Beretta Laramie

You know, it’s always a little sad when a cool gun doesn’t sell well enough and ends up getting dropped from the product line. Such was the case with the Beretta Laramie, which was Beretta’s clone of the classic S&W Schofield revolver. The Schofield was a truly revolutionary design in its heyday, featuring a break open cylinder that allowed for much faster reloading that the contemporary Colt Single Action Army.

The Beretta version wasn’t actually a Beretta, in a technical sense. Uberti has been well known as the leading producer of western style firearms, cranking out some truly lovely copies of the classic Colts, as well as several models of the Schofield. What you may not know is that Uberti is also a subsidiary company of Beretta. Much as Beretta does with their Stampede, they essentially cherry-picked the parts for the Laramie from Uberti parts, and then assembled them in the Beretta facility.

So what was it that killed the Laramie? Probably a couple of factors, not the least of which was the 1,000 dollar price tag hanging on the gun, especially when you could (and still can) get an Uberti for half that. It also doesn’t help that the Single Action market is owned by Colt clones. It’s much easier to find a gunsmith and parts for your Ruger Vaquero than it is to find them for a Schofield style revolver. It’s a damn shame, at that. You can still get a Schofield, though. If you’ve been watching 3:10 to Yuma and have a craving for a break too, Uberti still carries one.

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14 Comments

  1. Its also that the Cowboy Action Shooting rules (and therefore the market) has heavy bias towards the loading gate single actions. The Schofield’s real strength is quick reloads on a single gun. You never see reloads in CAS or if you do it is one round in the existing empty chamber. They never do anything more than that because the Schofield shooters would blow out everyone else.

  2. AARRRG!!
    They were already near impossible to find, now even if I do they’ll be doubly expensive! A pox on you Beretta!

    Ah well, maybe Uberti will introduce a birdshead grip for their version and I can be satisfied.

    Were are you seeing 500 dollar Schofields?

  3. The founder of DPMS was on Tom Gresham’s Gun Talk last week, and he brought up a good point. Why introduce something new? Buyers are already clearing out existing inventory, and since manufacturer’s can’t meet demand as it is, what’s the sense in announcing a product that will be vaporware? Wait until sales taper off, then try to boost them with the new and shiny.

    There was a time when 45 Schofield was strictly a hand loader’s affair, but look:

    http://www.midwayusa.com/browse/BrowseProducts.aspx?pageNum=1&tabId=3&categoryId=9273&categoryString=653***691***

    It’s even in stock!

  4. My primary shooting sport is Cowboy and not too many Schofields are seen. Some of the other problems with them, is that they don’t handle blackpowder well and start to gum up the action rather quickly when blackpowder is used. Another is there is a flaw in the lockwork that if you ride the trigger while thumbing the hammer back, the trigger locks up and the gun won’t go bang. The fastest shooters are using Ruger’s chambered in 32.

  5. Aren’t those BP guys using grease or Mobile One? There is no way that I could get away with conventional light oil in my cap and ball guns.

  6. I was just at the Uberti site, they must have read your post. All the blued models are $1000, and the nickel model is $14oo.

  7. Secesh,

    That’s MSRP. Street price will be significantly less than that.

    PS: That Russian makes my heart go pitter-pat…

  8. Tam,

    You must have better vendors in your area than I do. From what I have seen, ~80% of MSRP is pretty much standard in my neck of the woods which is not what I’d call “significantly less”. Unless, of course, one were to compare it to shopping at the local GM, where they have been known to charge more than MSRP…

    I’ve always wanted to try one of those new model Russians but I just can’t justify that kind of cash for what would essentially be a big-boy toy.

  9. Barrett,

    From what I have seen, ~80% of MSRP is pretty much standard in my neck of the woods which is not what I’d call “significantly less”.

    Well, $800 is significantly less than $1,000 in my bank account. 😉

    Seriously, though…

    It varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, but most set their MSRP’s at a 100% markup. Shops vary, but most in my experience seem to mark new guns up anywhere between 15% and 30%. Knowing these numbers, one can usually come up with a rough S.W.A.G. at the street price…

  10. “TJP, on June 9th, 2009 at 17:41 Said:
    Aren’t those BP guys using grease or Mobile One? There is no way that I could get away with conventional light oil in my cap and ball guns”

    I believe it is binding up on the cylinder face where it meets the barrel

  11. That’s kind of funny: The upper end of your SWAG gives 65% of MSRP, Tam, same as Caleb’s $650. And I had given some thought before posting the first time about what I’d consider significant and came up with 2/3 of MSRP (66.7%).

    Makes me wonder why the majority of shops around here don’t have better pricing.

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