Got 'nuther'n.

[jeager106]

AuctionArms.
A fella had a "Confederate" Colt by Pietta .44 new in the box but had a "buy now" of 130 bucks.
A tad much I thought.
The real Confed. Colt copies were .36 not .44.
I got into a "haggle" and ended up with it for $93.50 + shipping.
Not bad for new in the box.
Anyone have one of these?
I have 5 Piettas in assorted flavors and they all seem to be pretty good quaility for the money.
Never owned an Uberti but I'm told they are a tad better in quallity than Pietta.
Dosen't Uberti make the Colt name brand b.p. revolvers?
I've also heard that Uberti makes a better quality revolver for Colt than they do under thier own name.
Opinions?

[Flint]

Uberti made the parts, unassembled and unfinished for the first run of Colt repros, the 2nd generation in the 1970's.  They were assembled and finished by Iver Johnson for Colt.

The 3rd generation, so-called "Signature Series" were not made by Uberti, at least not exclusively, I see identifiably ASM parts in them.  Those, made in the 1980's, were assembled and (poorly) finished by a vendor in Brooklyn, N.Y., Colt Black Powder.

The 2nd gen Colts are as good as anything ever made, if you can buy one, get it.  The 3rd gen is better left in the box.

Ubertis, though not color cased as well, or polished as well are shooters and well worth their money.

[jeager106]

Thanks for the response and excellent information!

[1860]

If your Pietta, Reb revolver is like my buddy's, it will surprise the heck out you on paper.  His is poorly finished but produces tiny little groups and after a little work, functions perfectly.  He soaked his in vinagar to get rid of the blue, did a little polishing and then lightly browned it..Really looks good and people often approach him at the range to see if he is shooting an original-(most people know nothing about C&B).

The 2nd generation guns are certainly the best repros and while the ones made in the 70's are concidered slightly better than the last run made in the 80's, you couldn't prove it by mine.  I recently picked up a matched set of 1860's, consec. S/N and unfired, that were made in the 80's.  These two guns are as nicely finished and the actions are as tight as any modern made revolver, like a S&W 686 &etc.  I also have a few of the first run guns and they are beauties but one is a lttle on the loose side and it didn't get that way from use.  I'd take either run of guns over any other repros and if someone want to sell me a 2nd run gun cheaper than a first, I'll Take It!!

The 3rd Gen. Sig. Series does have ASM parts, depending on when they were made.  The very early ones were total junk, the later ones got close to the Pietta's being made at the time but I'd take a pietta any day over a Sig Series.  A wall hanger right out of the box..

60

[filmokentucky]

The second generation Colts were built from 1971 to 1982. The third generation or "Signature Series" guns were made from 1994 to 2002. All are considered to be genuine Colts. In general, the bluing and case hardening was much nicer than the finishes found on the Italian guns of the same period.

[jeager106]

Well while we're talking about cap'n ball revolvers, how about someone sharing a little info on another I bought reasonable a while back?
It's a Navy Arms, says made in Italy, with the Pietta name in .44 with the 'Navy" scroll work on the cylinder.
I've read that "navy " Colts were all .36, not .44 and that Pietta markets them as "navy" but they are not.
I couldn't care less about historical documentation as they are shooters to me.
However the Navy Arms 'navy. Pietta .44 is tighter than many new modern revolvers and the quality of the finish is better than most repros.
Did Pietta make better quality guns on the request of Navy?
Some claim Uberti made better quality for Colt.
Don't know.
Does anyone know how to take the slop out of the cylinder play of a slightly worn Pietta?

[ribbonstone]

IF Pietta reallly tries, they can make a pretty gun...Those Starr revovlers, Smith Carbines, and Lamats are their products and show a nice fit and finish (but are in a different price bracket).  On there standard guns, they tend to let a few things slip and the chance of getting one that has to go back is higher with a Pietta than a Uberti.

Do the big importers inspect their shipments from Italy?  Not all of them oepn the boxes and look inside...got shipped a Rem. 36 with a .44 cylinder installed.

You guessed right..were no issued .44 Navies and no .44 brass framed guns.  The CSA would use various copies in .36 (usually with the barrels round ahead of the breech), some with brass frames, but as far as I can reseach have not come across even a small CSA production run of brass framed .44's on navy sized platforms.

So what...it's all for fun anyway, and they look the part of a CSA variation.

The 1860 is the same basic frame as the 1851 Navy (they two diametered the cylinder and used a differnt barrel design)...the grip frames will interchange, so a short Navy grip can be put on in place of the longer Army grip (and for that matter, the 1873 Colt SAA's grip frame is the same critter).  Have switched the grip frames on a couple just to see.

Are some original Colts that have had those grip frames and grips switched sometime in the past (Elmer Keith wrote of putting a 1860 Army grip frame on Colt SAA's...so we can assume he put the SAA's grip frame on the 1860 Army rather than have a gripless gun about the place).
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Cylinders are not very hard, but the bolt that pops up into the locking notch is.  Over time, the hard bolt poping up and quickly stopping the softer rotating cylinder will peen the notch wider.  

Timing can be part of the cause as well...but usually it's that the force of roatation comes to a sudden stop when that boilt hits the notch...rotation isclockwise, so the left edge of the notch takes most of the beating.  Same force can widen the square hole in the frame the bolt pops in and out of.

Fix is usually to try and gently move the peened metal (normally on the left edge of the locking notch) back into place.  Not a job for ham-hands and a carpenter's hammer.