Taylor's and Pietta 1860 Army
I'm really happy with the experience I had with the Pietta 1860 Army and R&D
conversion cylinder. Taylor's checks out each one for fit, finish and timing.
The accuracy with the conversion cylinder is just outstanding with Winchester
"cowboy" .45 Colt loads.
I have a Uberti "Cattleman" SAA clone I purchased from Bass Pro Shops here in Cincinnati. The salesman was kind enough to let me check out four different examples. All were accecptable but there we some small variations.
As for the Uberti versus Pietta comparison; I think the external finish on the Uberti is better but internal quality seems about the same. I do like the oil finished grips on the Pietta but the external polish on the blued metal parts is not as nice as the Uberti. The case colors on the Pietta are much more vivid than the Uberti frame, also Uberti uses this muddy red stain/varnish on their
wood which I don't care for much.
I ordered a set of Uberti 1860 Army grips (complete assembly w/triggerguard, backstrap and wood) from VTI since the "Navy" size grips of the regular SAA
clones are too small for my long fingers. I expected to strip and refinish these but left them alone since the replacement grip had a much nicer finish than the original on the "Cattleman".
Conclusion; both revolvers are a good value as is and can be easily improved with a little bit of work.