AllOutdoor Review: Uberti 1875 Single-Action Army Outlaw “Frank”

Every so often a gun shows up that I have wanted to handle for years, and this was one of them. Uberti sent out the “Frank” from their Outlaws and Lawmen line at my request, a nickel-plated reproduction of the Remington Model 1875 with a 7.5 inch barrel and a lanyard ring on the butt. I have been elbow deep in the original 1875 for months now writing a four part series on it, so I came into this with more background on the source material than I usually have. That cuts both ways. You notice everything. Here is what I found after about a hundred rounds.

More Uberti on AO:

• AllOutdoor Review: The Uberti 1862 Police Revolver
• Curious Relics #132: The Richards-Mason Conversion Part I
• Curious Relics #133: Richards-Mason Conversion Part II – To The Range
• Curious Relics #134: Last Gun Sam Colt Made – Colt 1862 Police Part I
• Curious Relics #138: Two Years Too Late – Remington Model 1875 Part I

Background: The Gun Behind The Frank

Remington reached the big bore cartridge revolver market about two years behind Colt and never made the ground back up. The Model 1875 kept the solid frame and general shape of the 1858 percussion guns, sail and all, and somewhere between twenty five and thirty thousand were built before production wound down in the late 1880s. Colt built hundreds of thousands. It was a good revolver that showed up late to a market which had already made up its mind.

“The Remington 1875 Revolver: Celebrating 150 Years.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/riac-blog/remington-1875-for-sale. Accessed 3 Aug. 2026.

The name comes from Frank James, who surrendered his Remington to the governor of Missouri in 1882. That gun is at the Autry Museum and the record lists it as .44-40 with walnut grips, so this one being .45 Colt with ivory makes it a nod rather than a copy of a specific revolver. The full history is over in the Curious Relics series and I will not re-teach it here.

Specifications: Uberti 1875 Army Outlaw “Frank”

Running one of these is straightforward if you have handled any single action before. The hammer gets cocked by hand for every shot. Bring it to half cock and the loading gate on the right side swings open, at which point the cylinder turns freely and you feed it one round at a time. Empties come out the same gate with the ejector rod under the barrel, and the button for that rod sits on the right side rather than the left. To pull the cylinder, push the spring-loaded cross latch on the left side of the frame, slide the base pin forward and out, and the cylinder comes out the loading gate opening.

• Model Number: 356713
• Chambering: .45 Colt
• Barrel Length: 7.5 inches
• Overall Length: 13.6 inches
• Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Action: Single action
• Capacity: 6, fluted cylinder
• Frame: Nickel-plated steel
• Barrel Finish: Polished nickel
• Grip: Simulated ivory
• Rifling: 6 grooves, 1:16 right hand twist
• Front Sight: Blade
• Rear Sight: Frame notch
• MSRP: $1,149

A note on where that price sits. The standard 1875 Army Outlaw in the same nickel finish, same barrel length, same weight, runs $749, and the case-hardened version of that gun is also $749. The shorter 5.5 inch Frontier is $699. What the Frank adds over the standard Outlaw is the simulated ivory, the nitre blued screws and pins, the lanyard ring, and the Outlaws and Lawmen branding. Worth noting too that Uberti previously cataloged a .357 Magnum version of this gun and it is no longer listed, so if that is the one you want you are hunting old dealer stock.

Fit, Finish, and Features: Uberti 1875 Single-Action Army Outlaw “Frank”

The nickel is very nicely done. Even, bright, no cloudiness or thin spots anywhere I could find. Uberti also nitre blued the screws and pins, which is the kind of detail that could easily have come off as gaudy and does not. It reads as a quiet bit of color against all that brightwork rather than a look-at-me flourish.

The grips are simulated ivory and they look it. Not cheap, not ugly, just obviously not the real thing. I do not think anybody buying this gun is confused on that point.

The lanyard ring is the feature I expected to dislike and ended up forgetting about entirely. It swings freely, it does not clack against the butt, it does not catch my pinky finger, and it does not fight a holster. That is about the highest compliment you can pay a piece of hardware hanging off the bottom of a grip.

Two departures from the original are worth knowing if you care about that sort of thing. The base pin is retained by a Colt-style spring-loaded cross latch, where the originals used a screw angling in from the front of the frame. Purists spot it immediately. The grip frame is also one piece with two screwed-on panels. Neither changes how the gun runs, but this is a reproduction with some Uberti in it and not a clone.

One for the reloaders. The cylinder is short, right around 39.6mm, and rounds loaded out past about 40.8mm will bind the cylinder when you try to turn it. Factory ammunition is a non-issue.

Range Time: Uberti 1875 Single-Action Army Outlaw “Frank”

The first surprise is that it is front heavy. It photographs slender and it is not, and seven and a half inches of barrel with that web underneath is where the weight lives. But I am hesitant to call that a flaw, because about two shots into a string it stops mattering. Nose heavy at rest, settled and steady once you are actually running it.

I ran roughly a hundred rounds of Herter’s .45 Colt, 250 grain lead flat nose, all factory ammunition and no handloads. There were zero malfunctions. Nothing bound, nothing dragged, nothing required a knock or a nudge at any point.

The trigger is the standout, and I am irritated that I cannot hand you a number for it. I moved recently and my trigger gauge is still sitting at the old house (unpacking is a process, folks), so rather than guess I will describe it. Extremely light, zero creep, zero stack, no wall to find. It simply goes. Closest thing I can compare it to is a set trigger on a Sharps, and I want to qualify that right away because it is not that light and it is not doing anything unsafe. It is just far cleaner than anybody expects out of a factory single action. Everyone I handed it to at the range put their first round somewhere they did not intend, for exactly that reason.

Early in the test there was the faintest catch as the hammer came up toward full cock. Barely perceptible, more felt than heard. It broke in and disappeared on its own within the first outing and has not come back. That is the only mechanical oddity the gun gave me.

At fifteen yards I put six shots into about two inches, with my flyers landing early while I was still getting acquainted with that trigger. I will be straight about my own limitations here. I do not usually shoot reproduction guns particularly well despite loving them, so that result impressed me more than it might impress a better shooter.

Recoil is mild. The gun does not roll in the hand the way some plow handle grips want to, and the hammer spur never caught me on the recock.

Two known complaints exist and I went looking for both. Cowboy action shooters report ejector rods binding against the base pin partway through the stroke and bending the tenon when you lean on them, with one competitor claiming he wrecks them every few matches, while plenty of twenty year owners have never seen it happen. Mine was smooth through every chamber all day. A magazine review also found wear marks on the sides of the hammer during testing. I found none. Neither of those is a defect I can confirm or deny, they are simply things I checked for and did not find, which is all a hundred rounds entitles me to say.

Last, the safety situation, because there is some confusion floating around on this. The 1875 Outlaw has the firing pin mounted on the hammer and there is no transfer bar. It loads with five and the hammer down on an empty chamber. Some Uberti models use a hammer block, a piece that sits in a slot in the hammer face and rotates clear at quarter cock, and that part gets called a transfer bar in places where it should not be. A transfer bar carries hammer energy to a separate frame-mounted pin. This is not that. If you prefer, you can load five and you have nothing to think about.

Final Thoughts: Uberti 1875 Single-Action Army Outlaw “Frank”

This is a well built revolver that runs. Over a hundred rounds it gave me one faint hitch that cured itself and nothing else, and it shot better than I had any right to expect from fixed sights on a long barrel. Clean fit and finish, handsome nickel, and a trigger better than it needed to be.

Which Uberti 1875 you want comes down to what you are after. The standard Army Outlaw is the same mechanical gun in the same finish for four hundred dollars less, and if your interest is shooting a Remington 1875 pattern revolver, that is your answer. The Frank sells the look and the name, which is a personal purchase rather than a rational one. That being said, this is the version I would save up for, and I know that is a preference and not an argument.

Either way the platform earns its keep. It is a faithful take on a revolver that deserved better than it got in its own century.

Thank you to Uberti for sending the Frank out for testing. If you want the whole story on the original Remington Model 1875, I have been covering it in four parts over in Curious Relics, with new installments every other Wednesday.

The post AllOutdoor Review: Uberti 1875 Single-Action Army Outlaw “Frank” appeared first on AllOutdoor.com.