Is there a person or company regarded as the top revo maker?

A

AVP

New member
I was just looking online at some custom 1911's from Les Baer and Rock River Arms. They see to be regarded as a couple of the top makers in 1911's as far as I know (no personal experience with them). Is there a comparable company or gunsmith that makes high quality custom wheelguns?

I'm asking because I'm somewhat new to revolvers and from what I see on this forum the main companies that are talked about are Colt, S&W and Ruger. I'm not knocking any of these, I own a GP-100 and lover it, just wondering if higher-end pieces out there.

Angelo
 
Define "top." In sales, S&W is usually #1 but Ruger outsold them last year for the first time. In quality, that would be subjective. I would vote for Colt but everyone would argue in favor of their favorite. Several of the small specialty makers (like Baer) get good marks but they are not exactly mass production outfits and for the for the prices they charge the fit and finish should be outstanding.
 
I would consider the next step up above the S&W, Colt, etc would be Freedom Arms. There revos are very well made avery accurate. Most Sihlouette shooters use FA becuase of this. THere are also some above FA cost wise but I forget their names.
 
Is there a comparable company or gunsmith that makes high quality custom wheelguns?
Click to expand...
Because custom is the operative word in your question, I don't know of one.

A revolver is simpler to make than an autoloader, but it requires a higher level of precision in manufacturing of ALL the parts.

Many of the "custom manufacturers" of 1911 style pistols aren't much more than customizers or "replicators" of well proven designs.

Much as I admire and prefer autoloaders, they're more like cheap wind up clocks than the fine Swiss watches analogous to revolvers. Every part of a revolver has to be "just right" for it to work satisfactorily, but once the springs of an autoloader are "in the ballpark", the feedramp satisfactorily slick, and the magazine lips bent more or less right, it will work.

Maybe there is a custom revolver maker out there that's not just a customizer, and, if so, we'll find out in a little while....
 
Colt

Freedom Arms makes some fine production guns but the actions and lockwork can be a bit...stiff.
I think the best production revolver maker is Colt, except you never can tell when they will drop their entire wheelgun line or pick it up.
I am a Smith guy, but I have to admit that in the past 12 years or so the Colt Anaconda and King Cobra were generally a lot slicker handling and better finished than say the Smith and Wesson 29s and 19s. A 686 costs about half of what a Python costs or even less, but is a lot rougher finished and not so well balanced.
The Colts are not perfect. They only lock up at the rear of the cylinder, and the trigger falls right as the cylinder locks up, which means you cannot use the old target shooters method of indexing the cylinder the way you an a smith, but generally they are very smooth pulls any way on double action.
Colt makes some mighty fine wheelguns, when they arent busy cutting their own throats with bad management decisions.
 
I appreciate all of the replies! Maybe "custom" wasn't the best word to use. I suppose the company that uses the best materials and a really high fit and finish is what I was looking for.

Korth is the type of company I was looking for. Like I said before, I'm new so I've never heard of Korth until now. Wow, they make some nice looking guns, IMO! They sure aren't giving them away though! Does anyone here have any experience with these pieces? In your opinion, are they worth that somewhat large premium over other companies like Colt, Ruger S&W?

I'm sure a lot of you have seen this but for those who are new like me here's a link to Korths website: http://www.korthwaffen.de/en/index.html

Thanks again guys, I got the answers I was looking for.

Angelo
 
Revolver Thoughts

From the top I would say the German Korth is of fine quality. Then there is the French Manurhin. Then comes Colt and after that Smith & Wesson and Ruger in no particular order and Dan Wesson. There is
also Taurus and Rossi (owned by Taurus) and Charter Arms. Two I know nothing about are Erma Werke in Germany and Renato Gamba in Italy. As to particular comments about the makers I agree with what is written above.

Tom
 
a "top manufacturer" just screams freedom arms as they maintain some of the tightest tolerences around in a wheelgun

but when you bring up a name like les baer, i start thinking of hamilton bowen who does beautiful custom colt SSA and ruger blackhawks
 
The finest Revo on the Planet would be S&W, but,

I think your CUSTOM 1911 is a collection of bolt on parts, similar to a kit car where a CUSTOM revo would have to be produced by hand because I don't know that anybody sells OEM frames, bbls, cylinders like they do for autos.

For example, BAER, WILSON, or one of the other makers could source his frames and slides from S&W or Ruger, who are a couple of the leading subcontractors, (there are probably others) finish them, and stamp his name on them. Voila! a CUSTOM WIL-BAER 45 Auto!!!!!
 
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