Uberti top, Pietta Bottom
Okay, the Uberti arrived today and having the two guns side by side definitely has revealed quite a few very interesting differences, even for a novice such as me.
First of all Taylor’s & Co. sent me the wrong gun. I noticed a discrepancy in the picture on their website and the description. The picture was an 1858 Remington in Stainless Steel with adjustable sights, that’s what I wanted so I ordered it. After I placed the order on-line I noticed in the description it said “Sights: Fixed” so I called them to verify which one was correct and the un-knowledgeable girl that I spoke to told me that it had adjustable sights, she apparently just went to the website and looked at the picture like I did.
Turns out it was the standard sight model after all and the picture was wrong. Well this steamed me a bit when I opened the box and saw the standard sights, even after I specifically called to check. I also noticed that the gun they had sent me HAD BEEN FIRED and poorly cleaned after wards, this steamed me even more so I called and complained quite vigorously and they sounded like they didn’t believe me, “Well how could the gun have been fired if it came from the factory?” Well, obviously it didn’t come from the factory but had been returned to them and they re-shipped it without inspecting it.
I took this picture down the bore of the Uberti, not a great picture but you can clearly see the crud in the barrel and the chambers were just as bad.
Anyway, customer service screw ups aside let’s get on with the comparison.
Upon taking the Uberti out of the box it immediately felt different in my hand, and quite a bit lighter so I weighed both guns on a postal scale and sure enough the Pietta weighs, 2 lb. 11.5 oz The Uberti, 2 lb. 10 oz. Not much difference but still a difference and when I released the loading lever it felt thinner in my fingers on the Uberti, and sure enough it is, the loading lever on the Pietta is definitely beefier, and this puts more weight out toward the end of the barrel and makes the Pietta feel considerably heavier. The Uberti actually feels better balanced.
And when I removed the cylinders from both guns they felt different too so I weighed them. The Pietta, 10.2 oz. the Uberti 10.6 oz. Hmm… so the Uberti is lighter over all but has a heavier cylinder, this moves the weight back in the hand for better balance.
So from a balance stand point the Uberti wins hands down.
Next is the action. The action on my Pietta is not as good, that was one of the things that made me want to get an Uberti, or at least compare one. The hammer draw and trigger pull on the Pietta are both much harder, as I’ve learned I can fix that with some internal tweaking, but out of the box the Uberti wins again. Very moderate hammer draw and almost perfect trigger pull.
I wish I was comparing two out of the box guns that had never been fired but that’s not the case so we’ll just make due.
Also, while holding the two guns they felt quite different in hand. I have pretty big hands and my hand seems to fit the Pietta much better. I noticed the butts felt different so I measured the butt of the frames and the Pietta is about 1- 1.5mm longer which adds to the circumference of the grip. I measured the circumference of the grips at the base and at the narrowest part at the top where the grip meets the frame. The Pietta definitely has larger grip circumference and the feel in the hand is considerable.
Uberti Top, Pietta bottom
Also, there is more clearance between the knuckle of my middle finger and the trigger guard on the Pietta. With the Uberti my knuckle is smack dab against the trigger guard and on the Pietta there is 2-3 mm’s of clearance.
So for big hands, the Pietta wins. A couple mm’s of clearance will probably help reduce recoil raps on the knuckles.
Next is fit and finish. The Uberti definitely has a more uniform satin finish, no difference in the frame, barrel and cylinder, though it does have some minor tooling blemishes which could probably be buffed out. This was one of the things that I didn’t like about the Pietta, the frame is almost mirror like and the cylinder and barrel are satin. This made me wonder about the quality of the stainless so I got out a magnet to test with and interestingly, only the frame and loading lever on the Pietta are stainless (non-magnetic) the magnet sticks to the barrel and cylinder.
The magnet does not stick to the Uberti anywhere, it’s all stainless. Not sure how this affects quality but it is definitely interesting. I would say that the Uberti is more corrosion resistant given that fact. For someone assuming that the Pietta is all stainless could lead to increased corrosion instead of less.
Okay well that’s about all this layman can really tell about the two guns and after all this I still can’t decide which one to keep. I’m definitely returning THIS Uberti, it has the wrong sights and its been FIRED for god’s sake. But I’m still not sure which one I like better.
I would have to say overall that the Uberti is definitely better quality but the Pietta definitely feels better in my large hands (and that’s important) even if it is not as well balanced as the Uberti. The fact that the Pietta is not all stainless is mildly concerning but I don’t know if it’s enough to tip the scale in one direction or the other. I can live with the difference in finish of the metal and work out the mechanical issues so I think I’m leaning towards keeping the Pietta, it just feels better in my hand with the larger grip.
I’ll have these two guns over the weekend so if anybody has specific things they would like me to check or thinks of something else to compare and/or take pictures of I’ll be happy to do it.
This is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to really examine two of the same guns side by side. I’m glad I did this and didn’t just send the Pietta back and order the Uberti I probably would have been kicking myself for it.
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