Uberti vs Pietta, Not the same old, same old.....This could be news.

[54ball]

Keep in mind, This comes from a Pietta/Traditions dealer.

I purchased a Traditions/Pietta Dance Brothers from a local shop. I had wanted a Dance Brothers for awhile and he had some in stock. It's the first Cap and ball revolver I have purchased in nearly 30 years.

Anyway I stayed for quite some time talking about guns and such. We had a lengthy conversation about the industry. The subject got on Uberti vs Pietta.

He said that Uberti upgraded the factory to modern C&C machining and other "upgrades" to offset labor costs. Once that was complete they retired or laid off most of the skilled labor.
While Uberti was making the upgrades, Pietta watched as they were considering similar factory upgrades.

This proved to be troublesome for Uberti as the manufacturing was not as precise as hoped. The revolvers still required skilled labor to assemble and do final fit and finish. The problem was, they eliminated that skilled labor. So he claimed, Uberti quality, tanked.

Colt did the same thing a while back. Now Colt cannot build a quality revolver.

Pietta on the other hand learned from Uberti's mistake. Pietta did go with some modern manufacturing but they kept the most skilled labor for assembly and Quality Control.
In short he says Pietta currently has surpassed Uberti in quality. He says customers and dealers have been having problems with newer Ubertis. On the other hand, many have noticed Pietta quality is much better than in years past.


Again, this is from a Pietta Dealer.

Also Covid has crippled both factories. He said they may have worked 3 months the past year.

This may have some merit. EMF which used to offer lots of Uberti products is pretty much exclusively Pietta now.
Cimarron Firearms is still exclusively Uberti. I wonder though if Cimarrons are finished to a higher standard.

Both EMF and Cimarron are back ordered with EMF almost completely back ordered.

This is just what I was told.

 

[BrantWW]

I sell Uberti (direct from Benelli) and Pietta (from Taylor).

I have noticed issues with Ubertti like unstaked sights) which I never saw before. I attribute it to COVID.

Pietta is still the same to my eye.

Both are hard to get. I've got $300k in Uberti backorders. I'm sure I only see maybe 20% of what I have on order.

I'll take a closer look at our Piettas.

 

[ghostdncr]

He said that Uberti upgraded the factory to modern C&C machining and other "upgrades" to offset labor costs. Once that was complete they retired or laid off most of the skilled labor.

I've been a machinist for about thirty-five years now and can't even tell you how many times I've seen this play out. The cycle has played out almost exactly the same in every case, too.

• Management fantasizes about all the free money they'll get from CNC machinery.
• Buy the CHEAPEST CNC machinery they can find that will meet basic needs
• Get the machines roughly set in place, basic programs written, start producing rudimentary parts
• Fire/lay off skilled labor
• Find out the parts won't fit/work together
• Rehire skilled labor to make the parts fit/work together

I don't have a dog in the Pietta/Uberti fight, but do take a twisted pleasure from seeing greed beat a manufacturer nearly to death. For some reason, management types seem to think you can install a few CNC machines, fire everyone, turn out the lights, and pallets of cash will start filling the shop. That's not at all how any of this works of course, but it plays out all over the world every day.

Here's a good example many of us are familiar with. I've never built or even seen in person one of Jim Kibler's rifle kits, but I can look at photos of the unfinished parts and guarantee that he's put a ton of work into the set up and programming of his machinery. His kits are among the most expensive out there, but that level of back end work is going to carry a substantial price tag. Done properly, CNC machinery can take a big chunk of the cost and repetitive drudgery out of machining operations. Realizing their limitations and retaining the skilled labor for important and necessary tasks (programming, maintenance, finishing/fitting, quality control, etc.) is key to making this model work.

 

[BallBoy]

Here’s an interesting video that’s from
1/16/2020 it talks about shows the Pietta factory.

 

[barracudadave67]

Pietta has majority ownership of EMF.

Dave

 

[deerstalkert]

and Berretta owns Uberti

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

I can personally vouch that the last Uberti I bought back in 2019 (1849 Pocket) was awful.

In contrast, the last two Piettas I’ve bought, both 2020 COVID guns no less, have been excellent and very well put together revolvers. Nice machining, proper arbor depth, good tension of springs, simply great all around.

Small sample size but just my experience. I don’t fool with Ubertis these days. They’re all show, and I’ve found them lacking where it really counts.

 

[DeeTV]

Small sample size but just my experience. I don’t fool with Ubertis these days. They’re all show, and I’ve found them lacking where it really counts.

My experience as well.

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

I sell Uberti (direct from Benelli) and Pietta (from Taylor).

I have noticed issues with Ubertti like unstaked sights) which I never saw before. I attribute it to COVID.

Pietta is still the same to my eye.

Both are hard to get. I've got $300k in Uberti backorders. I'm sure I only see maybe 20% of what I have on order.

I'll take a closer look at our Piettas.

By your estimation, are cap and ball replica revolvers still a hot commodity? They are selling well?

 

[BrantWW]

We sell enough to keep them in stock. Are they hot? No, but they're steady.

 

[FPDoc]

Here’s an interesting video that’s from
1/16/2020 it talks about shows the Pietta factory.

Nice tour of their factory. I like that there is still recognition of the need for skilled worker input to provide a good product. It was nice to see that the gentleman giving the tour seemed to actually know what he was talking about and was proud of the guns he was producing. Thanks for posting the video.

 

[ZUG]

The newer Uberti's are not the same quality as older ones and maybe the Pietta's are now better in the parts quality / assembly phase but the Uberti's are finished better not that looks make it shoot better but if Pietta combines a better over all finish with their quality internal parts then you will have a great gun.

 

[Hawken]

I was impressed with the Pietta .36 "Police" I purchased some time ago, 2005. The fit and finish, machining & bluing is excellent in my opinion for the money; as I recall just a tic over $225 delivered to my door. They are not perfect (better buy a replacement "hand" or know how to fettle) but whattaya expect? The grip shape as many have noted is kind of strange, wish they would have been close to the originals.

 

[oncewas]

I just purchased a Pietta 1851 Navy in .36cal April 2021. And personally the fit and finish look exceptional. The pistol has performed flawlessly. I also have a 1851 Navy London on order. I do like the grip of the London model much better than the "normal" 1851.

 

[Rawhide67]

I've had 2 pietta 51 navies. Both were good quality guns. One I converted to unmentionable just to see if I could do it, the other was left alone. Sold the latter recently to a buddy who had to have it. Don't think he even shoots it. But, never a problem with either one, other than stiff hammer springs that took deliberate effort to cock.

 

[Billy Boy]

The newer Uberti's are not the same quality as older ones and maybe the Pietta's are now better in the parts quality / assembly phase but the Uberti's are finished better not that looks make it shoot better but if Pietta combines a better over all finish with their quality internal parts then you will have a great gun.

In my poinion, Piettas have been superior yo Ubertis in all aspects for at least the last three years, covers four purchases for me.

 

[TrapperDude]

I'm glad I found this discussion about Piettas. At some point, I'll want an 1860 Army, but the Ubertis are pretty thin on that model, and I wasn't sure if a Pietta would be the way to go.

My only experience with BP revolvers is with my stainless Uberti R.1858 I got in 2019, and I've had no complaints about it. It's good to know that I don't have to worry about which brand to get in the future.

 

[BullRunBear]

My only Uberti is a Colt 1860 bought over twenty years ago and it has performed well. I've picked up several Pietta Colts and Remingtons in the last few years and they have all been well finished and mechanically fine. I've read Uberti quality has slipped recently while Pietta improved (compared to years ago) but haven't had the chance to contrast them myself. I'll be curious if others here have the same observations.

Jeff

 

[54ball]

Well, (in my best Reagan voice)

To give a unbiased, yet qualified opinion on this, I ordered a Uberti 3rd Dragoon toady. I have wanted a dragoon for a long time.

It was almost a Walker but my future plans for the revolver means solving the load lever issue.... I mean really solving it.
So, the Walker was not really a candidate.

When the pistol comes in I'll give a side by side review with the new Uberti Dragoon vs the new Pietta Dance.

 

[Des52]

I "heard" that both Pietta and Uberti changed a lot of production over to cnc and Pietta kept most of their finishing crews while Uberti lost a lot due to layoffs. Not sure if true but might be one of the reasons for Uberti losing some of the finish on their guns. I have both and have no complaints on either one.