Do not know much about Taylors and company, but all their single actions are either made by Uberti or Pietta. I did just purchase a Cimarron "Pietta made" Frontier .45 Pre War last week. It has been discussed in the threads titled "Seiously, Colt / Italian clones" in the Single actions forum, and "So, I have tried a Uberti" in the photo forum.

Bottom line: It is a incredible pistol. I am amazed at how nice it is. It is supposedly an exact copy of a Second Generation Colt. In tune right out of the box, dark deep bluing, very nice one piece wood grips, and the chemical case coloring on the Italian guns has come a long way to were it looks very good.

By the way, Cimarron is an importer of these guns just like Taylors & Co., are.

 

I have 2 Uberti's in 45 Colt and 15 SAA's. The Uberti's are no where near the quality or functionality of the Colts. Not even close. One of the Uberti's I got for my wife as a shooter and it's a piece of junk.

 

Smokem, no one doubts what you say. Check out the "Seiously, Colt / Italian Clones" thread.

Many can't afford a Colt and will not shoot them if they get one. The OP realizes this and is specificallyasking about Italian guns as shooters.

Why can't some folks realize that by just talking about or buying a Italian clone does not mean that you are bashing a Colt ?

 

Message received, I should have written it better and in no way was I trying to emphasise an Uberti/Colt comparison or knock anyone that wanted one as a shooter because they couldn't afford a Colt. I will say that I have found Uberti's to be junk for the price. I have several Ruger Vaqueros, 2 that I used for cowboy mounted shooting and 2 with 3" barrels and birdshead grips that cost less or equal to Italian clones are are far superior shooters.

 

I mean in way with my question to imply an Italian copy bis as good as an original Colt. Just like when I buy a repro car part it isn't the same.
I was wondering how the Taylors engraved Copy holds up as a shooter. I also wonder if Colt grips would fit.. Again I have had to modify many replacement parts over the years to get them to fit.
I just don't want to buy a piece of junk only to have forum members say to me "why in't you ask first?"

 

Taylor's also has an in-house shop that can give you a custom tune service on their handguns. They're fine people and great to deal with.

 

To answer your question up front, currently Pietta guns are the closest internally to a Colt. Being a Colt forum one might be swayed here that Colt is the standard in a quality SAA these days. I'd disagree. I have Colts, USFA, Ubertis, Piettas and now a Standard here that I shoot on a regular basis. More than one of each and I shoot them a lot. Been a decade or more so now since Colt was at the top of the SAA heap.

If you just want to seperate the chafe to Pietta and Uberti, I like current Uberti guns better. Admittedly from a small sampling of Piettas compared to a dozen or so new Ubertis. Price point and purely cosmetics aside I actually like them (Italian clones) better than 3rd gen Colts simply because they are more likely to actually shoot better (to point of aim) than an out of the box 3rd Gen Colt.

I have seen some real "junk" 3rd gen Colts. Haven't seen any current Ubertis, or Pietta for that matter, that I thought were "junk".

I'd have no problem buying either a Pietta or a Uberti to shoot. And then I would shoot it a lot...likely no loose much doing so.

 

Stop the press...Yahoody, are we to assume from your previous post that you have added a Standard SA to the herd?

 

Here is my newest Uberti addition and it shoots awesome timing it perfect.

 

One other advantage of Uberti/Pietta....they offer more than 2 calibers and produce more than 15-20 guns a month.

 

The two engraved Piettas I've had here were nice.
The laser engraving is not the equal of hand engraving, but it's generally better than other companies' laser scratching.

Pietta does use at least a MIM trigger, and I have doubts about that part in MIM.
Denis

 

When we started cowboy action shooting over 5 years ago, I bought a matched set of Uberti Cattleman revolvers with same serial number but with L and R suffix in 45Colt. Then Mary started CAS and we got another pair of Cattleman in 38/357. Then she wanted a pair of Cattleman with birdshead grips and we bought yet another pair of Cattleman. These six sixguns were bought online and were imported by Stoeger. We shot these several years in cowboy matches and they all performed well without a problem.

Then I started shooting 44WCF in my rifle so I got the bug to get a set of Taylor's Smoke Wagons Deluxe in 44WCF. They were a mess compaired to the plain old Cattleman that was distributed by Stoeger. The first one shot 10" to the left at 10 steps. It had a lot of endshake - enough to take up the cylinder gap. The base pin was so undersized the cylinder would wobble up/down, left/right. I sent it back to get windage corrected and other problems fixed. I finally got it back and the windage had been corrected but none of the other problems fixed. They said they put a new barrel on the gun. That was evident as the forcing cone end of the barrel was still rough cut and there was no cylinder gap. I squared the face of the forcing cone end and after replacing the cylinder bushing and base pin, set the gap at .005. Even though it was a Deluxe, ready for competition right out of the box, I had to smooth up the parts to get it to fire reliably. By then, the second Smoke Wagon Deluxe came that had been backordered. It shot to point of aim ok. But there were no evidence that the insides had been stoned. There were so many rough tooling marks inside the frame, if you tightened down the hammer screw, it would pinch the hammer so tight you could cock or the hammer wouldn't fall. There was no way I was sending it back to Taylor's. I stoned out the burrs and mill marks and got it to work.

Just odd that we get six distributed through Stoeger and experience no problems. Then get two Smoke Wagon Deluxe that were a mess.

I tried and would have bought another pair of standard old Cattleman through Stoeger and tried. But Stoeger lineup of Uberti revolves does not offer 44WCF. The Stoeger Uberti Cattleman El Patron Competition is essentially a Smoke Wagon Deluxe or a Cimarron Eval Roy.

 

My Ubertis have had timing issues, and the cylinders are scarred a little but they are older and the newer ones may be better. I bought a Taylors/Uberti used about 10 yrs ago that was sent in for a action job when it was new and that gun is very very nice.

 

I got to shoot a Uberti competition model SA in 45LC and it was smooth like a Colt. IF I were in the market I'd get one. fwiw ($600?)

 

Ruger is a "modern" firearm, with little or no resemblance to a SAA internally. No doubt it is a better gun than any Colt or Italian SAA. But then one could argue the same about a Glock and a nice 1911. Apples and oranges....

If we are talking about a true SAA and not a modern revolver (like the Ruger) that only some what resembles a SAA cosmetically then the Colt and current production Italian center fire guns are a big step down mechanically. No one would argue other wise.

That said, the same current production Uberti and Pietta guns are every bit the SAA that the current (or past Generations) Colt/USFA/Standard is as a tool for a sum of $450 if you look around.

I can/do carry any number of "working" hand guns in the field here. I don't find myself wanting one of my Colt's when it is a Uberti in my holster.

Past the obvious of a "bad example", which everyone seems capable of producing, when it comes to a true SAA these days, I find the discussion about which one is the "best", much to do about nothing.

 

I wouldn't mind having one of the Italian blackpowder frame clones of a 44-40 FSS or even a 45 Cavalry, as much for nostalgia as anything, or one of the Piettas that are supposedly close to first gen in features. Anything outside of those, I would have to see the gun first before I would purchase it. Bass Pro Shop at the Pyramid in Memphis has a fairly decent selection of Uberti guns (likely because of the Beretta showcase that they have). I looked at all of them back in the spring that they had, and the fit and finish of what they had on hand left me...underwhelmed. That being said, any of them - Uberti, Pietta, Standard, Colt - will go bang and shoot decent. It's a matter of preference, I like Colt because of the fit and finish (although they have had some low points too that they should have been ashamed to have put their name on)

OP, get ready for this thread to be moved to the Lounge. The mods are stringent on the posts, and will move a thread even 6 pages long if it fits their fancy. I started a post specifically about the SAA guns in "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs". It got moved to the Lounge and merged into another exisiting thread even after a few days and six pages of posts. I ended up deleting all my posts in that thread.