"New" Piettas?

[Boge]

I read on another website where Pietta has invested big $'s in new CNC eqpmt. and that their pistols are "new & improved". Anybody here bought a new Pietta cap 'n ball lately and have opinions?

[445 SUPERMAG]

I've inspected and shot 5 new '58 new army's this last year. Three were steel and two were the 12in buffalo job. One of the buffalo's spit lead, the rest shot fine but you could feel the differance between the actions. Lucky for me i got the best one outta the bunch, nice smooth action, and fairly light trigger pull. Also it seems the most recent ones have better bluing.

[Oregon Bill]

I thought I was getting a Pietta 1861 recently, and received an ASM instead. Didn't like the tiny grips or the brass backstrap.  I swapped it off at a gun show and just ordered a pair of Taylor's Uberti 1860s from Midway; should be here Monday.  I also would be eager to hear from someone with a spankin' new Pietta off the new machinery that Val Forgett III recently touted on the SASS wire.

[simonkenton]

The new Piettas are good. I bought a Colt Army .44 two weeks ago at Bass Pro Shop, under the Traditions label. This is a very good pistol, especially for $150. It is well timed and it locks up solidly. Fit and finish are good. Im looking to scratch up another $150 so I can go buy another.
Two years ago I went to the same store and bought a Pietta .36 Navy. I took the gun home and took it from the box. The timing was off, the fit and finish were bad. I took the gun back to the store the next day and got my money back.

[Dan Chamberlain]

I bought a target model about 6 months ago.  It's first rate.  Locks up as tight as a Ruger, and off the bench will shoot 2 to 2.5" groups at 20 yards.  I have an 1851 Navy purchased from Cabela's in November that feels and looks as good as any re-manufactured Colt and it shoots 4 of five chambers into one ragged group at 15 yards and the other just misses that group.  I'm in the process of determining which 5 chambers shoot the best and after that, I'll remove the nipple on the chamber I don't use.  Pietta is about 90% with 10%  needing some attention.

Dan C

[Buster]

I just bought a .36 Remington from Cabela's.  Fit and finish are very good (grips could be a better fit at top).   The blue is excellent.   All the stampings are even and deep.   The action is heavy but smooth and the gun locks up very solidly.  The gun impresses with a quality look and feel.
Haven't shot her yet so I'm reserving final judgement.   I would buy another in a heartbeat right now though.  In fact I'm considering a .31 Pocket.  I bought the accessory kit as well and the accessories are made by Pedersoli.

[Gatofeo]

I bought a Pietta-made copy of the 1860 Colt .44 about two months ago.
Very good quality. And the price was right --- $154 with taxes.
Very good, deep bluing. Fit between parts and grips was hairline.
Action was heavy but smooth. Will have to lighten that hammer spring somehow; feels like it came out of the suspension of a Panzer tank.
Cylinder locks up tightly, so tightly you can't move it even a millimeter.
Rifling seems a little shallow but accuracy hasn't suffered.
I use a well-lubricated hard felt wad twixt ball and powder to help scrape out fouling from the bore with each shot.
At 25 yards, from a benchrest, it will put six balls into 3 inches. And usually there are three or four balls in that group that cluster around two inches.
I use .457 inch balls; the oft-recommended .451 ball is not nearly as accurate. The larger ball creates a longer bearing surface, when swaged into the chamber, which gives the rifling a better grip on the ball.
I seem to get the same, good accuracy with any load. Lately, I've been shooting 35 grs. of Goex FFFG with wad and .457 inch ball and getting excellent accuracy, considering the sights on the beast.
Like all original and repro Colts, it shoots quite high at 25 yards, about 8 inches above point of aim.
Not long ago, I would have suggested an Uberti as the best of the cap and ball revolvers but it appears that Pietta is giving Uberti a run for its money.
I also heard from a poster on another site that he recently picked up a Palmetto and found it was very high quality, though Palmetto had not been in the past.
Perhaps the Italian makers realize that shooters are more discerning today. It's about time. I still remember the junk produced in the 1970s and 1980s.

[simonkenton]

Gatofeo- I lightened up a Pietta hammer spring just a few days ago. If this sounds crazy, all I can say is, it is easy and it works.
My gunsmithing tool is a belt sander. Put some rather fine grit paper on it, 80 or 100. Don't try it with 50 grit. Turn the belt sander upside down and set it on a table. Crank it up and set the trigger to run.
Then I just hold the spring in my hand and grind the edge. The sparks will fly. I ground it for a minute or two. By running the spring back and forth it did not heat up too bad. I was concerned that I might ruin the temper, but it did not affect the temper.
After a few minutes of gunsmithing, I put it back in the gun and tried it. It was still too stiff. I took it back to my Makita gunsmithing tool, and ground it for about  3 minutes. This time it was just right. I have cocked it about 100 times since, and have fired 5 shots, no problem, no ruined temper.
I suggested this treatment over on a Mosin Nagant forum and the "experts" over there about laughed me off the forum. They said it would ruin the temper and make the gun dangerous. Of course they hadn't tried it. If that spring is cool enough to hold  in your fingers, you can't damage the temper.

[River runner]

Simonkenton, Did the same thing about two years ago on my Pietta's, and have been shooting them twice a month in CAS, so far no problems, and they are slick. Like ya said if ya take it easy you won't take the temper off of 'em. Did the same thing to a Spiller & Burr, that took two men and a boy to cock, now it's one smooth arm. RR

[howdy doody]

Pards, I bought a couple of 58s last year and I had to adjust the timing on them both. I clearanced to the cyl/barrel and originally ground the sides of the hammer spring to 3/16" and left the ends as they come, except that I polished the top end where the roller rides. They felt pretty good. Easy to cock and I had no problem setting of caps. Since then, I have done a lot more polishing and installed wolf colt reduced power springs. I made my own trigger/cam spring from steel strapping and they feel great and they shoot great. I rounded up enough Uncle Mikes nipples for my 8 cylinders and if it wasn't for the durn trigger guard I would love them. I get  really sore knuckles on both hands after 6 stages. Next thing is to figure a mod for that that won't be noticable as a external mod. I too  would like to check out the new model piettas and see if what they say is true.

[John C]

Simonkenton, river runner, and howdy doody;

I, too, have a Pietta 1858 navy remington revolver from about 3 years ago.  I was much impressed by the rich blue and overall function of the pistol compared to an early '90s Armi San Marco that I also own.  However, the timing is slightly off, but only intermittently (I think when the pistol is cocked vigorously, versus slowly).  

The main reason I'm writing this is that the mainspring is VERY stiff, and I'm wondering about the grinding you did to your mainsprings.  If I read you correctly, Simonkenton, you ground a bit off the END of the mainspring, the part that rides in the notch on the hammer?  Whereas riverrunner ground the SIDES of the mainspring to make in NARROWER and thus less material to cause a stiff spring?

Howdy Doody, did you gring down the flat, long sides of the mainspring, to make it narrower?

I'd like to try the correct technique on my own revolver.  The one great thing about CB revolvers, they are cheap gunsmithing projects!  The parts are cheap from dixie, and if you mess up, you're only out $150!  Much better than grinding on a $700 SIG!

Thanks!

-John C

[howdy doody]

John C. Yes that is what folks do. They grind both side ( I suppose you could file) down to 3/16. The top and bottom 1/2" of spring is left normal width. Polishing the top where the roller rides is a plus for smoothness. That is about it. I have also seen where the standard spring had been cut out in the center, a lot like the wolfe spring. That seems a little too hard to do at home. Do not allow the spring to get hot if you grind, keep a can of water handy to cool it off, or you may lose temper. You will feel an immediate reduction in hammer pull and it will still light off percussion caps reliably. I use Remington #10s myself. No fear if something goes wrong, Cabelas has overhaul kits for the piettas and they include the springs, hammer and all.

[HWooldridge]

You don't begin to start over tempering a spring, i.e., losing the stiffness, until you get above 250 deg F so holding it in bare fingers and cooling regularly in water is a good way to grind one.  Another thing to do to prevent breakage is to eliminate stress risers, like abrasion marks from coarse grit so it's a good idea to polish the whole spring with at least a 400 belt after it is the size you want.  Another tip for the rest of the action is to disassemble the piece and slather 600 grit valve grinding compound over all the internal working parts, then reassemble (without nipples) and dry fire it continuously for several hours.  Wash out all remnants of the compound with solvent and inspect the working surfaces for effects of the polish.  You can also take the bolt out and apply compound to the cylinder pin, then reassemble the cylinder and spin it on the pin with compressed air.  All of these help to reduce friction and make the whole action very smooth.  I used to take these steps with S&W DA revolvers for faster double action shooting.