain HoneyBadger bullet. It’s a solid copper projectile with an X-shaped tip and deeply scalloped flutes in the ogive.

The flutes act hydraulically on impact, creating massive temporary and permanent wound cavities without any bullet expansion at all. While I haven’t yet used the bullet on game, the HoneyBadger promises to produce massive internal trauma coupled with deep, bone-breaking straight-line penetration.

With appropriate hunting ammunition loaded to stout pressures (the Model 1886 is a strong action), the .45-70 cartridge is comfortably adequate for all North American big game, including the big bears, bison and so forth. However, it’s a low-velocity proposition, and use in the field is best kept to 200 yards or less.

Initially, I wondered if the Uberti 1886 would be a tooth-rattler because of its relatively light weight. I needn’t have worried. Recoil, even with the stouter hunting loads, was almost pleasant.

I rested the Model 1886 over my Sinclair benchrest setup and proceeded to shoot a series of three-shot groups at 100 yards. The mid-March sun was warm on my back and helped make for a crisp sight picture on the eight-inch black bullseyes I’d stapled up.

With the buckhorn rear placed in the second notch in the sight elevator, point of impact was on the money with the hunting loads, striking just at the top of the bead front at 100 yards. The slower cast-bullet load required the sight elevator to be placed in the top notch.

While some of Winchester’s Model 1886 rifles displayed excellent accuracy and pretty much all provided accuracy entirely adequate for the hunting ranges of the day, many weren’t exactly write-home accurate. This test rifle fits among the latter, averaging 100-yard three-shot groups of 3.37 inches.

No doubt that average would have been a bit tighter if it were scoped, I was achieving a really crisp, consistent sight picture, and I don’t think the rifle will do significantly better.

That said, it provided usable hunting-grade accuracy for iron-sight use out to a couple hundred yards, averaging between 2.5- and three-inch groups with Barnes 300-grain TSX FN and Hornady 325-grain FTX.

Feeding was just a bit sticky for the first 20 or 30 rounds, but it smoothed up considerably as the action began to break in. By the end of the day, the Uberti ’86 was running slick and clean like it should.

One small issue plagued me. I used the rear sight elevator to shoot different groups on one target face, raising it a notch after firing each in a series of three groups. The sight body—the part that’s supposed to act like a leaf spring and provide the flex needed to raise and lower it on the elevator—was so stiff I couldn’t adjust the sight by hand, even though I strained until blue in the face attempting to prove I could do it.

Finally, I had to tape up the nose of a flat-face screwdriver and use it to cam up the sight while raising or lowering the elevator. This is not a massive issue, but it’s something you should be aware of. Other Uberti rifles may have more flexible sights, but this particular one would be difficult to adjust in the field.

With accuracy testing accomplished, I moved away from the bench and shot casually, running the 1886 through rapid-fire and various target acquisition exercises and getting a better feel for the rifle. As the old saying goes, pumps and lever actions prefer to be run like you mean it. The Uberti functioned flawlessly when levered with speed.

As mentioned earlier, recoil is smooth and almost comfortable. Putting in a good deal of time practicing with the rifle would be pleasurable, particularly from field-type positions that roll easily with the .45-70’s big, slow kick.

After examining the Uberti Model 1886 minutely, photographing it—which tends to bring out small aesthetic issues—and shooting it fairly extensively, I have only one real gripe with it: the price.

At $1,819 it is about half the price of an original in decent, usable condition, which is fair enough. However, Winchester Repeating Arms offers newly made Model 1886 rifles for as little as $1,340 and high-grade Deluxe versions—with nicer walnut, checkering at wrist and fore-end, and extensive color case-hardening on action, lever, grip cap, fore-end tip, and buttplate—for $1,740.

That’s $80 less than the Italian-made version, and it’s rollmarked with the Winchester name. It is worth pointing out, though, that Winchester’s 1886 rifles are not actually made in the U.S. They’re manufactured in Miroku, Japan, where Browning firearms are made.

That said, you’re likely to find the real-world price of a Uberti Model 1886 to be significantly less than the suggested retail price. If you prefer Italian to Japanese, the Uberti is your ticket to big-bore lever-action happiness.

It’s a well-built, well-configured rifle of historic significance and will serve you well at the range and in the field. Reliable, authoritative and chockful of panache, it’s a reproduction Model 1886 any hunter or shooter would be glad to carry.