uberti vs. pietta

[astrolump]

ok...
i've been hearing uberti bp pistols are superior to piettas. can anyone quantify this for me. i have 2 pietta colt clones and one uberti 2nd mod. dragoon.
all three have their problems.
the piettas peen the cylinder detents and eat trigger springs like snacks.
the uberti has also ingested a trigger spring...though to be fair i have no idea how old this gun is as i bought it second hand.

the piettas are scary accurate though they shoot high like all colts.

the uberti dragoon...ive never even hit the target with it..i have no idea where the balls are going for all i know they might be going behind me. but like i say this gun is really a wall hanger.
my shooting buddy just bought a uberti cattlemans carbine and the mainspring broke while it was sitting uncocked on the bench..... just went ping. we looked at each other like.....did that just happen?

so if anyone has experience with current guns of both makes please tell me about the differences..you see i have the bug bad..real bad, and if ubertis are really that much better ill start buying them.
really my biggest complaint about the piettas are the soft internal lockwork parts..are the uberti parts hardened?
thanks
astro
:banghead:

 

[Tommygunn]

Well, both have their good points.
As I've said elsewhere, and others have also noted, Pietta has revamped their machining and their recent guns are better than some of their earlier ones. Also, their color case hardening is now better, a trick Uberti hasn't quite gotten yet.
There are some minor mechanical differences with their repros. Piettas have the cylinder locking notches cut a different distance from the rear than do Ubertis. The rebates on the .44 revolvers are cut slightly differently. Ubertis usually (not always) have a better polish on the blued parts.
Most Piettas us a parallel line cutting on the tips of the hammer to provide traction to the thumb. Ubertis are usually checkered there, which is more accurate to the originals, I think, if such details are important to you.
I have seen more Piettas with minor blemishes or imperfections in the wood than I have on Ubertis.
I am surprised to hear your Uberti Dragoon apparantly isn't accurate. My Ubertis are all pretty accurate, one exception being my 1862 Police .36.
Piettas are pretty accurate, too.
When I first started this there was a company called Armi San Marco that made cheap repros. They were not made that well, though some of their color case hardening was good. But I never found one that was accurate at all. I think that company is defunct.
As for springs, I have had problems with both Piettas and Ubertis in terms of breaking them. It's a hazard -- these parts will fatigue and break. I wish they'd make them out of a more robust grade of steel, but I think there are companies that make better replacement springs if needed.
The problem with the bolt peening the cyliner around the locking notch is a typical problem. I have seen it on both Pietta & Ubertis,with Ubertis being only marginally better. Some recent Piettas are better. Too me, this seems more noticeable on the Remingtons probably since they lack anticipation notches. If it's bad then you need the timing fixed.
I have seen originals with this problem too, and have seen them with the entire circumference of the cylinder scored by the bolt 'cause some tyro who owned it in 1867 spun the cylinder while holding the hammer back only far enough to draw the bolt out so far but not all the way.

A lot of my older guns that have these types of things I merely chalk it up to "character." A lot of old guns got a little nicked up too.

Finally, I do count Uberti as being better than Pietta...but the gap is very close, and getting closer. I have both brands. I wouldn't be ashamed by owning either one.

 

[Third_Rail]

Recent experience places Pietta firmly ahead of Uberti, at least for myself and Jule at BigIron.


Ubertis have come in really, really poor shape recently, with flaws that made them basically un-usable; how they left the factory is unknown, but geeze...

 

[Smokin_Gun]

I like Both Pietta and Uberti nothing bad to say about the except both Mfgs. or All Mfg. I should say have luck of the draw good and bad ones. Most companies will replace a bad one ASAP. Cabelas having one of the best return policies.
I have found that there's nothing one can't do to make one shoot as you want it to. I have very accurate Revs and trouble free. 1860 Pietta, 1858 Target Pietta, 1858 Uberti , 1858 ASP(Armi San Paolo) now Euroarms, 1873BP Uberti, 1851 Navy Uberti, Colt 1st model Dragoon(3rd gen). So a choice is hard mostly a matter of personal preferance at the time you buy it...cost verses availabilty.
I'd say to order a Euroarms 1858 from S&S Firearms http://www.ssfirearms.com/

Or send your Revs to BigIron for renevation. http://www.bigironbarrels.com/forum/index.php

 

[sjohns]

I have both Piettas and Ubertis. I also have a couple of ASMs. They all seem to be comparable guns.

I have that same problem with my dragoons. they shoot so high I have to aim a couple of feet low at 25yds. (bottom line of the standard siloughette to hit center of mass) The solution is a taller front sight, which I have yet to install. This includes 2 ASM dragoons and one Uberti.

 

[Cincinnati Slim]

Battle of the Eye-talians !

Howdy Y'all,

I've heard that since Beretta took controlling intrest in A.Uberti their quality had tightened up. I know for a fact Pietta recently invested in a bunch of new digital controlled machine tools. Their latest Colt SAA clones for Charles Daly and Navy Arms are really nice. I think competition is a good thing here for us shooters. Keeps new products in the pipeline and hopefully drives better quality control. My experiance has been that the external finish of the Ubertis are nicer but the Piettas are done right where it counts; inside. My last 1858 Remmie Pietta had some nasty tool marks inside the frame "window" that you can't see unless the cylinder is out. This has absolutely no effect on operation whatsoever. Action parts were really nice however. I took things apart for the usual polish/clean-up and every thing was mirror smooth. Not much room for improvement really ! So I just put 'er back together and did some cosmetic clean-up of the machine marks under the topstrap. After some elbow greese and a little cold-blue everything was perfect.

As for the trigger/bolt leaf spring, according to some old ordinance records I've seen, these were failure prone parts even in the 1860s.

Get some spare springs. VTI, Midway, Dixie or Cabela's all have 'em. Your gonna need 'em sooner or later. Some of the music wire springs sold for Colt SAA clones can be made to fit as well, check with Brownells. These old pistols always are needin' a little tinkerin'. They did back in the day and still do now. Just get ya some screwdrivers bits that properly fit the screws and have at it !

Happy Trails,

Cincinnati Slim

 

[mec]

All excellent posts. Prior to the Beretta/Uberti association, Ubertis ate trigger bolt springs not just regularly but just about immediately. One or two range sessions usually did it if it didn't break even before you got to shoot it. I haven't broken that spring on any of several Ubertis made in the last few years. I have had to replace two hand/spring units on Ubertis and now keep prefitted ones/ along with other springs on hand for instant replacement. It is unusual to break a mainspring but it happens. I've even seen one break on a freedom Arms 83. Pietta seems to have instituted quality control sometime after the improvements in the ubertis. The Pietta LeMats Ive had- one several years old, were very well made as was a smith Carbine. The double action Starrs were bad at first importation and I hear they are still bad now. It is very difficult to get parts for the Starrs and LeMats and they usually have to be back-ordered from Italy with a minimum two month wait. The Chamber /Bore measurments on the Piettas are smaller than on the Ubertis but either can be capable of extremely fine accuracy.

The only Uberti I've bough made in 2006 is a Paterson with lever. It exhibits perfect timing like my other beretta/ubertis but had a number of functional issues that I had to correct before it was shootable-Per Third rails post.