The "Colt" Signature series repros were assembled and finished by the John Jovino outfit in NY. All of the component parts were of Italian manufacture purchased under contract to their specs.
Not entirely correct. In fact, not even close. Jovino was involved in some marketing the for the "Colt Blackpowder Arms Company", other than that he had nothing to do with the 3rd gens. There are already to much bad information about the 2nd and 3rd gens to keep adding more.
This is from Dennis Alder's book.
"A little over a decade passed between the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd Generation Colt percussion revolver lineup. “It needed the time, the market needed to be cleansed, and after 11 years passed, my son Anthony and I decided to bring them back one more time,” explains Imperato. They organized the Colt Blackpowder Arms Company in Brooklyn, New York in 1993. A year later, the 3rd Generation Colt Blackpowder Signature Series was introduced under a licensing agreement with Colt’s Manufacturing Company, Inc. Under this new “licensing” arrangement, Imperato not only manufactured the 3rd Generation black powder revolvers, he was also responsible for quality control, final inspection, marketing, advertising, sales, distribution and shipping to distributors or customers. This “licensing” arrangement was significantly different from the “subcontractor” type agreement he had with Colt’s for the production of the 2nd Generation percussion revolvers.
Under the old “subcontractor” agreement to produce 2nd Generation percussion models, Imperato’s only responsibilities were to manufacture the revolvers to Colt’s strict specifications and then ship the finished product to Colt’s facilities in Hartford. Colt’s then performed final inspection and shipped the revolvers to their distributors. This is why Colt historical letters for 2nd Generation percussion revolvers contain exactly the same type of information one finds in letters for original percussion models, Single Action Armys and other firearms that Colt’s produced. Historical letters for 3rd Generation percussion revolvers that contain any kind of detailed information are rare. If a letter can be secured at all, they typically omit most of the details one finds in other Colt historical letters because these revolvers never passed through their facilities where production and shipping information was painstakingly recorded. The first 3rd Generation model offered was the traditional 1851 Navy, followed by the 1847 Walker, 1860 Army, and 1849 Pocket, the one gun that had been omitted from the 2nd Generation line. With these first guns a new tradition was established. More than a reissue of the models offered from 1971 to 1982, each was embellished along the backstrap with the flamboyant signature of Sam Colt. On steel frame guns the signature was inlaid in gold, and engraved on silver-plated and polished brass backstraps. The Colt signature added a new sense of heritage to the guns, as well as a distinguishing characteristic from the 2nd Generation Colts. By 1996, Lou and Anthony Imperato had recreated all of the original models, as well as adding two new historic Colts to the line that were not offered in the 2nd Generation, the aforementioned 1849 Pocket Dragoon, literally a scaled down First Model Dragoon chambered in .31 caliber, and the 1862 Trapper, a pocket-sized .36 caliber revolver of which Colt only produced 50 original examples in 1862. A variation of the 1862 Pocket Police, the Trapper was fitted with a short 3-1/2 inch round bar-rel without loading lever and accompanied by a brass ramrod measuring 4-5/8 inches and designed to fit through the loading lever channel in place of the plunger.
The 3rd Generation Colts have become landmark models, expanding the variety of guns available to the collector and shooter. Within three years of their introduction, there were more than a dozen Signature Series Colts on the market, covering every caliber, size, and model produced in Hartford, including the transitional Whitneyville Hartford Dragoon, originally built in 1848. This was the first model assembled in Colt’s new Hartford, Connecticut, plant, and only 240 were made before the First Model Dragoon went into production."
Lou Imperato continued to do as he did with the 2nd gen Colts. That is to import raw barrel, cylinders and in some cases the back straps from Uberti. The remainder of parts came from in-house or other USA venders.
For anyone interested in more info on the 3rd gen Colts, read this.
http://store.bluebookinc.com/Info/PDF/POWDER/MBPHistoryOfColtBlack.pdf
Back to the OP question of "Who Has the Best Repro BP Revolvers?"
The new production Italian replicas are generally good revolvers. They well some times need some fine tuning. The 2nd and 3rd gen Colts are superior in fit and finish, small parts are of much better quality. Like any manufacturer, there are a few that made it past QC that may need some minor work.
