Another Pietta horror story

M

Missoura Don

New member
Well, went to cabelas 2 weeks ago and bought another 1860. And yes, I know, I should have checked out the entire function of the beauty, but I was in a hurry, so I took it out of the oil plastic bag, worked the action a few times, looked over the fit and finish, everything seemed fine.

So...I ran my errands, brought it home to start the dissassembly process, and then the nightmares began. The wedge was so tight, I had to litterly beat it out with a brass drift, thereby puckering the edge of the arbor slot. Then, the trigger, bolt spring screw was so tight I marred it up trying to remove that (and yes, I was using a proper sized hollw ground tip that fitted perfectlly). Thennnnn, I found out the milled channel for the innards was so full of burs,Im suprised the action even worked.

Buit wait...it gets worse....When I pulled the hammer out, the hand spring in the slot wasnt even connected, it was just slid in the slot...came right out!
So, by now, Im gettin pretty discouraged. So i put it all back together and planned on returning it. So now..its all assembled, and i check out the rammer. The rammer wouldnt even reach the cylinder, due to the very most rear "peg" on the rammer being over sized and not engaging the hole it was meant for. It simply wouldnt budge. So i sit there thinkin....Of all the Piettas I've purchased, this has got to be the worse. Some of the ones Ive bought, such as my 1851 in .44 has been flawless and dead on since day one, same as my other 1860. My 1851 in .36 had a minor timing issue when i bought it, but works like a charm now.

So...I'm lookin at this POS in front of me and think.....what a worthless, useless, waste of my hard earned money you are. Then it hit me...It wasnt the revolvers fault, it was human error, and then and there, I decided to keep that little beauty and give it the respect and TLC it needed to become fully functional and a welcomed addition to my small but ever growing collection. Sorry about the long post, but just want ya'll to know...these baby's may be far from perferct....but as lovers of the dark side that we are, we shouldnt blame the revolvers ,and just overlook that human error, and bring every revolver we purchase, good or bad, to its full and functional glory so that it can be enjoyed and admired, and used for many many years to come.
 
Don, take it back and get another one. Go over it really well, sounds like maybe a new employee at Pietta may have assembled that one. Whenever I buy a new one I make a real pain in the ass out of myself. But Cabela's employees have never givin me a hard time about examining them, ask them to bring several for you to pick from.
 
I like your attitude Don, way to go. I might return that gun, only because you can. I consider these Italian cap and ballers a semi-finished gun out of the box. It's been my experience that they all need some work to function correctly, some more work than others.
 
My experience with Cabela's is great. If something is not right, call them, send it back and go on from there.
All of my Piettas have been good from the box. Some of the things we do to them are not necessary for every day cowboy carry but make them work better for hard use.
Pietta does hire the Italian equivalent of "Bubba" the gorilla to tighten screws.
 
A shame the arbour slot got burred and the few scratches, but I too woul'd seriously think of returning that one. Make a call and see if they will take it back.... you should at least have a functioning gun out of the box, The wedge being in that tight from the factory wouldnt have done the gun a whole lot of good :eek:

Return it if you can...your best option IMO :cool:

Next time, do like Olmontana says, make an @ss of yourself and pull the wedge at the shop & inspect it thuroughly before you leave
 
I sent my '63 Pocket back to Cabela's and they made it real easy. However, they apparently disregarded my note instructing them to examine the replacement and it showed up with the same problem as the first one, just not quite so pronounced. I just kept it.
 
Geeeeze, send it back. Keeping it is just a false indicator to Pietta that they are doing a great job. Pietta needs to see what kind of crap is leaving the factory. Do us all a favor and please send it back!
 
I would send it back as well. I too had a problem with that trigger spring on both my 51 and 58, I think the guy gets paid to see how tight he can get them.
 
There is a story about a tour group from America visiting the Pietta factory. One of the members of the group asked to meet "the gorilla". When the factory personnel figured out what he was talking about, they were not amused.
 
Pietta needs to see what kind of crap is leaving the factory.
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They won't, even if he sends it back. Cabela's will gather up a month's worth of Pietta returns and issue a deduction against their account with Pietta. Pietta won't argue, because it'll cost them more to ship them back to Italy than the issue is worth.
 
Cabela's will gather up a month's worth of Pietta returns and issue a deduction against their account with Pietta. Pietta won't argue, because it'll cost them more to ship them back to Italy than the issue is worth.
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So Pietta could deduce from the amount of the deduction that they have some quality issues.
 
IMHO Cimmaron Farearms makes the best single actions today. I believe that they have the higest standards. I own or have owned Pietta,Cimmaron-Uburti,Uburti,EMF - Armi San Marco & a first generation Colt and the best ones as far as quality that i have seen were the Cimmaron-Uburti,Colt & Armi San Marco. Sorry to hear about your problem. I am thinking that my next purchase will be a Cimmaron-Uburti for C&B. All of the C&Bs that I have have been Pietta and they were OK but I am not sure that I want to continue in that line if they are putting out junk now and then.
 
Unfortunately, its not as though Uberti is without problems. Although it would seem that Pietta tends to have more quality problems just based on numerous threads I have read.

Uberti Problems
 
a mass email to the company, from members who are unhappy may help. I had 3 or 4 replacements ( i forget how many!!) sent to me by cabelas and they were all pieces of craps. Ive been wanting a 6 shooter but hell im to affraid of getting more lemons. May just go with a .54cal single shot.
 
Yes, neither are Ubertis perfect. However, most of the Uberti problems I've seen have been relatively minor - yours included.

It's not rare to read about new Piettas, though, that are non-functional out of the box.

Like the man said above, all of these are really only semifinished. But my (limited) experience suggests that Uberti starts out with higher-quality 'building blocks'. However, you do pay for that.
 
A kind of off topic, but relates to this thread. I wonder what Cabelas does with all the junk guns that they get back if they don't send them back to Pietta?
 
I would like to state the two Piettas I just received from Cabelas are fine specimens of firearms. Action is tight and thus far I have been happy. I am sorry to hear yours is not so.

I agree with the others here that you hear a lot of bad publicity about these guns, but not a whole lot of threads about the good ones. They are out there.
 
I wonder what Cabelas does with all the junk guns that they get back if they don't send them back to Pietta?
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They probably get destroyed.

If they're workable but just not perfect, they probably go into a local Bargain Cave. If they're truly junked, then Cabela's will request credit from Pietta, and Pietta can request the return of the guns. But most companies don't actually ask for the stuff back unless it's really high-value.

If the company doesn't take it back, the vendor destroys it. They no longer own it - they've been credited by the manufacturer - so selling it or otherwise releasing it would be illegal.

I've been in some Wal-Mart returns centers - where all the crap the stores get in returns that isn't resaleable ends up. Some manufacturers send reps to look through the stuff that's getting deducted to make sure it's on the up-and-up, but most just let the vendor junk it.
 
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