You guys were right about these new Piettas

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CraigC

CraigC

Sixgun Nut
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Up to this point, my experience with them has been with two older 1860's. Good guns and worth their price but a little rough around the edges. They always impressed upon me as lesser guns compared to Uberti. I heard enough good things about the newer guns that I thought I would take the chance on one. I'd been saving my Cabela's Club Visa points all year and a couple months ago decided I'd put them towards a Pietta 1851 London model. December's points were tallied and I finally had enough to get it while it was still on sale. It arrived this morning and I have to say that I am VERY impressed. Not only is it better than my other Piettas but even many of my Uberti sixguns. Major difference being that the action is very smooth and the trigger/bolt spring is light. The trigger could use some smoothing up. The finish is very well done with just a couple minor flaws. Overall it is a fantastic sixgun for the price.

On top of that, my wife bought me a little Uberti 1849 Pocket for Christmas so I'm drowning in nice new cap & ball pistols. :D
 
I can justify it either way. It all works out in the end, as long as I have more guns. ;)

Now I think I need one of them Marshall .44's to do a gated conversion on. :D
 
I bought a BUNCH of Pietta revolvers last year, all but one of them is dated 2012 year of manufacture.
My ONLY real complaint about them (other than the lettering should be hidden) is that every single one will have to have the grip wood finish sanded to have an acceptable wood to metal fit.
There are no gaps between the grips and the frames, the problem is that the wood is proud in many places on every gun. Especially at the right angle areas next to the trigger guard and the tail portion of the backstrap.
At the trigger guard area it just smacks of carelessness. At the base of the backstrap, it really bothers the skin at the heel of my palm. It's just gotta go.
I won't be satisfied with ANY of them until I have fixed that wood to metal sloppiness. Otherwise, the guns are GREAT!!
 
Glad to know about the Colts. My only experience with recently made Piettas is with their 1858 Remingtons and they are great.

SIGH! Time to start saving. Again.

Jeff
 
''On top of that, my wife bought me a little Uberti 1849 Pocket for Christmas so I'm drowning in nice new cap & ball pistols...''

You are a very lucky man!
 
There's some unit to unit variation but so far mine have all been really quite nice. Definitely impressive at their price point, no doubt.
 
I bought two at the end of december when they were on sale with free shipping. My 1858 Rem 5.5" bbl just shipped yesterday so I'm waiting impatiently everyday for the UPS man or the mailman. My 36 cal Spiller and Burr is suppose to ship on 1-23. I bought the roundballs,have the powder and caps just waiting for my new toys. Oh well I can shoot my ROA if I need a quick BP fix.
 
I'm super stoked. I broke down and ordered a short Remington because I felt like I needed a carry gun for bumming in the woods. The 8" version is nice, but too awkward to carry in my shoulder rig.

Tangent fyi: Cheaper Than Dirt has these leather near-vertical carry military/tank shoulder holsters with open bottoms that work for all manner of guns. I bought a couple at Christmas because they are on clearance for my 1911. I found my 8" RNA fit (snugly), but it was pretty comfy for me. The 5.5" barrel is going to carry like a dream in that rig.

Anyway, I got an email confirmation that it should be here by the end of the day:) I celebrated by cleaning out Walmart's clearance caps and picked up a capper they had for under 5 bucks.
 
Got my Rem 1858 5.5" bbl today!!! It was 169.00 shipped not $179.00. I took it out of the box, cleaned, and fondled for awhile. Fit and finish is perfect. It's still a big gun but I like the shorter BBL. Got another email on the Spiller & Burr, They said it will be at Cabelas for shipping on 1-30-13 so another week tacked on. Oh well at least this one came for me to shoot.
 
Only thing I routinely do is re-time the cylinder bolt. The Italians never get this right.!

The cylinder bolt leg that is actuated by the hammer cam always needs to be shortened so that it slips off of the cam sooner. This allows the bolt to snap up into the lead, instead of directly into the cylinder locking notch. If it snaps into the locking notch it peens it over. The bolt should release early into the lead, then be held up against the cylinder by the spring, and as the hand finishes rotating the cylinder into alignment the bolt should lift into the notch under spring pressure alone.
 
I just ordered ANOTHER Pietta 1860 Army. I got this one from Dixie Gun Works. I wasn't really in the market for one, but I was poking around their web site just out of curiosity and saw they were selling them for $225, which I thought was a DARNED good price!

When I put it on order, though, they were out of stock. I did get a confirming e-mail though, so maybe they intend to fill the order when new stock comes in. Hope so.

I currently have two Pietta 1860's (This new one will make my third!). One is a really old one and the cylinder arbor is a little short. The newer one - five or six years old by now, I guess - is a really nice pistol. I actually drug the old one out of the back of my gun safe last night, as I had the idea that I was going to try to get a welder to build up the end of the arbor, then dress it back down to fit. When I got it out, though, that puppy was locked up tight! The cylinder was basically glued to the arbor with some sort of brown sticky stuff - I recall I had been lubing the thing with automotive axle grease, but I'll never do that again! Had a heck of a time getting it apart and cleaned up! It's Ballistol all the way for me, now!

I wanted a matched pair of 1860s, and if Dixie comes through with this new one, I think I'll use the oldest one to experiment with de-farbing and ageing the finish, and maybe making an Avenging Angel.
 
I have to say though that the grips are shaped a little funny. Seems there's a lot of taper towards the bottom and a funky palm swell. I don't care for it, they need reshaping or replacing. Very nice sixgun all the same.
 
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