pietta vs uberti

[jonah hex]

Im looking for a pair of Navy colt replicas.
Pietta and Uberti seem to be the leading manufacturers.

Does anyone have experience or opinions on which is best?

[Cactus Cris]

Let me start by saying that either can be real dogs or real winners.  Depends on when during the week they were put togather.  I have both brands in 60's- 61's- 51's & each brand is good.  I normally won't order them thru the mail cause I want to "feel" them up b4 buying.  Only place I will order them by mail or off internet is from Taylors. I normally get them @ EOT or WR from them- 2-4 at a time after close inspection. They have never sent me a bad one.  I prefer the 61 in .36 or the fluted cylinder 60 from Taylors in 44 due to the slightly smaller grip.  Now 58's are just a little different.  Have 4 in .36 (2 with R&D conversions  & 2 C&B .36.)  Have seen some of the Uberti ones that were great and 1-2 that were made on Friday.
   It is all gonna depend on what you like and feels good to you.  Any that you get will take a little work to make them good & the best thing you can do to them is change the nipps out and put in Treso's from Thunder Ridge.  It is the first thing I do out of the box.

[Cheyenne]

As Chris said, you can get good and bad in both. I prefer Uberti for any of the Colt style guns due to the dimensions, geometry, and consistency.  In the Colt style guns, i have found Uberti to be better and from a point of conversions, the consistency of the Uberti and it's parts put it way ahead.

That said, the Pietta's can be good performers, and you will not beat Cabela's prices anywhere.  1860's are running about 160.00.

Fit and finish of the Uberti is ahead of the Pietta too, IMO. I had an 1851 from Cabela's that was a real good shooter, but I just couldn't get used to the extreme grip profile they use, but if I did my part, it shot really well.  I currently have an 1860 Pietta 'snub nose' that came from the factory out of time, and the grip frame is not really fitted to the main frame....it's wedged down by the screws, meaning it really takes a lot of effort to get the thing back on,,,,,more than it would had the grip frame been fitted properly.

Again, the price is very attractive on the Pietta.....mail order ain't so bad with an outfit like Cabela's.....they'll take it back and exchange it if it's not right....my '60 came second hand to me, so I'll just have to fit a bolt properly to it.

[Birdgun Quail]

I have a .36 Navy Pietta from Cabela's and the metals are too soft.  When I first got it, the trigger had a long creep.  Cocking and releasing over a period of time changed that to the point that when I now cock the hammer, I can get it to fall my lightly pushing on the back of the hammer.  I have not abused this gun.  I've shot it some, used it to help break my gun dog from gun shyness (you can use just caps or full loads), and let it sit in a display box.  In my opinion, the metals on my .36 Navy Pietta are much too soft.  The grips were no where near a good fit.

[Four-Eyed Buck]

I have a Pietta Confederate '51 Navy( .44 cal.) which I won at my first annual match years ago. When I tried to shoot it the first time the full cock notch went away after just using caps to dry the chambers. I had my smith recut the notch and haven't tried it since.their 1873 SAA copy is a fine gun quality wise, however. Hopefully, this type of quality has trickled down into their C&B's..........Buck