My LeMat finally bit the dust ! !

[LeMat1856]

.
. nov 22 / 4:05pm


hopefully i'll get a few thousand rounds out of my new lemat.. yes ! ! it finally arrived.

i got tired of waiting for cabelas to deliver so i talked them into a refund (full) and then went to dixie for one of their navy models that are still on sale.. dixie sent me a piece of s--t that had such terrible timing some of the chambers wouldn't lock in battery without wiggling the cylinder around, the hammer was actually hitting some of the lands inbetween the percussion cones, and i could see that some chambers were off-center when looking down the barrel.. sent that one back.. then started waiting - again.

finally, after a full 7 days i got the box and this time it is a beauty - all the pieces are very tight fit, has a great dark bluing, everything clicks in place (without wiggling), even the grips are amazing (really dark stain and some sort of varathane finish on the upper, smooth areas, needle sharp checkering), and no shipping cost.. odd part is that they were both made in 2003 (BT) and all the barrels were covered inside with a dark brown gunk.

so now i do like you and start buying extra hand/springs, hammer spring, and anything else i can think of that could break just when i don't need it to.. i'm not going through another 73 days of twiddleing my thumbs again waiting for a whole revolver all because of a busted $18 part..

what a relief it is to have that over with.. guess all's well that ends well, no matter.

~d~

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

Complaining about how lousy the replacement was just sold me on the idea to never buy one! At over $700.00 new the thing should be like a Swiss watch. It ridiculous how Pietta let that POS out of the factory.

I hope you have another revolver, so when this one breaks, you can still shoot something.

By the way, that gunk might be cosmoline. Gasoline or brake cleaner works well to clean it off the gun. Check the guts too. Gunk in the works could lead to excess stress on the inner works, resulting in snapped parts.

Dave

 

[greytop13]

Hey LeMat,

Have you heard anything from Cabela's? I ordered a Lemat for my son a couple of weeks before your original post. They kept putting it on backorder and then finally sent me an email Nov. 1st telling me they were going to cancel the backorder. I called them up and said I still wanted it. Well, I guess the shipment from Italy finally came in. The package arrived here Thursday.

Give Cabela's another call. They might have your replacement sittin' there. Good luck!

 

[torn moc]

Hey Graytop...how is the fit & finish of your Lemat? How about the grips? Is the timing correct? Are you happy with it?

 

[greytop13]

I got to open the box and that was it. I handed it over to my 27yr old son. The look on his face was awesome. We're going out to kill some paper this weekend. I'll let you know how it performs (if he lets me near it).

 

[LeMat1856]

.
. nov 26 / 12:10pm


smokin'

you are absolutely 100% correct - pietta's quality control is horrible when it comes to these lemats. every one i've owned has had something wrong with it - even this one..

it's a small detail, but the wood for the grips hasn't been sanded to fit into the frame like it should - it's just a little off - but i'm tired of making excuses for their sloppy workmanship especially at these prices.

my recommendation is get one, look it over, and if you find anything not acceptable, send it back - again and again and again.. pietta will get the message only when they start to lose money.. apparently it's up to us to do the QC.


greytop,

you must have gotten mine because, no, i didn't hear anything from cabelas.. like you i waited weeks for a "backorder" and then called them a second time only to hear "...we should be getting them any day now..." right.. so i waited some more and finally said "cancel" and went to dixie.

be cautious.. these only come from one mfg - pietta - so quality is going to be pretty much the same no matter which you choose.

oddly, my first (a cavalry model) was from cabela and had CC for the mfg date (2008) yet, over a year later, dixie sent two (navy models) that were both dated BT (2003) - go figure....

guess you *really* gotta want one of these to put up with all this c--p.

so, greytop, how is the fit and finish on yours ? make sure you check inside and out with a magnifying glass.

~d~
ps. i did clean it inside and out and lots of brown gunk came out so i think it's ready to use now.

 

[Poor Private]

OK I got it figured out. Pietta only made about 300 of them. My son has a good one, a friend has a good one. What happens is the rest one joe orders one and finds out its a POS and sends it back, they retape the box and send it to frank, and when he sends it back they send it to George. All they are doing is rotating the same guns around till some one accepts it :rotf: :rotf: . When the 300 are all gone then they will make more. What you guys better do is when you open it record the serial no. and pass it on here on the forum so the next guy knows where it has been... KInda like CarFax. :rotf: