S-T, I agree with Glenn's comments and have some of my own regarding the Uberti action. I first encountered the Uberti high wall around 10 years ago, long before the issue of the present rifle, and was kinda favorably impresssed.
The Italian engineers, for whatever reasons, always seem to want to 'improve' a design to the point where it's almost unusable when compared to the original. Well, they did the same thing here but the results aren't quite as bad as some others. The major concern I found with the Uberti was the shape of the firing pin nose; in two of the three examples examined, the noses were slightly too long and too pointed for my comfort so I shortened and rounded them. Otherwise the actions were completely safe and appeared to be very well made with square corners and flat flats although a bit more (completely unnecessarily) complicated than the originals IMO. I would not hesitate to use a Uberti if I couldn't find an original.
To put this into a slightly better perspective for you, my initial examination was conducted at the behest of Rick Sanborn, the head honcho of Green Mountain barrels, as a comparison between the Uberti high wall and an early Pedersoli roller action. There was some sort of deal in the works where GM would supply several hundred barrels to go with another party's actions, and the action choice was still up in the air at that time. My opinion was most emphatic; that particular Pedersoli product was inferior and the Uberti product was much the better of the two and IMO would be fine as long as the firing pin nose shape was monitored closely. I later barreled one in 45-90 for GMs SHOT show exhibit that year.
I hasten to add that that particular early Pedersoli roller design, marked 'Navy Arms', was clearly an early aberration and was NOT typical of the present Pedersoli product. I had a long & slightly adversarial conversation with Dick Trenk about this and he actually asked Mr Pedersoli about this early roller design since apparently he needed some confirmation. Mr Pedersoli was kind & honest enough to reveal that he was sorry that Pedersoli had ever sold any of these early Navy Arms actions. In later years I've found other Pedersoli products to be among the most accurate and well-designed of all makers and I recommend some of their products above all others including some well-respected US products. FWIW.
So my personal action choice would be: original first, Uberti second and Browning/Winchester third. The use of Badger barrels on the Browning/Winchester factory rifles would be a big factor, though, and I would expect and require a similarly-accurate barrel for any other choice.
Regards, Joe
