What Happens to the Defective C&B's?

A

arcticap

New member
So thousands of folks all around the country buy C&B revolvers from Cabela's and other on line dealers with generous return policies, only to return them because they found some kind of undesirable defect. Sometimes the guns are even fired before the defects are revealed to the buyer and returned.
What do you think happens to these guns?
Even if most of them do get sent back to Italy, then what?
Does Pietta and the other makers try to fix them up and then turn around and sell them at a discount as factory seconds?
Do they salvage some of the usable parts to install in another gun which is then resold as new?
Do they send the unusable parts to the foundary to melt down and remake into new frames and parts, or is it just sold as plain old scrap?
What if they never get sent back to Italy at all, but rather they get shipped to some third world country or to a liquidation outfit to be sold at a significant discount where they might even mix and match parts in order to make it possible to sell them?
What does anyone think happens to these defective and sometimes used guns?
I've seen used BP rifles for sale in the bargain cave of my local Cabela's that were returned after being fired and they are sold as is. Some are even missing parts and look a mess.
But I have rarely ever seen a C&B revolver for sale in the local Bargain Cave. The only one or two that I've ever seen there looked brand new and unfired.
With the large number of returns, a lot more of them should be seen for sale in every Cabela's Bargain Cave. But evidently they're not being sold there.
So what does happen to all of them? :rolleyes:
 
Articap, good question:

the 2 brass frame Colts that broke on me, I threw the frames in the garbage can- the arbors were pulled clean out- I kept/rebuilt the rest- now one is a cartridge conversion and still chugging along, with a new steel frame and cylinder.

the defective parts you mention may end up at gun shops across the country, in scrap boxes on back shelves- all the guns that fell apart and are now a mixture of useless and maybe useful parts- these pics from various places around the country who have contacted me in the past few weeks

I've spoken to many older guys who said the replicas never really felt like a "real" gun in the old days, they actually played with them more like a cap gun as a kid. They would shoot them until something would go "crack" inside, then break them down, and throw them away.

just recently have these replicas "begun" to approach the fit/finish of a true firearm- but the metallurgy still is not there, except for the Ruger Old Army

here's an 1858 that had a brass frame, and after shooting it, the frame bent- here's what's left- the owner threw the frame away- now it's a parts gun, due to a bad buying decision on a brass frame gun



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a pile of Colt brass frames, all with pulled out stripped arbors, and loose arbors- the results of poor buying decision on many brass frame guns

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and this is what happens when you buy low-quality, brass frames, or steel frame Remingtons with a run of soft metal- they become useless, and worthless

the Remingtons may have a topstrap, but if the metal is soft enough, the frame stretches, the cylinder pin goes out of alignment- the pin will still go in but will be cocked up or down- and the cylinder won't turn- the Remington frames will warp, if they are brass or soft steel

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In Cabela's case, the employees may end up getting the defects at a discount. Or, they send them all back for credit to Italy. Or, Italy may say keep them, here's your credit, and you can salvage them for scrap yourself. Yes the parts are salvaged- but bent frames or pulled arbors are scrapped, and remelted.


Let me add this: you won't see a Ruger Old Army in the scrap bin. Reason: Rugers have a stainless steel or blued chrome moly steel frame, barrel, and cylinder- the grips/grip frame/internals on a ROA are the same as the old 3-screw Blackhawk magnums 357-41-44. It's basically a cartridge gun that fires blackpowder. When Ruger was doing the R&D, they proofed the ROA with full cylinders of Bullseye smokeless powder, and it still did not blow it up. (no, don't try it at home)

now that's a "real" gun-the importers still have not made an open top Colt or Remington to that level quality, most likely for cost reasons- what they do is, spend a lot of time making the guns look pretty, and case hardening them with fancy swirly colors.
 
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^ Huh? where did that come from?^

I think that brass frame guns are great for collectors to look at :D

If you want a gun to shoot, get a ROA in blue or my favorite, Stainless,,,,, or a steel frame Pietta.... and just dont go atomic in your loads,(especially Colts with no backstrap) it does nothing for the accuracy, infact it is detrimental to accuracy to overload them.... looks good and fun to do tho :eek::D

My ROA's shake the ground with 30gr of black and super accurate to boot. When I used/could get Pyrodex, I used 26gr, same effect :cool:
 
looks to me that someone cant be a legal gun owner and has tried to many ridiculous overloaded conversion projects that he likes so much to talk about on the internet
I saw nothing in his post to indicate that the piles of scrap are his.and while the Captian may be strident on the issue of brass framed guns that should not be cause to think he can not legaly own another kind of firearm! In short your careless accusations are completely uncalled for.In other words,YOU NEED TO WATCH YOU FRIGGIN MOUTH BOY!!!
 
^DD^

Well said :D here here! My sentiments exactly

The comment by Teriod took me by suprise too, totally un called for..... CC was just trying to get across the point that Brass frames are gonna die alot sooner than steel frames, for rather obvious reason.

Pretty big attack on a good, knowledgable TFL member (CC) by someone putting in their second post, I must say.... I think I would have waited til about my 50th post to let that one rip (& I would have got my facts straight, or refrained from writing such dribble, personally) :D

I hope CC isn't too put out by T's meaningless, unguided attack.... Everything I have seen by CC has been good/accurate/helpful to me

Good onya mate, CC.... Teriod, pull your head in :D
 
Teriod's post was certainly out of line... but not so much as this:
YOU NEED TO WATCH YOU FRIGGIN MOUTH BOY!!!
Click to expand...
C'mon, let's be civil here!

Me? I've kinda grown fond of the Cap'n. I mean if it wasn't for his crusade, I'm sure the Italians would be selling us PlayDough revolvers with 1/64 inch thick barrels and a cylinder with just a circular groove where you drop the ammo in.:)

BTW Cap'n, I think if you looked hard enough, you could find a couple boxes of broken Rugers too. Not to say that they're as likely to fail as Italian repros, but that they do fail.
 
I find no compelling reason to buy a brass framed revolver. Some of you collectors I'm sure buy them to have a CSA version of BP revolver in your collection. I don't have the complete collection of steel framed Civil War era revolvers so before going to brass I have a lot of other firearms to buy in steel.

BTW, outside of brass, is there any evidence to show that modern steel replicas (specifically Italian repros) have worse metallurgy than their original Civil War counterparts? Without knowing, my inclination would be to believe that the modern replicas beat the pants off of the originals in terms of metallurgy, fit, finish, etc.

Straighten me out here.....
 
Pardone me, I did not mean to offend the delicate sensibilities of some of the seinor members on this forum but where I come from (the south) we have a hard time just letting things slide,even more so when your calling a persons honor or reputation to question. I dont think this person would have the gile to say in person what he feels safe saying from behind a monitor,and as such is deserving of no civility. Had he said that to most of the men I know He'd still be spitting teeth out a week from now.You may tolerate it in your part of the world,but I do not in person or online! Light hearted joshin the Captain for his views are one thing,but a mean and spiteful attack on his person is a whole different story! So again Grym sorry if I offended you,I only ment to offend him!
 
>>>My ROA's shake the ground with 30gr of black and super accurate to boot. When I used/could get Pyrodex, I used 26gr, same effect<<<

Why such light loads Dingo? Y'all have tender ears down in Oz? :D

But seriously, I'm itching to try some 777 in my ROAs because everyone from Tucson to Tombstone keeps telling me it's "too hot" for C&B revolvers. Shoot, might as well dangle a steak in front of a coyote as say something like that an Old Army man!! ;)

Hubba hubba,
Oly
 
>>>Pardone me, I did not mean to offend the delicate sensibilities of some of the seinor members on this forum but where I come from (the south) we have a hard time just letting things slide,even more so when your calling a persons honor or reputation to question. I dont think this person would have the gile to say in person what he feels safe saying from behind a monitor,and as such is deserving of no civility. Had he said that to most of the men I know He'd still be spitting teeth out a week from now.You may tolerate it in your part of the world,but I do not in person or online! Light hearted joshin the Captain for his views are one thing,but a mean and spiteful attack on his person is a whole different story!<<<

Well I must admit that I'm missing half of this thread because I put the Dear Captain on ignore up in the forum settings (and I don't know why more of you don't do so as well...) but I do have to say that I agree with you when it comes to the "keyboard hero syndrome". I used to moderate a union forum so believe me when I say that I've seen some amazing garbage posted on line! Sometimes we couldn't pull it/penalty box the guys fast enough and it would wind up pasted to bathroom stall doors. (Adults...hmmm....) Funny how the guys would be diplomatic as all hell as soon as we got into the union hall and they were within arm's reach of each other... ;)

Play nice now folks! Do like they teach you at Sunday-go-ta-meetin' and test out that "Ignore" button if you're struggling with someone.

Respectfully,
Oly
 
Someone once told me the ground there is made of Vegemite. Maybe Vegemite isn't very stable and susceptible to shaking from "light" loads. :D

I routinely shoot 35 grains of 777 through my ROA and haven't noticed any ground shaking here. Maybe the sand here absorbs the percussion. I've experimented with 40 grains of the stuff too. Mostly to make mo smoke and noise and to be wasteful of valuable resources. :eek:
 
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