BCRider
Member
So last month a buddy bought two new Pietta 1873 clones. He brought them over and we stripped them and went through the action looking for things to polish or otherwise fit and upgrade.
Let me tell ya. Pietta has really upped their game. The insides were finished VERY nicely and some obvious well done hand fitting and polishing had been done. I had to do very little to prep the guns for my buddy's use of cowboy action shooting.
My older Piettas use the leaf style hand spring. The new model uses a small plunger and coil spring inserted in a hole on the back near the hammer. So no possible broken hand springs which is a risk with the leaf style springs.
The bolt spring arms were nicely polished to a smooth finish and given some radius work to slip more easily over the cam latch on the side of the hammer. This sloping face of the cam was the ONLY relatively rough spot I found inside. And a very light bit of work with a Cratex wheel polished that up so the bolt's spring slipped neatly over the slope. Care was taken to not polish the lip down or otherwise reduce the height as that would affect the timing.
The trigger sear and hammer hooks had a sharp'ish edge on them so a VERY light stoning was done to just barely give an edge that reflected a hair of light so the break would feel a bit cleaner and the edges would not be at risk of breaking down unevenly.
The mainspring was a new style that is slimmed down in width much like an aftermarket spring.
The bolt and trigger return spring was still a leaf style. I removed them and replaced them with formed music wire springs. This was done to both lighten the trigger and to avoid any possible issue with the leaf spring snapping off at some future time as they sometimes do.
Exterior fit and finish was first rate. The barrel and cylinder have a nice smooth but not quite mirror finish. Just right to look shiny to the eye while having just enough surface texture to retain a good film of oil in the surface. No signs of abrasive scratching or tool marks to be found anywhere on the outside. The faux color case hardening used on these replicas was protected by a tough coating of some sort. I know my own Piettas which are about 8 years old now have stood up well with just normal care and attention.
The trigger guard and exposed part of the trigger where lightly rounded over to remove some slightly sharp edges. They didn't have burrs at all. They were just a bit sharp'ish from being sharply square.
The guns were pretty nice to cock and dry fire as they came out of the box. The work we did left them both with slightly heavy trigger pulls but with a break that has very little creep and mostly feels like the proverbial "breaking glass" release. We were both amazed at how sharp and clean the break was. The checkering on the hammer was smoothed off a touch to make it easier for the thumb to slide off in the speed of a cowboy shooting stage. Out of the box the checkering was well formed with sharp peaks. A little too sharp to allow a thumb to slide off at speed. But just the thing for regular plinking or slower target shooting.
So this is both a review and a list of some optional small mods to make a nice out of the box gun into a great gun.
For anyone that has been thinking about a new Pietta 1873 this experience of working on these two leaves me with a clean conscience in recommending that you go ahead with the purchase.
Let me tell ya. Pietta has really upped their game. The insides were finished VERY nicely and some obvious well done hand fitting and polishing had been done. I had to do very little to prep the guns for my buddy's use of cowboy action shooting.
My older Piettas use the leaf style hand spring. The new model uses a small plunger and coil spring inserted in a hole on the back near the hammer. So no possible broken hand springs which is a risk with the leaf style springs.
The bolt spring arms were nicely polished to a smooth finish and given some radius work to slip more easily over the cam latch on the side of the hammer. This sloping face of the cam was the ONLY relatively rough spot I found inside. And a very light bit of work with a Cratex wheel polished that up so the bolt's spring slipped neatly over the slope. Care was taken to not polish the lip down or otherwise reduce the height as that would affect the timing.
The trigger sear and hammer hooks had a sharp'ish edge on them so a VERY light stoning was done to just barely give an edge that reflected a hair of light so the break would feel a bit cleaner and the edges would not be at risk of breaking down unevenly.
The mainspring was a new style that is slimmed down in width much like an aftermarket spring.
The bolt and trigger return spring was still a leaf style. I removed them and replaced them with formed music wire springs. This was done to both lighten the trigger and to avoid any possible issue with the leaf spring snapping off at some future time as they sometimes do.
Exterior fit and finish was first rate. The barrel and cylinder have a nice smooth but not quite mirror finish. Just right to look shiny to the eye while having just enough surface texture to retain a good film of oil in the surface. No signs of abrasive scratching or tool marks to be found anywhere on the outside. The faux color case hardening used on these replicas was protected by a tough coating of some sort. I know my own Piettas which are about 8 years old now have stood up well with just normal care and attention.
The trigger guard and exposed part of the trigger where lightly rounded over to remove some slightly sharp edges. They didn't have burrs at all. They were just a bit sharp'ish from being sharply square.
The guns were pretty nice to cock and dry fire as they came out of the box. The work we did left them both with slightly heavy trigger pulls but with a break that has very little creep and mostly feels like the proverbial "breaking glass" release. We were both amazed at how sharp and clean the break was. The checkering on the hammer was smoothed off a touch to make it easier for the thumb to slide off in the speed of a cowboy shooting stage. Out of the box the checkering was well formed with sharp peaks. A little too sharp to allow a thumb to slide off at speed. But just the thing for regular plinking or slower target shooting.
So this is both a review and a list of some optional small mods to make a nice out of the box gun into a great gun.
For anyone that has been thinking about a new Pietta 1873 this experience of working on these two leaves me with a clean conscience in recommending that you go ahead with the purchase.
Last edited:
