I've said it before and I'll keep saying it. I've had several from Cabela's and never had a bad one. They all worked fine out of the box with no pre use tinkering. Sure they could benefit from some smoothing here and there but they didn't need it to function properly. I also never had one with cosmetic issues. Maybe the bluing wasn't as nice as it could be but there were no external tool marks or mismatched parts or crude machining. I know there have been some but everybody makes lemons with no exceptions. Maybe the Italians have more but look at what you're paying for them.
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Pietta Quality Control (or lack thereof)
- Thread starter hongrn
- Start date
I've said it before and I'll keep saying it. I've had several from Cabela's and never had a bad one. They all worked fine out of the box with no pre use tinkering. Sure they could benefit from some smoothing here and there but they didn't need it to function properly. I also never had one with cosmetic issues. Maybe the bluing wasn't as nice as it could be but there were no external tool marks or mismatched parts or crude machining. I know there have been some but everybody makes lemons with no exceptions. Maybe the Italians have more but look at what you're paying for them.
Hawg's getting to the point here - it's utterly nonsensical to generalize about a company's (or importer's) entire product line from one example, or even two or three examples. And that applies whether the generalization is positive or negative. There is perhaps correlation with a batch of guns, but we don't know the manufacturer's batch sizes, so even that's of little use.
Keep saying it, Hawg. Sometimes it takes a few tries before it sinks in.
Having said that, this particular gun is a bit of a mess. You're justified in expecting better, but not perfection.
Keep saying it, Hawg. Sometimes it takes a few tries before it sinks in.
Expecting 'perfection' for $200 is a bit of a stretch, isn't it? This isn't like buying a new car at all - there's a fairly significant difference in cost in your metaphor. If you truly expect perfection in a gun for $200 you're going to have a very frustrating experience with this hobby.hongrn said:when I pay for a new gun, I expect it to be cosmetically and functionally perfect. It's like buying a new car that runs well, but it got a big scratch on the hood. Would you settle for that? It's functional!
Having said that, this particular gun is a bit of a mess. You're justified in expecting better, but not perfection.
Expecting 'perfection' for $200 is a bit of a stretch, isn't it?
You're right, I should have added "relatively" to perfect.
Wait a dang minute. I didn't say Cabella offers bad Piettas. They are my friends and we do some good biz with Cabelas. but customers want to see Tradition boxes or Pietta boxes. I buy guns from Pietta. In fact, sold one today(1858 8 Rem.) I'm going to order another one and a short barrel and only price them a little above. Sometimes I have to send them back and they are great people to work with. As a retailer, for c/b revolvers ,I can't make a lot of money on buying from Cabellas to retail at a price my morals will let- so I only keep a few. And I sell them for only a few bucks over. Most of our guns come from Taylor's and Ellet Bros-and we search everywhere for good deals on Colts, Ubertis and Piettas. So--buying from Cabella is a good deal --but send it back the next day if it ain't right. Like I said"if the shoe fits-wear it" No problem WBH
I just received a Pietta 1860 Army from Cabelas a couple of days ago. I also have an older one - maybe 30 or so years old - so I can make a direct comparison as to quality.
First, on my old pistol, the cylinder arbor was too short. I shimmed the bottom of the arbor bore in the barrel, and that sort of fixed it, but until I did, if one pushed in the wedge too far the top of the forcing cone would bind against the cylinder. I never checked the bolt or the timing on this revolver.
On my new one, the first thing I inspected was the arbor. It was perfect! The wedge itself was a little tight - it probably would have been OK but I ran the sides over a file a few strokes on each side and used some touch-up Perma-Blue on it. I did check the bolt, and as is reported to be common on these revolvers, the bolt was too wide to drop into the cylinder locking notches. I fitted the bolt to the notches and now all is good.
Otherwise, fit and finish is fine. While I was fooling around with it, I ran a precision Swiss file over the sharp edges on the frame and around the front of the cylinder. This is pretty much the nature of the beast even with much more expensive firearms. I had to do the same thing to my Colt 1911 when I got it, otherwise the front edge of the slide would draw blood!
Actually I'm quite happy with mine. I'm a tinkerer by nature, and I've always been interested in learning how to work on a single-action revolver lock work. So I was not at all upset with having to adjust the bolt a little.
First, on my old pistol, the cylinder arbor was too short. I shimmed the bottom of the arbor bore in the barrel, and that sort of fixed it, but until I did, if one pushed in the wedge too far the top of the forcing cone would bind against the cylinder. I never checked the bolt or the timing on this revolver.
On my new one, the first thing I inspected was the arbor. It was perfect! The wedge itself was a little tight - it probably would have been OK but I ran the sides over a file a few strokes on each side and used some touch-up Perma-Blue on it. I did check the bolt, and as is reported to be common on these revolvers, the bolt was too wide to drop into the cylinder locking notches. I fitted the bolt to the notches and now all is good.
Otherwise, fit and finish is fine. While I was fooling around with it, I ran a precision Swiss file over the sharp edges on the frame and around the front of the cylinder. This is pretty much the nature of the beast even with much more expensive firearms. I had to do the same thing to my Colt 1911 when I got it, otherwise the front edge of the slide would draw blood!
Actually I'm quite happy with mine. I'm a tinkerer by nature, and I've always been interested in learning how to work on a single-action revolver lock work. So I was not at all upset with having to adjust the bolt a little.