Like the original, the Uberti 1885 is a falling-block, under-lever rifle with a centrally mounted external hammer. The firing pin is mounted in the block in-line with the center of the chamber, and it is retracted when the action is opened. The block is 0.94-inches wide, 0.73-inches thick and 2.44-inches high at its tallest point. The hammer, lever and block are linked via a pin that passes through a relived section in the block’s underside, although dual lugs engage the vertical recesses in the frame for the entire height of the action.

Externally, it is an extremely faithful replica of the 1885, but Uberti chose to use the later coil spring design with a double-U-shaped, piano-wire spring or mousetrap spring, anchored around the hammer pin to power the hammer. Another coil spring in the front of the action provides tension to keep the action closed and actually assists in closing it. From 1885 to 1910, 1885s used a flat spring, and the coil spring design first appeared in a take-down version in 1910.

The sear is suspended by a pin in the top of the action behind the hammer. Linking the trigger and the sear is the “knock off.” When the trigger is depressed, the knock off—which is tensioned by its own flat spring anchored to the top of the lower tang—pivots to release the sear. There is no separate manual safely, only a half-cock notch.

Pulling downward on the lever, which is pinned to the breechblock, lowers the hammer and block to allow access to the chamber. Unlike the early original guns, which automatically cocked the hammer, the hammer is returned to the half-cock position when the lever is closed, and the hammer must be manually cocked before firing. In order for the hammer to travel fully forward, the trigger must be pulled, as an intercept notch prevents it from contacting the rear of the breechblock-mounted firing pin. There is no ejector, only an extractor at the 9 o’clock position.

The line now includes three models—all come with blued steel barrels and case-colored frames and levers. The Carbine comes with a 28-inch round barrel and a satin walnut straight stock and a shotgun-style steel buttplate. A straight, uncheckered stock and an octagonal barrel, offered in 30 or 32 inches, distinguish the Sporting from the Special Sporting, which has a checkered semi-pistol grip stock and a blued steel crescent buttplate. In the front is a dovetailed blade and in the rear is a buckhorn drift adjustable for windage in its dovetail with a ladder for elevation. A vernier-style rear target sight is offered, as is a hooded front with various inserts.

For sighting, I decided to go “old school” and mounted a replica William Malcolm 18-inch-long, 3/ 4-inch-diameter 6X scope in Malcolm externally adjustable rings. The barrel was drilled and tapped to accept two dovetail bases (see the full story “Old School Glass”).

The stock on my sample .45-70 Gov’t Special Sporting was of straight-grained European walnut finished with a reddish hue with straight, albeit thin grain. The schnabel fore-end with double-diamond checkering in a bordered point pattern is retained by a single screw. The buttstock is mounted to the action via a bolt that passes through the top tang, the stock and into the bottom tang. Another screw passes through the lower tang directly into the stock.

The 30-inch barrel of my Special Sporting was octagonal and measured 1.06 inches across the flats just forward of the receiver and tapered to 0.89 inches at the muzzle. There are six grooves of cut rifling in a 1:18-inch right-hand twist. Obviously, this tube accounts for a lot of the rifle’s weight—10 pounds, 10 ounces with the Malcolm scope in place. Without the optic, the gun weighed 9 pounds, 9 ounces. This is indeed heavy, but put it up to your shoulder and the gun points like a dream. Recoil with standard pressure loads was negligible, so long as I pulled the blued steel crescent butt fully into my shoulder. The addition of the scope required getting my head up, but not so much as to pull it all the way off the stock. I fired the rifle for accuracy with three different factory loads at 100 yards and practiced shooting from various field positions and from shooting sticks. As may be seen in the accompanying table, with Federal’s 300-grain Fusion load in particular, the gun performed extremely well.

Why all the practice? Last year I was invited along to participate in a series of television shows for “Benelli On Assignment” in Botswana’s Okavango Delta and the Kalahari, and the old school 1885 with the Malcolm scope was my primary rifle. We hunted with Rann Safaris in the storied Okavango Delta, in particular near the Kiri Camp, once the stomping grounds of the legendary Harry Selby for more than a half century. It was bittersweet, as that concession is now a photography-only area closed to hunting. The game we took was, at least for now, the last for an area rich in safari tradition and history.

Going Cowboy … In Africa?
In the Okavango, some areas are thick as one might expect, and it is there that the impala of the area thrive. We tried a few stalks without much success through the terrain, which is wooded yet open in some patches. Then we tried another stalk with a pile of dead limbs between us and a fine impala ram. The wind was with us, and there was enough underbrush and downed trees to cover our approach. Professional hunter Jeff Rann, an old Botswana hand who’s operated out of the Okavango for the past 25 years, set the sticks as I rested the buffalo gun (okay, bison numbers were abysmal by 1885) with its Malcolm scope atop it on the sticks, cocked the hammer and settled in with a 300-grain Fusion bonded hollow-point in the chamber. Designed for white-tailed deer, the factory ballistics for the Fusion have it moving out at 1850 fps from the muzzle, delivering 2,820 ft.-lbs. of energy. I settled the crosshair on its shoulder, let out half a breath and squeezed. The rifle bucked on the sticks and I was rewarded with a resounding thump as the impala darted to my right. We found it about 20 yards away with a perfect hole just behind its shoulder, and an even larger one out the off side as the bullet showed excellent expansion, having passed through the vitals of the antelope.

From the waters and grasses of the Okavango Delta, we moved south to hunt gemsbok. After quite a lot of jostling to my scope mount, I switched to the factory sights. Using the 1885 with open sights provided a challenge in Botswana’s Kalahari. Just in case you think your hunt needs more adversity, I highly recommend using an iron-sighted .45-70 Gov’t with 40-something eyes and asking someone to follow you about with a large high-definition camera on a tripod. No matter how good your camera man is, and mine, Randy Wemberg, was excellent, it’s still just that much more scent, movement and noise. After a few blown stalks, professional hunter Murray Hibbs told me, “Mark, we need a plan. We need to get close.”

Literally moments later, we spotted a mature male gemsbok, feeding, and we had the drop on it. We used the wind and the cover of the thick brush to circle around the bull. We came within 80 to 90 yards, but there was too much brush in the way. The oryx was moving slowly, head down, feeding as we moved parallel and closer to him. We set up on the shooting sticks three times before both hunter and cameraman had the shot they wanted. Capturing a hunt on film is different, as not only do you have to be ready, but the cameraman has to be on the animal—the right animal—and ready as well.

We had closed to within 60 yards, were set, and that’s when the bull turned about and started moving back toward us. I could see its entire body and had the front sight planted firmly on the shoulder. All I could see inside the buckhorn was gemsbok hide. He was just slightly below us and there was the dry grass of the Kalahari covering his heart. I eased the front sight up a little to clear it, and began the trigger squeeze. The bullet impacted exactly where I was aiming, and passed completely though. It never took another step.