Howdy
I agree, all the importers get their guns from Uberti, and they are pretty much all the same quality. Every once in a while a real dog slips through, I had an Uberti/Cimarron Cattleman a few years ago that had the worst trigger pull I have ever experienced in a revolver, and to make matters worse the barrel was not screwed in properly and the front sight leaned over to one side. But that was unusual, pretty much the quality does not vary from importer to importer. Yes, some importers have different markings on their guns, or may have different options available, such as different finishes, but other than that they are pretty much all the same.
But I do have a personal experience that puts Taylors above everybody else in my book. A number of years ago Taylors was the exclusive distributor for Kenny Howell's conversion cylinders that he sold under his R&D label. That was before he started his current company, Howell Old West Conversions. But that is another story.
Anyway, I had an old EuroArms Remington 1858 that I bought way back around 1975 or so. When I found out about the conversion cylinders that would allow me to shoot 45 Colt in it, I was all over it. I could have just bought the cylinder and popped it in myself, but seeing as my Remmie was a much older one, I was not sure a drop in cylinder would truly just drop in.
Taylors had a service at the time where they would fit a cylinder to a Remington FOR FREE. I don't remember where I heard of the service, but I sent them the gun, on my own dime, and paid for the cylinder. Taylors actually had a gunsmith on staff (nobody else does) and he took my Remmy and mounted it on a fixture. He then took a new conversion cylinder that had no slots for the bolt cut into it yet, and mounted it on the fixture. The fixture located the slots relative to my gun, so the gun did not have to be modified at all. He cut the locking slots into the cylinder, then shaved off a few thousandths at the front of the cylinder so it would gap properly in my revolver. Then he sent it out to be blued. All of this was done with NO CHARGE.
When it was done he popped my original C&B cylinder back into the gun to make it a non-firearm again, put the new cylinder in a little box, wrapped it all up, and sent it to me, again, for NO CHARGE.
I actually chatted with him a couple of times during the process. His name was Tom. Dunno if they are still offering that service, but it was pretty spectacular at the time. NOBODY, not any other importer offers a service like that. Tom told me he routinely goes through the Uberti shipments and opens each box up to make sure the gun functions properly. If it doesn't he makes it function properly. Not an action job mind you, but he does occasionally have to take a gun apart and make it function properly.
None of the other importers do this. They all open up the crate, take out the boxes of guns, and put them on the shelf.
So in my book, Taylors is tops.
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