Current quality of the Italian makers

[Jappo]

I've bought revolvers that were either abused or wrong powder was used. I've yet to see black powder do this. No idea what happened to them. The Colt is/was 36 caliber. The Remington 44 cal. The Colt threads were pulled out. I just keep them for show and tell. Both Pietta, no date codes.

 

[Stantheman86]

I'd like to convert a new brass frame gun just to see how long it would last.

I thought about putting a .38 Special Kirst Konverter in a .36 Brass Navy, and hand loading BP .38 Short Colt. The gun would probably last just as long , the charge is still about 17-20gr. Even if the frame stretches, you've still got the $300 Konverter and a bunch of usable parts. It's just that even the drop in Howell cylinders are stupid expensive vs the cost of the gun, and there's no guarantee of a drop in fit.

I just went ahead and dropped $550 on a Uberti 1851 Richards-Mason .38 Special conversion and cut out the extra steps.

 

[Stantheman86]

I've bought revolvers that were either abused or wrong powder was used. I've yet to see black powder do this. No idea what happened to them. The Colt is/was 36 caliber. The Remington 44 cal. The Colt threads were pulled out. I just keep them for show and tell. Both Pietta, no date codes.

I'm guessing these are probably guns from the 60s-90s , and the users were topping cylinders off with Pyrodex and crushing balls cast with wheel weights down .

Loading is just as hard if not harder on the old brassers than shooting, too, so forcing oversized "home cast" balls made from metal that Fudd found in the scrap yard into the chambers probably pulled the arbors out.

These guns were cheap back then, like probably still $50-75 in adjusted equivalent dollars in the 70s, so people used to buy them at hardware stores and trash them. My coworker says they used to buy used Brassers and shoot them until they stopped working, then chuck them into the rock pit. He paid like 10 bucks for them at 1990s gun shows

The old brassers were never made to actually be used for anything but occasional tin can popping , and they were popular with reenactors as cheap blank guns. Pietta or Uberti never thought anyone would fire them a lot

I had an old Uberti .44 Navy , that I bought at a gun show 15 years ago or so. I fired it, it seemed ok but I didn't really test it out. I sold it or traded it to my local small gun shop owner. It just wasn't fitted as well as new ones.

From what I recall, the ".44 Reb Navy" I bought in 2001 from Cabelas was the same as the new ones I own now. I don't think they've changed any

 

[45D]

Nobody bought any guns at a gun show for $10 in the 1990's .

 

[GYJ]

Nobody bought any guns at a gun show for $10 in the 1990's .

I know I didn't! That was the last decade I remember finding good deals at shows but not that good. I used to only go for bullets, powder and primers but don't even bother any more.

 

[nick_1]

my 2020 and 2022 Piettas are excellent fit , finish and function.

 

[Old-Duckman]

my 2020 and 2022 Piettas are excellent fit , finish and function. View attachment 205984View attachment 205985

Luck of the draw. If I were you I’d play the lottery.

 

[nick_1]

put about 500 rnds through each of them with no problems.

 

[sussexmuzllodr]

I ordered a Ruger SP-101 in 327 Federal years ago that I never would have excepted if it wasn’t specially ordered for me. It had machine marks all over the frame, looked really bad in-spite of it having passed inspection.
I called Ruger and was told “tough!”, no no no no they didn’t, they were great! The sent a paid return container right away and after about a week or two back it came polished slightly better but still not to my satisfaction. They also checked the timing, adjusted barrel/cylinder gap and lighted the trigger. Mechanically perfect but cosmetically poor. Several hours of elbow grease and Mother’s Polish and it looks like chrome. One of my favorites!
So we can always get a not so nice one if price enters in.

I have an SP101 .357 I would never part with it. It will outlast me.

 

[sussexmuzllodr]

100% , I mean when you think of entertainment value for your $, you can't go wrong with one of the lower cost cap and ballers

We'll be looking back in just a couple years talking about the 250 buck Piettas and how we miss them

Spouses should believe guys who tell them guns are money in the bank , and it's just "diversifying investments"

But it,s true...

 

[fireman1]

At some point in the 2000s , Pietta went with a better brass alloy

The old butter soft Navy Arms Ubertis from the 70s and the FAPs, old Pietta brassers etc had very soft frames and pinned in arbors. Apparently they were expected just to be shot occasionally or with blanks by reenactors. Arbors pulling out was as big an issue as frames getting beat up

After decades of brassers shooting loose , Pietta made them able to actually be fired a lot.

According to old "wisdom" I'd have shot my two brassers loose yesterday with nearly 100 rounds each.

I have hundreds of rounds through all of my brassers, which isn't a lot. But one particular pair of .44 Colt Brassers I own, I've made no attempt to keep loads light , and I have burned up several 100 round boxes of balls with 30gr loads of 3f, which is a .45 Schofield load for reference......Pyrodex P with whatever the spout of a Thompson Center U View flask holds for an entire afternoon, or I've topped them off with 1F and blasted away. Not a single sign of ratchet dents in the recoil shield or any stretching .

People have reported shooting old brassers loose in one day , so that's definitely not the case with newer ones.

A YouTube guy has a .44 Colt Brasser he claims has several 1000 full power loads through it and no change to any specs when he mic's it

Within reason , unless someone is trying to beat one up with 40 grain charges of 777 or something, I feel like a Brasser is as good as a steel frame. The cost difference isn't even a lot anymore, it's more about cosmetics. The steel used in the steel frames is very mild too, as were the original frames that were basically Iron.

Thanks for the response. I'm eyeing a couple on Midway's site right now. It's not much more to get one with wood grips instead of the plastic ones,

 

[fireman1]

I thought about putting a .38 Special Kirst Konverter in a .36 Brass Navy, and hand loading BP .38 Short Colt. The gun would probably last just as long , the charge is still about 17-20gr. Even if the frame stretches, you've still got the $300 Konverter and a bunch of usable parts. It's just that even the drop in Howell cylinders are stupid expensive vs the cost of the gun, and there's no guarantee of a drop in fit.

I just went ahead and dropped $550 on a Uberti 1851 Richards-Mason .38 Special conversion and cut out the extra steps.

you will love that. I have one with the 5.5" barrel. A really neat little shooter.

 

[Stantheman86]

Thanks for the response. I'm eyeing a couple on Midway's site right now. It's not much more to get one with wood grips instead of the plastic ones,

I think the Reb Navy with the woods is still only like $260ish

The Uberti conversions are beautiful guns, they're all the fun of a Colt Navy but sometimes you just want to shoot a box of smokeless .38 instead of playing with a hog leg

 

[pacanis]

To get back to the OP, this was a recent Uberti underwear gun I got last summer.

Last I knew grips and whatnot... assembling it... were done to a gun after it was blued.
So this had to be handled by humans after it was shoddily blued.

But I also received a Walker with a dent up by the muzzle from SG, and a box, inside and out, that looked like it had been driven over. But that was poor packing (I assume).

Luck of the draw. Like anything you have shipped to you.

 

[Old-Duckman]

Thanks for the response. I'm eyeing a couple on Midway's site right now. It's not much more to get one with wood grips instead of the plastic ones,

search for Phil Coffins post on making a grip for Colt replicas. Excellent write-up with photos. I looked at the grip on my Uberti 3rd model Dragoon and thought "no way" but Phil's 3 piece method makes it eminently doable.

 

[Stantheman86]

Nobody bought any guns at a gun show for $10 in the 1990's .

Not one single person in America has ever bought a gun for $10 throughout the entirety of the period of 1990 to 1999....good info, thank you

 

[jd945043]

Check out Charles Pates excellent book covering the Colt 1860 New Model Army. Nothing was “shuttled straight to the front of the line without a second glance by inspectors.” Those guns were inspected and gauged many many times in various stages of manufacture by teams of government inspectors and the inspectors themselves were subjected to constant supervision and their work inspected by other teams of inspectors. Colt often complained about the process… those pistols although made of inferior steels, were nearly perfect when they were boxed and shipped to quartermasters. The fit and function they required was of the highest grade. You’re right though, if we demanded the same craftsmanship of our modern manufacturers using the best available modern materials we’d have to spend thousands for an 1860… personall, I’d gladly pony up for a USFA built 1860…

So true even today. We make parts for military aircraft and the inspectors are all over our parts. Nothing has changed

 

[fireman1]

Not one single person in America has ever bought a gun for $10 throughout the entirety of the period of 1990 to 1999....good info, thank you

just before the covid mess started, I bought a single shot percussion pistol at my LGS. $10.

My best deal there was a TC "Hawken" for $80. Great bore but trigger was wonky. $10 at the gunsmith and it was GTG.

Lots of gunshops/dealers won't mess with used BP stuff. Makes for great deals.

 

[ColonialRifleSmith]

Stan,

I've always been hesitant to buy a brass frame gun.....gunshop wisdom told me they stretch out will kill me dead.

What is your experience shooting .44 out of them?

Gunshop wisdom. Is that akin to military intelligence? Well, I have an old sheriff's model .44 cal. brass frame 1851 my wife bought me as a present for our 1st wedding university. That was 1976. I still shoot it regularly. The only issue I've ever had is I had to replace the bolt stop when one of the arms broke off. That was a couple years after she bought it for me. If I recall correctly, she paid $29.95 at the time. It doesn't even have a maker's name, just made in Italy. I also have a brass frame Pietta1851 Navy in .36 cal. that I installed a Howell Conversion Cylinder. I've been shooting .38 special through it for over 10 years without an issue. I shoot MagTech lead round nose and also hand load 18gr 3F behind 158gr MagTach hollow base lead bullets, or 16gr Pyrodex P pushing the same bullets. Very accurate and never an issue. With the MagTech I get about 750 FPS, With the BP and Pyrodex, I get about 725 FPS. Conclusion; Don't sweat buying a brass from revolvers. Semper Fi.

 

[ColonialRifleSmith]

I'm personally partial to Pietta myself. I have many, some converted, some not, however they all work flawlessly. Semper Fi.