4.75” Pietta vs. Uberti

bangswitch said:

I did the retrofit a couple of weeks ago on my Cattleman II Uberti. The hammer you get from Taylor's is more true to the SAA patent than the previous safety Uberti had where you could push the cylinder rod back as a safety and the hammer had some sort of tab. The "kit" from Taylor's includes the hammer, trigger and a cylinder rod with the two indentations for the retaining pin. I gave about $145. You can buy the hammer and trigger separately, and use the same cylinder rod that the "new" floating pic models have, save yourself about $16 or so. You won't have any safety option at all, except for the "1st click" hammer notch, but that's all the cowboys had.

The swap truly is a drop-in fit, it took me twenty unhurried minutes to disassemble the action, swap the parts and reassemble the revolver. Just be careful with the little spring that hides behind a set screw in the frame and controls the hand. It and the set screw are small and would be easy to lose. If you have a mind to do a spring upgrade, it would be the perfect time.

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I've accumulated several hammer/trigger sets from Taylor's for future posterity but have yet to use one.

I prefer 5.5 for single actions, not too long, and not too short.

My Pietta 45's:


My Uberti 357's


I think Uberti gives you more choices than Pietta.

I have the Uberti El Patron in 357 and its an awesome gun. The floating firing pin and three click trigger/hammer are just fine. It's very accurate and I have quite a few really nice loads in copper and lead for it. I can't speak to the Pietta, but I can imagine they are fine also. The only thing that measured out was one chamber was just bit smaller than the rest. Hasn't had any bad effect at my 15–25-yard distances. I replaced the hammer main spring, and it has a two-pound trigger at this point. I love this gun and it's paired up with a Model 73.

I recently refinished the grips on my Uberti Cattleman. Too red for my liking and too shiny. I just sanded (and sanded, and sanded) the old finish down to the wood, did two applications of dark walnut Minwax stain, then two coats of Danish oil. After that dried a couple of days, I waxed the grips with BriWax paste wax.

I've owned a number of different SAA clones, but never had a Pietta until a couple years ago. I had a Bisley gripped Uberti in .32-20 and not a fan of the Bisley grip as it doesn't feel natural in my hand. It tends to want to point low, so I was going to sell mine. A friend had a brand new Pietta .32-20 with the standard SAA grip in 4.75" barrel, and agreed to an even swap, so we traded. I found the Pietta to be equal or slightly better case colors, and fit and finish is nice. The hammer was a little heavy, so I worked the mainspring over a little until it felt great.
Seems to be accurate, and I love 4.75" barrels on my SAA handguns. The Pietta isn't as nice as my American Western Arms SAA, but then they're worlds apart price wise too. My AWA .45 Colt is nicer than most later Colt SAA are.

CraigC said:

I've accumulated several hammer/trigger sets from Taylor's for future posterity but have yet to use one.

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Do you know if Taylor's has replacement hammer/trigger sets for the Uberti 1875 Remington clone? I've got a hankering for a 7-1/2" case-hardened version.

bangswitch said:

Do you know if Taylor's has replacement hammer/trigger sets for the Uberti 1875 Remington clone? I've got a hankering for a 7-1/2" case-hardened version.

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No idea.

.45Coltguy said:

Where did you find a replacement base pin for your Pietta 1873? The one place I looked, Belt Mtn? doesn't seem to carry them any longer.
Thanks for any help on this.

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IIRC, the cylinder pin from the Uberti worked just fine in it, so I figured it was close to being a generic part.

I ordered a cylinder pin from Numrich or somewhere and it fit just fine. Don't even remember what brand it was listed as, or just "SAA".

Maybe cost $16 or something like that.

bangswitch said:

Do you know if Taylor's has replacement hammer/trigger sets for the Uberti 1875 Remington clone? I've got a hankering for a 7-1/2" case-hardened version.

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Try VTI gun parts for your hammer and trigger.

Uberti screws do require regular attention where my one Pietta not nearly as much. Did not notice that the Pietta has a lug in the barrel for the extractor and the Uberti doesn't, and that screw is the one that backs out the most on my Cattleman.
Great video, very informative. That's some serious shooting.

So far I've been very happy with my Cimarron Pietta Pistolero .45 Colt.

Mark_Mark said:

that gun fighter is COOL! wish I knew how to work a gun like him

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What's interesting is that in his video about "how these revolvers run" , he shows a bolt block but there's no mention of an action stop!! That's amazing to me! Wonder how often he has to "rebuild" his guns because of that one item not being present!! Plus, don't cut a trench in the head of your bolt!!

Mike

James K2020 said:

Uberti screws do require regular attention where my one Pietta not nearly as much. Did not notice that the Pietta has a lug in the barrel for the extractor and the Uberti doesn't, and that screw is the one that backs out the most on my Cattleman.
Great video, very informative. That's some serious shooting.

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A little blue lock tight or some fingernail polish will keep that from happening.

Mike

45 Dragoon said:

A little blue lock tight or some fingernail polish will keep that from happening.

Mike

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Yep

Even setting aside the current Uberti retractable firing pin issues, there are a couple of points I like on the Pietta. Comparing stock guns the Piettas are usually a little smoother out of the box.

I replaced the two position basepins with Uberti “one groove” pins. They have a groove all the way around the pin (like my Rugers) where the Pietta pin has a groove on one side-more fiddly to install.

I had some minor “over-rotation” issues with my Piettas. I’ve seen it on Ubertis as well. A local guy fixed it for less than it would have cost me to ship them to EMF for service.

I saw a Piettas 1873 recently with a poor fit of the barrel to the frame. Like any product, look it over before you accept it.

My problem is that I started with Rugers. Not that they never break but they are more rugged than the clones.

I have one of each, though my Uberti is a 7.5" 38-40 and not a 357. The Uberti was slightly used when I got it, and it shoots amazingly. I bought the Cimarron (really a Pietta)new and it shoots ok, but I had to tweak the sights just a bit to get it to shoot to point of aim. I also believe the bolt notches weren't cut correctly on the Pietta, because they peened immediately the first time I had it out. However, I carefully recut them and now it's just fine. On the plus side, it does have the four click hammer like the Uberti, and the trigger is pretty nice too. Here's the one I got: https://dahlonegaarmory.com/product...revolver-35738-special-4.75-walnut-grip-blued

Mac

Hi guys. Glad ya'll liked that video ;-)
I used to own a Pietta .45 and the timing was all wrong out of the box. I was getting off-center primer strikes, got rid of it. That was years ago though, and a lemon is always possible. Other than this major issue, I did really like it, but not enough to keep it, sold it with full disclosure. Later I got an Uberti .38-40, but did not like it. I don't really know why, just can't put my finger on it... Somehow the Pietta, to me, always seemed to be more of a Colt than the Uberti, and I do own a 1st gen Colt. I actually plan on buying another Pietta and hope to be luckier this time. I can mess around with the Pietta and wear it out, something I don't want to do to my Colt. Once worn out I can just buy another one... That's what clones are for IMHO. In that optic, the Pietta gets my vote.
Gil.

gilgsn said:

Hi guys. Glad ya'll liked that video ;-)
I used to own a Pietta .45 and the timing was all wrong out of the box. I was getting off-center primer strikes, got rid of it. That was years ago though, and a lemon is always possible. Other than this major issue, I did really like it, but not enough to keep it, sold it with full disclosure. Later I got an Uberti .38-40, but did not like it. I don't really know why, just can't put my finger on it... Somehow the Pietta, to me, always seemed to be more of a Colt than the Uberti, and I do own a 1st gen Colt. I actually plan on buying another Pietta and hope to be luckier this time. I can mess around with the Pietta and wear it out, something I don't want to do to my Colt. Once worn out I can just buy another one... That's what clones are for IMHO. In that optic, the Pietta gets my vote.
Gil.

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Gil, the Pietta IS more "Colt" like . . . it IS smaller than the Uberti, more to the Colt size. Therefore, you are restricted to "Colt" loads. The Uberti is definitely more robust than the Pietta. The non-MIM parts in the Uberti are much nicer than the '70's style parts in the Pietta. I have a Pietta Frontier from Cimarron and would be more than happy to swap it for an Uberti Cattleman!! My Pietta has dual cylinders (45acp/45C), interference pins, hammer shims, bolt block, action stop, action shield, zero endshake, coil spring action . . . Had to replace the bolt because of the ill placed "reset cut" on the bolt arm . . . (something that EMF is aware of) and got a couple of "pre cut" bolts from them so it could be set up correctly.
You say your Pietta had bad timing and off center primer strikes ( throw-by problems?) but like them anyway. Hmmmmm.
As I stated about the guy in the video, he knows enough to "make it work somewhat" and anybody could practice enough to get the timing down but his leaving out the action stop is rather astonishing for someone in the "fast action" world !!

Mike

Oops . . . Double . . .

Hello Mike. Thanks for the info. I did not know the Uberti was bigger, since I did not own them at the same time, but maybe that contributed to my impression.. I have a Blackhawk in .41 Mag, so that's my "bigger" single action. I am just hoping my Pietta was an isolated lemon and that my next one will be all right, if not I can always return it.. I don't know what an action stop is, but I am not into the "fast action" thing, will have to look that up. I suspect that shooter does his own thing, maybe he doesn't know about it. I'll definitely check out those mods as something that would make a gun last longer, ever in regular use, or to allow occasional fun ;-)
Gil.

They are pretty much the same in both fit and finish now but I still think Uberti is better in both areas

The current Pietta has less mechanical issues than Uberti but Uberti is a bit better copy of the Colt. The only issue with Uberti is the fit of arbor which is easy to remedy. Both can be made into fine shooters.