Mike,
Here's your link, for the '51 and the rest of the Colts:
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/t...0006186.jsp&_requestid=51865&_requestid=85464
I hope that don't come out 2 screens wide.
Here's the '58 Army parts kit. Note the same parts as the Colt kit, all Rem parts, and the same order number.
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/t...&parentType=index&indexId=cat20817&hasJS=true
I think that Smith has a better fit and finish than Colt OR Ruger. Personal opinion.
I don't own an Uberti or a Cimmaron. I can't say they are better or worse than a Pietta. I know that I would choose the Pietta, for the money, rather than pay for what I look at as a better reputation as posted to these forums.
For one thing, Wayner says he got X bad guns, this was wrong on this one, that was bad on that one, something else was bad on the last one, but a good one came in, finally, well, not good, really, but better.
That seems to mean to me that they might have tolerances that you look at and see as something bad. One was an offcenter bore in a barrel. I really find it hard to believe that ANY machining company cannot drill a hole in the center of a bar of octagon stock.
Piettas are not as bad as they are made out to be. I would say they are probably better made than the original Colts, as the machinery is better, as is the steel.
Personally, like Mike, I would sooner make a reasonably priced pistol work properly than to pay 50 % more and chances are the higher priced gun has come off the same dock.
DON,
If you gotta get some tools, go to your local KMart and spend 5 bucks for a set of feeler guages. Measure the gap you got.
And, what do you mean you can push up on the muzzle and close the cyl gap? If it is tight in the wedge, drift it a little tighter, it doesn't close the gap, you got a bottomed arbor. You DON'T got a solid attachment at the mating point at the barrel extension. So, if you ARE drove up tight, and you DO bend the barrel up, of course you will close the gap, you are bending it around the fulcrum of the tight barrel wedge, arbor meet.
Worry about something else, thinking about all the problems you COULD have from the posts here will destroy any hopes of pleasure you can hope to have with these guns as shooters.
Man, people are trying to treat these things as Sheutzens. They are crude, first tries at revolving pistols, a 150 year old model. They are not Hammerlis.
Have fun, forget about a few thou here and there.
Cheers,
George