44caliberkid
New member
Got it in my head I wanted a 4 inch barrel SAA in 44 Special, a perfect packin’ pistol or BBQ gun. Original Colt is too expensive so I was looking at clones. Cimarron gets them in 44 sometimes but couldn’t find one. Taylor’s is dedicated to 357 and 45 Colt. EMF (Pietta) used to have some but not currently. Then I saw the Traditions 1873 Frontier in 44 Magnum on GB. Made by Pietta, it is an SAA clone. I reload all my 44’s so I already have 44 Mags downloaded to 44 Special. By the pictures it appeared to be a pretty standard copy, made by Pietta for Traditions, so I ordered one. Should have done more research, as shortly after I ordered I was looking at reviews of the gun on YouTube. Discovered it has a transfer bar hammer/trigger, no four click cocking, plus the trigger is oddly forward in the trigger guard. I tried to cancel the order but no luck. They told me to return it after I got it, and they hadn’t even shipped it yet.
So I went ahead and took delivery from my FFL. It is a very handsome pistol, nice deep blueing, nice case colors and nice wood. However, the first thing I noticed was it had an unfluted cylinder. Upon cocking it felt like I was cocking my old Rogers and Spencer, a thumb buster for sure, and a super hard trigger, like squeeze as hard as you can. My Lyman trigger gauge showed a 12 pound average. Took it to the range, shooting a handload, 240 grain bullet at about 900 fps. It grouped about 1” at 15 yards, awesome. But the front face of the trigger has sharp 90 degree edges, plus being more forward in the frame, that after 10 rounds my trigger finger was black and blue and hurt. I was wincing squeezing off the last 2 rounds. Sooo, looks great, shoots great, but I wasn’t happy with the trigger or the unfluted cylinder. What to do?
While I thought about it we took off to Dallas for the NRA Convention and Exhibits. While walking the exhibit floor I first came upon Pietta. I told them I thought the transfer bar trigger sucked, too stiff. He handed me a pistol and said, that has transfer bar. I was amazed. The action was light, smooth, excellent trigger. A gun show ringer worked over by the Pietta gunsmiths, of course, but at least I knew what the potential was for a good trigger. Then I came to Traditions booth. I told the guy my story, he gave me his card, wrote the customer service managers name and phone number on the back. Told me to call them after the show and arrange to send it back. That night my wife and I were getting on the elevator at our hotel and another man jumped on. He was wearing a Traditions polo shirt. I asked if he was with Traditions and he nodded. So on the elevator ride down I shared my story and by the time we got off at the lobby, he was giving me his card and telling me, Send it in, we’ll fix it. Looking at the card later, he was the president of Traditions. He also told me the unfluted cylinder was a mistake, some early production had them, but they would replace the cylinder. I’m getting happier.
The next week I called the customer service manager. I was telling him about the gun and the problems with it when we got to the cylinder. He said there were no 44 Magnum fluted cylinders, he hadn’t seen one in 12 years. I told him all the distributor pictures showed a fluted cylinder. He said that is just a stock, generic picture. I had already figured that out. He said he would send me an RMA#. Which he did. But no return label. Armed with my business cards I sent an email to the CS manager and copied my new friend, the president. About 2 hours later I had a return label. Thank you gentlemen.
The gun was gone 7 weeks. I waited patiently. I met the FedEx man between the house and truck, signed for my package and hurried into the house. Unboxing, unwrapping, peeling away the bubble wrap to reveal, I did have a fluted cylinder! Cocking was much easier, trigger pull was lighter. There was an invoice detailing the work they did and about the trigger job they said it was set to their factory standard of 5 to 5.5 lbs. My Lyman gauge said 3 lbs, so bravo.
Back at the range it still shoots 1 to 1.5 inches at 15 yards, centered but low, which is exactly what it want, so I can file the front sight to perfect elevation for my load. Tried some snappier 1100 fps loads and I think that’s a good ceiling for this gun. The square edges on the trigger still beat up my finger. Some day I’ll take it out and round it off with the Dremel. Also noticed on the invoice that the pistol has the longer army grip frame. I didn’t remember that and thought maybe they just do that for the 44 magnums, like the unfluted cylinder, but looking at ads on GB, the 357’s have the army grip too. The Colt 1860 Army is my favorite revolver, so it doesn’t bother me.
I complained to everyone I talked to, emailed with, about the stock picture being used for everything when there are obviously some differences between calibers and maybe grip frame.
So I went ahead and took delivery from my FFL. It is a very handsome pistol, nice deep blueing, nice case colors and nice wood. However, the first thing I noticed was it had an unfluted cylinder. Upon cocking it felt like I was cocking my old Rogers and Spencer, a thumb buster for sure, and a super hard trigger, like squeeze as hard as you can. My Lyman trigger gauge showed a 12 pound average. Took it to the range, shooting a handload, 240 grain bullet at about 900 fps. It grouped about 1” at 15 yards, awesome. But the front face of the trigger has sharp 90 degree edges, plus being more forward in the frame, that after 10 rounds my trigger finger was black and blue and hurt. I was wincing squeezing off the last 2 rounds. Sooo, looks great, shoots great, but I wasn’t happy with the trigger or the unfluted cylinder. What to do?
While I thought about it we took off to Dallas for the NRA Convention and Exhibits. While walking the exhibit floor I first came upon Pietta. I told them I thought the transfer bar trigger sucked, too stiff. He handed me a pistol and said, that has transfer bar. I was amazed. The action was light, smooth, excellent trigger. A gun show ringer worked over by the Pietta gunsmiths, of course, but at least I knew what the potential was for a good trigger. Then I came to Traditions booth. I told the guy my story, he gave me his card, wrote the customer service managers name and phone number on the back. Told me to call them after the show and arrange to send it back. That night my wife and I were getting on the elevator at our hotel and another man jumped on. He was wearing a Traditions polo shirt. I asked if he was with Traditions and he nodded. So on the elevator ride down I shared my story and by the time we got off at the lobby, he was giving me his card and telling me, Send it in, we’ll fix it. Looking at the card later, he was the president of Traditions. He also told me the unfluted cylinder was a mistake, some early production had them, but they would replace the cylinder. I’m getting happier.
The next week I called the customer service manager. I was telling him about the gun and the problems with it when we got to the cylinder. He said there were no 44 Magnum fluted cylinders, he hadn’t seen one in 12 years. I told him all the distributor pictures showed a fluted cylinder. He said that is just a stock, generic picture. I had already figured that out. He said he would send me an RMA#. Which he did. But no return label. Armed with my business cards I sent an email to the CS manager and copied my new friend, the president. About 2 hours later I had a return label. Thank you gentlemen.
The gun was gone 7 weeks. I waited patiently. I met the FedEx man between the house and truck, signed for my package and hurried into the house. Unboxing, unwrapping, peeling away the bubble wrap to reveal, I did have a fluted cylinder! Cocking was much easier, trigger pull was lighter. There was an invoice detailing the work they did and about the trigger job they said it was set to their factory standard of 5 to 5.5 lbs. My Lyman gauge said 3 lbs, so bravo.
Back at the range it still shoots 1 to 1.5 inches at 15 yards, centered but low, which is exactly what it want, so I can file the front sight to perfect elevation for my load. Tried some snappier 1100 fps loads and I think that’s a good ceiling for this gun. The square edges on the trigger still beat up my finger. Some day I’ll take it out and round it off with the Dremel. Also noticed on the invoice that the pistol has the longer army grip frame. I didn’t remember that and thought maybe they just do that for the 44 magnums, like the unfluted cylinder, but looking at ads on GB, the 357’s have the army grip too. The Colt 1860 Army is my favorite revolver, so it doesn’t bother me.
I complained to everyone I talked to, emailed with, about the stock picture being used for everything when there are obviously some differences between calibers and maybe grip frame.
