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Pietta v. Uberti

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tmbrdr69

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Question for the gurus of C&B revolvers. Which company makes the better revolver Pietta, or Uberti? I ask as I am interested in picking up an 1860 Army or 1851 Navy. They seem to be fairly close in price. What about in quality?
 
I own a Pietta '58 Remmy which is about 5 years old and I am very pleased with it. I have never owned a Uberti, but the general feedback appears to be Uberti beating out Pietta.
 
Uberti is considered better. Pietta has made major improvements and reportedly, have greatly reduced the lemon rate. Mine is a 2010 dated one and in my opinion, the quality is good enough. I actually was talking to the American Rifleman editor in chief about this. He still believes that Uberti's are superior, and he's probably right. However, that that is not to say that you will not be satisfied with a Pietta. They are an amazing price and you will definitely get a shootable product. If you get it from Cabelas (the best price I can find), you get their warranty and if you get a lemon, they will make it right.

My 2010 Pietta Colt Navy only has one problem. The bolt is a little thin so there is some lateral wobble as it sits in its place. The exposed part of the bolt is actually a bit undersized to the cylinder notches. The result is that the cylinder wobbles just a little bit and it can fire not perfectly aligned with the barrel. It does not affect accuracy however. The ironic thing is that prior to 2010, one of the common complaints about Pietta's is that the bolt was too wide. Pietta does get other things right, such as the arbor length being as perfect as I can tell. The barrel also perfectly squares up to the cylinder face as a result. My wedge was nor forced in too tight like commonly complained about, but I did have to tap it out at first with a piece of aluminum. I did fit the wedge so I can use it without tools.
 
Having recently purchasing a Pietta Colt Navy, mine had the same problem. I found the bolt isn't going deep enough into the cylinder notch. Making the bolt go deeper by grinding some off the front where it hits the frame solved the problem and it locks up nicely in the correct place.
After doing this you may need to modify the bolt curve where it slips off the hammer cam. When you move the bolt deeper, the hammer has to travel forward farther to reset. Grinding the bolt legs gently in the curve will cure this.
Easier to do than to describe, and this may or may not be your situation, just something to look for.
 
You got lucky. Even if my bolt went down all the way into the notch, it still isn't wide enough.
 
I have three Pietta's within reach as I write this; a '51 Navy, a '62 Pocket Navy, & a '58 Remington. I like them all & the '62 is amazingly slick. I also am waiting on a '60 Army.
The Uberti's I've handled have a slight edge on the Pietta's in fit & finish.
I like to tinker so if they're a little rough out of the box, it's OK with me. I've smoothed the internals & lightened the trigger on the Remmie & '51. The Pocket Navy is too good to mess with it as recieved, except I intend to do something with the front sight to get it to hit a bit lower (same goes for the '51 but the Remmie shoots low, so it just needs the front sight filed a bit)
If $ were no object, I'd buy Uberti's or Colts but I keep going for Pietta's. Had an ASM Walker for a while but that's another story :cursing:
 
Yeah, cash is the issue; for the price of a new revolver, I can get another Mauser rifle and some more ammo. I kind of promised myself not to buy new ones for the time being, only good deals at gun shows.

A Uberti Colt or Remington Navy is on my list, but only if good, used ones come up.
 
I've been watching some Remington Navies myself on Gunbroker. Never handled one but since I've got a couple other 36's now................
 
Last fall I took a chance on Cabella's I got a $20 discount, free shipping, and the pistol was down to $249. from $349. So all said and done with taxes and it was about 250 if I remeber it right. I bought a Pietta 1851 the one with the white grips, and the engraving on the barrel at the front sight and on the frame. it was blued instead of blacked. It is on sale again for $279 from $349. I had been eyeing this pistol for a year or so. It has one of the besk actions and fit and finish of about any out of the box pistol I have. Straight shooter and purty as can be and balanced really well. I will use it for both live(with balls) shooting, and for blanks for civil war impression. It's too purty for a military pistol so I may just use it for my civilian one.
 
I now own 4 C&B's, one of them Uberti (2nd Dragoon). The Uberti has them all beat for fit, finish and action. Not that I STILL didn't give it the once-over; just that it would've been fine right out of the box.
I don't own any Piettas so I can't comment in that regard; only that from what I've seen of Uberti's QC, it lacks very little!
 
Traditions has this 1860 Colt with
a simulated ivory grip on sale for
$249 on page 2 of their special offers.
It sure looks handsome.

1860-ivory.jpg


And they're offering their Old Silver 1851
for $299, and also an antiqued 1860 that's
on sale for $279.
Pietta does make some awesome finishes that
Uberti doesn't offer. Plus they come with a
one year Traditions limited warranty.
They make it so difficult to choose a favorite! :hatsoff:

historicaljessejames.jpg


1860-antiqued.jpg
 
I don't know about the 1860 Army Pierta.
But if you want a dead ringer for a 1851 Colt Navy= GO WITH UBERTI !
For some reason the Pietta uses some kind of odd flair on their Navy revolvers.
While Uberti grips match the orginal Colt.
I've got a 51 Uberti and it shoots as good as any of my S&W centerfire guns at 25 yards
In fact it gets used more for small game than my trusty S&W model 17 now.
 
Very interesting :shocked2: A bud has a new Colt Navy; I'll get him to bring it out & compare side by side with my recently aquired Pietta. I've been impressed with the pointing qualities of the Pietta.
 
When I was getting my first C&B a few years ago I was lucky to be able to handle several Uberti and Pietta 1851s and 1860s. The Piettas were decent but the Ubertis were better. I ended up with the Uberti 1860 and never regretted it. It is a comfortable, pointable and very accurate revolver.

Having said that, I recently got a Pietta 1858 Remington on sale at Cabelas. It is excellent in fit and finish and accurate as well. If this quality is matched in their current Colt models (don't know if they do), they should be good. If possible, try to handle some before buying.

Good luck with the search.

Jeff
 
Both are accurate but the finish on my stainless Pietta Remington is much better than my friends Uberti. His though is pre Beretta who now owns Uberti which is just in the last few years.

Bruce
 
DoubleDeuce 1 said:
Uberti is worth the extra little bit you might pay. :thumbsup:
And to go a step further get a Uberti Cimerron. I have both a Remington short barrel .44 and a Lightning in .45 (gasp- centerfire) colt. Both are great guns.
 
:thumbsup: I'll go with the Uberti as the leader as well! I have a Buffalo Stainless by Pietta with some trigger creep that needs some work. Otherwise it's a great gun. But you'd think that for almost $479 these days, they could have gotten it right....

Dave
 
The thing that turns me off about the Pietta's is the stampings they put all over the barrel. Both sides. Uberti puts their markings on the bottom of the barrel under the loading lever where it doesn't show. To some, no big deal, but with me aesthetics is everything.
 
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