uberti or piettas 1860 army?

J

jason41987

New member
im looking to purchase an 1860 army, and was wondering how pietta and ubertis are now, i know recently both companies have put a new effort into making higher quality, more historically accurate pieces, but i hear ubertis match up nearly perfectly with even original colt parts and piettas do not... for example, the 1851 navy pietta does not match the grip shape of original colts, ubertis 1851 navy does

so..how close to historically accurate are the pietta 1860s?... close enough that an original 1860 grip would fit over it or are these out of spec as well?..

it looks like the uberti would be about $100 more than the pietta... the parts of the pietta that are out of spec, if they still are, i dont have a recent one near me, is it possible to make these in spec?... what i mean is with some fine tuning, can i get everything to the proper shape it needs to be, and even drill out and re-thread some of the holes to fit, for example, an SAA grip frame... or do these holes just not match up?
 
I am going out on a limb....

....But I think it depends on what you will be doing with it.

I think that Uberti and Pietta are largely equivalent in quality as long as you stick with a recent issue as you have said. I also think that both are equally wrong as regards historical accuracy

Check me on this you historians but IIRC, the Belgian Centaure is a more faithful reproduction of the original dimensions of the pistol.

I think you may find that Uberti markings are in more out-of-the-way places on the pistol in comparison with Pietta.

So If you are going to do re-enacting, you might want to check with the regiment you are joining to see what their rules are. The N-SSA may also have a say in the way that replica revolvers are judged.
 
I have only one Uberti, a Walker, and I got no problems with it. But I got a half dzn Pietta 1860's and '51s and I like them all. (Maybe I got lucky, but I haven't had a lemon in the pack of em.):)

I did get a Pietta London Navy that had a crooked mounted triggerguard, but somebody had either damaged it in shipping or it was a return, but Cabelas promptly sent me a new one, no questions. (Back in Feb of this year)
I don't think it was Pietta's fault that it was damaged.
 
so..how close to historically accurate are the pietta 1860s?... close enough that an original 1860 grip would fit over it or are these out of spec as well?..
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If you're talking about just the wood it will fit neither Pietta or Uberti without fitting. Both of them do the final fitting of the grips with the grip frame installed, so no two sets of grips will perfectly interchange. As for the grip frame fitting as is I have my doubts on that too bit I have no experience with it.
 
i seen a colt SAA grip matched up to an uberti 1851, and it fit almost perfectly, but when matched to a pietta there were a lot of differences in the profile of the grip frame... im not sure if pietta has corrected this yet or not, or if it even exists on other models which is why i was wondering...

a pietta is about $200 at cabelas, and an uberti is about $280, and id be willing to pay the extra $80 of the uberti was closer to original, holes drilled in the right places, proper profile, etc... im also willing to do a bit of work to make them more authentic if necessary, such as fine tuning the grip profile and grips themselves, deburr parts, trigger work, etc
 
no two sets of grips will perfectly interchange
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You got that right! :mad::mad::mad:

I've had some that'll swap out close enough to use, and some that aren't even close enough to screw down. . . and they were all Piettas. It's an individual thing. . . you'll get lucky if two will swap without any gaps/overlaps - grips and frames both.
 
im more concerned with the backstrap having the proper shape than the individual grip panels themselves... does a pietta 1860 army have the proper grip frame shape?
 
One area of difference between the originals and the repros is the area under the rammer. The Piettas have the LEAST room under the rammer & cylinder pin to accomodate a conical ball. The Ubertis have more room. I like to shoot conicals but I could not get one into the chambers of a Pietta '60 Army but I could under my ASM Hartford model 1860 Army with just a little jiggling. My recollection of many years ago when I had a Cimarron 1860 Army was that there was even more room. I believe the Cimarron was a Uberti. Ihave not problem whatsoever getting a conical into any Remington.

As for grip fit, pretty much you have to stay within the same manufacturer to get grip frames to fit the screw holes. i.e. Pietta to Pietta and Uberti to Uberti, ASM to ASM. I have swapped grips from the Navy size to the Army and vise versa but always within the same manufacturer. I hate the belled/flared Pietta navy grips and have put Pietta Army grips on a J H Dance and a '51 Navy.
 
ive been thinking of doing my own richards or mason style conversion... wanted to put an SAA birds head grip on it.. such a conversion does include a cartridge conversion as well, so, area under the rammer isnt all that important...

im mostly concerned with being able to change out the grip frame... if the screws were close enough, but not of the proper thread or size, they could be bored out and re-tapped.. but if they dont even line up at all i guess theres not much you can do about it
 
You can switch grip frames of different revolvers of the same brand (uberti to uberti/pietta to pietta). I have done it many times. You might have to do a little bit of fitting, but nothing major.
 
I think the Pietta Army is close enough in grip shape to original. The Navy is too flared and is a sore spot on the gun. The Pietta London Navy has a better shaped grip compared to the original. Steel backstrap though. Same as used on the 1861 Navy I suppose.
Too bad Pietta doesn't get that brass Navy grip shape more in line. Nice pistols with a funky grip.
:(
 
i actually made my choice.. i ordered a pietta 1860 army london model.. which has the steel 1851 grip frame off their 1851 london... so my 1860 army is going to have an 1851 style grip.... but piettas steel grip frames are the correct shape, unlike their brass ones
 
That's another never was. The first 60's did have a navy grip frame but it was brass. The army specified the longer grip but the 1860 was never made in London.
 
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