Sorry, long post, so skip if that annoys you... 
Ok, so got it late yesterday and took it to the range today.
Overwhelmingly an interesting gun. Lots of things that make one go "hmmm?!?"...
For one thing I'd like to read the original manual in Italian, I think it lost a lot in the translation.
Interesting tools provided with it.
Odd that the rear sight is fixed and the front adjustable, but perhaps that is proper for the interchangeable barrels (or the engineering decision to reverse everything)
The cylinder release on the right is odd, but they gave me a bag with a right-release as well... haven't installed it yet, just an unusual touch.
While the gun absolutely feels like a high quality piece (no doubt it is), nothing feels "positive" about it... the release is vague, the cylinder way odd and feels like the cheapest piece on the gun.
The release, if not handled correctly after cylinder opening, can prevent the cylinder from going back to battery.
The cylinder, once loaded and returned, will pretty much engage whenever it feels like it (not a safety issue, just spin until it locks before attempting to fire).
The DA is just plain weird, the very very worst I've experienced.
The SA, however, is absolutely fantastic.
I only took two guns out today, the 6" Mateba and my 6" GP-100.
Recoil with .357 Mag is trivial with the Mateba, that is truly unique on this gun. I would almost say that regular .38 in my GP had more drama than a full .357 in the Mateba.
I suppose that is the expected attribute of having the barrel aligned to the lowest chamber.
The front sight was obviously very misaligned from the factory (a visual inspection showed that), and while my personal accuracy was not exactly great with it today, I offered the RO some shots... the man put 6 shots touching each other, ever so smoothly.
A humbling experience, but that would be another story.
Some possible weirdness here: in 50 rounds, there were at least 8 instances where the hammer stroke but nothing went boom. The primer was marked but too lightly to set it off.
This primarily ocurred in DA (the first round), but also in SA. The round would go off without problem on a retry.
Once, in the middle of firing (round 3 or 4) the gun was in SA (from the auto action) but pushing the trigger all the way did not move the hammer.
So the trigger was stuck towards the rear, the hammer cocked and the chamber live. No decocking possible, as the cylinder release was stuck too.
Pretty disconcerting!
(maintaining safety of course) I "racked the slide" a couple of times, kept trying to either fire off the round / unstick the trigger or release the cylinder.
Finally the cylinder decided to free up, so that was that.
On the other occassions, I would just continue shooting in DA mode until I'd hit or re-hit the missed round.
Wonder if Wolff makes a set of stronger springs?
I'll attribute this to break-in, perhaps even ammo (S&B 357, always 100% in the past for me).
Another note: as suspected, not even hotter factory .38 will cycle the action, but a bag with a .38 spring was provided. I'll install it for my next session.
Other than that, I gave up aligning the sight because the screw was somehow travelling in an elliptical motion... yes, I know it sounds weird.
But I figured I'd research at home will full lighting and good tools just in case.
One more item: the shape of the hammer does not particularly lend itself to cocking (not terrible but not engineered for it)... I found myself "racking the barrel" to cock the hammer after reloading, seemed natural but weird.
Any safety issues here? This thing is supposed to have a transfer pin so even if I did not move the barrel all the way back in the revolver... (boy did that sound weird!)
Ok, I'm rambling here. Nice but weird gun. Hope it gets smoother and doesn't fall apart (no reason to think it should).
Will ask my parent that live in Rome to get me some direct info.
Still happy I bought it, but then again I knew this was strictly a $600 toy to begin with. Hope it graduates from a "curio" to something better in my collection.
Will keep you all informed (or at least those that don't mind really long messages....
Ok, so got it late yesterday and took it to the range today.
Overwhelmingly an interesting gun. Lots of things that make one go "hmmm?!?"...
For one thing I'd like to read the original manual in Italian, I think it lost a lot in the translation.
Interesting tools provided with it.
Odd that the rear sight is fixed and the front adjustable, but perhaps that is proper for the interchangeable barrels (or the engineering decision to reverse everything)
The cylinder release on the right is odd, but they gave me a bag with a right-release as well... haven't installed it yet, just an unusual touch.
While the gun absolutely feels like a high quality piece (no doubt it is), nothing feels "positive" about it... the release is vague, the cylinder way odd and feels like the cheapest piece on the gun.
The release, if not handled correctly after cylinder opening, can prevent the cylinder from going back to battery.
The cylinder, once loaded and returned, will pretty much engage whenever it feels like it (not a safety issue, just spin until it locks before attempting to fire).
The DA is just plain weird, the very very worst I've experienced.
The SA, however, is absolutely fantastic.
I only took two guns out today, the 6" Mateba and my 6" GP-100.
Recoil with .357 Mag is trivial with the Mateba, that is truly unique on this gun. I would almost say that regular .38 in my GP had more drama than a full .357 in the Mateba.
I suppose that is the expected attribute of having the barrel aligned to the lowest chamber.
The front sight was obviously very misaligned from the factory (a visual inspection showed that), and while my personal accuracy was not exactly great with it today, I offered the RO some shots... the man put 6 shots touching each other, ever so smoothly.
A humbling experience, but that would be another story.
Some possible weirdness here: in 50 rounds, there were at least 8 instances where the hammer stroke but nothing went boom. The primer was marked but too lightly to set it off.
This primarily ocurred in DA (the first round), but also in SA. The round would go off without problem on a retry.
Once, in the middle of firing (round 3 or 4) the gun was in SA (from the auto action) but pushing the trigger all the way did not move the hammer.
So the trigger was stuck towards the rear, the hammer cocked and the chamber live. No decocking possible, as the cylinder release was stuck too.
Pretty disconcerting!
(maintaining safety of course) I "racked the slide" a couple of times, kept trying to either fire off the round / unstick the trigger or release the cylinder.
Finally the cylinder decided to free up, so that was that.
On the other occassions, I would just continue shooting in DA mode until I'd hit or re-hit the missed round.
Wonder if Wolff makes a set of stronger springs?
I'll attribute this to break-in, perhaps even ammo (S&B 357, always 100% in the past for me).
Another note: as suspected, not even hotter factory .38 will cycle the action, but a bag with a .38 spring was provided. I'll install it for my next session.
Other than that, I gave up aligning the sight because the screw was somehow travelling in an elliptical motion... yes, I know it sounds weird.
But I figured I'd research at home will full lighting and good tools just in case.
One more item: the shape of the hammer does not particularly lend itself to cocking (not terrible but not engineered for it)... I found myself "racking the barrel" to cock the hammer after reloading, seemed natural but weird.
Any safety issues here? This thing is supposed to have a transfer pin so even if I did not move the barrel all the way back in the revolver... (boy did that sound weird!)
Ok, I'm rambling here. Nice but weird gun. Hope it gets smoother and doesn't fall apart (no reason to think it should).
Will ask my parent that live in Rome to get me some direct info.
Still happy I bought it, but then again I knew this was strictly a $600 toy to begin with. Hope it graduates from a "curio" to something better in my collection.
Will keep you all informed (or at least those that don't mind really long messages....
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