Pietta problems

[reese]

I'm new to the board, and new to single actions.

I got my first single action as a birthday gift to myself back in January, a 10-shot Pietta 1873 in .22 LR with a 4.75” barrel. It was one of those “love at first sight” guns; all I had to do was hold it to know I wanted it, and the price was right for my limited budget.

Two months later, and it's gone, wending its way slowly back to the distributor. The transfer bar “disappeared” on my last trip to the range. David Copperfield was not at the range that day, so I have no explanation as to what happened.  The gun only had approximately 500 rounds through it.  I successfully fired 20 shots on its last range trip before it started to click and I found the transfer bar was missing.  Didn't see it fall out, didn't find it on the ground or with my ejected shells.

My retailer was shocked, never having seen anything like this happen before to a single action revolver. It will be two weeks before I know whether it is going to be fixed or replaced; the one guy at the distributor who deals with these things is on vacation. It'll probably be a ten or twenty week turnaround. You might wonder the same thing my retailer wondered, “did you fan it,” and the answer is “no.”

I've been thinking on what to do when it comes back. On the one hand, I miss having a single action revolver pretty badly. On the other hand, I am pretty disappointed and not imbued with confidence toward the brand.

If they replace it instead of repairing it, I'm thinking I might trade it in “unfired” for something else. Probably another single action, but if so, probably one with adjustable sights because I wasn't doing well with the fixed sights. The Pietta was really accurate from a rest, punching a single dime-sized hole at very close range, so my accuracy problems I think are all me.  I still hadn't figured out where to hold for proper elevation and didn't seem to be getting any closer to figuring it out when it expired.  I was shooting low left which seems to be a common complaint for these revolvers (at least going by the comments on Cabela's) but I hadn't ruled out the possibility I was slapping the trigger.  Also I seemed to have success if I held so that the rear sight was lined up with the bullseye but the top of the front sight on the top of the 9 ring... still a little left though.

A few topics there if anybody wants to pick one to comment or give advice on!

[goodtime]

Reese --
Transfer bars break. Not often, but it happens. I have a Ruger Blackhawk that suffered from a broken transfer bar, and they are thought to be among the most rugged and reliable guns made. I wouldn't lose faith in the gun or the brand based on that alone. Pietta will likely just replace the transfer bar and send it back. Hopefully, they will check to see if there was a reason why that one broke so soon. Please let us onow if Pietta finds anything in that regard. Welcome to the forum.

[reese]

Thanks Goodtime. Funnily enough I was thinking of a Ruger Blackhawk for the next gun, the reliability is legendary, so knowing that even Blackhawks suffer these things helps a lot. Of course, I'll still need a .22 LR so I guess I'll give the Pietta another chance.

[jayhawker]

Fixed sight SA tend to shoot low out of the box new. The front sights are purposely high so that one may sight it in for a specific load by filing the top of the front sight.

[sackpeterson]

I have one of the Pietta .22s. I'm pretty impressed, think its real solid, but for what they sell them for they no doubt don't get a real long examination for defects before they leave the factory. And actually, I don't know who could sell me parts for it should I need them. Accuracy is supurb, much better than I would have foreseen.

[reese]

There are very few single action folks to ask these questions of locally, so I sure appreciate your responses. Does everyone take the file to the front sight, or do some people try to address it with "technique"? (And if so, what would that technique be?)

I don't know what to say about Pietta quality assurance; it seemed like a quality gun to me up until this incident with the transfer bar, really solid like you say. The gun did go to Italy's National Proof House for a "severe fire test" (which I understand is shooting the gun with a 30% stronger-than-factory load), which makes you think that quality assurance is not just an afterthought.

[nolongcolt]

I have taken the file to quite a few fixed sight single actions as they rarely shoot to POA for me. Not just for height but also for windage. In fact about the only one that I didnt have to do much with was a Colt SAA .44-40. I most recently spent some file time with a Ruger Bisley Vaquero .45 Colt. It shot mostly way left with everything. Now as the front blade is pretty thick one does have room to file to bring it over. Most fixed sight singles shoot left, so filing is done on the right side of the front blade. Removing material from the right is like drifting the sight left, making more daylight on the right side, making the shooter move the blade back to the right again. Care must be taken in filing to protect all other surfaces or sure as hell the file will nick something.

[reese]

Thanks so much, nolongcolt, that is great information. I had heard of filing the sight for elevation but not for windage. This makes perfect sense.

I went and reminded myself of the formula: sight radius in inches, times inches low, divided by distance to target in inches = inches to file, and I guess that same formula would apply for both windage and elevation.

Guess I'm going to have to get busy with that file when my Pietta comes back! I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel for resolving my accuracy issues.

[reese]

So, Pietta parts apparently come across the ocean from Italy to my country twice a year. So it was a long wait to get the repair done and get the gun back. Then I wanted to leave it until I'd shot for about a year before updating on how it went.

It went fine. I never had another problem with the Pietta. I did file down the sight on the top and on the side to get it lined up as nolongcolt advised and that went well too. Now it's a toss-up whether I shoot better with the Pietta or with my GSG-1911.

[BigBore44]

Reese
Glad to hear you're back up and shootin again.
Did they happen to have any clue what caused the broken transfer bar?

BigBore44

[reese]

BigBore44, they wondered if I had fanned it, which I would never do. However, when they mentioned it, I remembered that a friend had wanted to try the gun and after a couple of normal shots tried fanning it. He only got a couple of shots off before I said "Don't fan it!" Then explained that the internal workings aren't designed for fanning the hammer. I had been to the range several times since that event and didn't even think of it when the transfer bar fell out, but when they mentioned it, I had this dawning realization.

Now if someone wants to try it, I tell them not to fan the hammer before I'll let them try. Not only can it hurt the gun, but you won't be accurate and what if you shoot over the berm?

I don't know for a certainty if that could have caused the transfer bar to fail, but fanning it couldn't have helped any.

[cfo1965]

My experience with both Pietta and Uberti is that all the "parts" in the finished gun are not the best quality - sometimes sub par! This keeps the prices low for the gun. The original spareparts are of better quality (and relatively espensive). My dealer told me this (i also had problems with some internal parts that need to be replaced).

So I am pretty sure, if you have your gun repaired it will be in better condition than new. I would not consider getting rid of a gun that screamed my name in the gunshop over such a small matter....

[CraigC]

Fanning is a terrible idea for any revolver that is not specifically designed for it but I doubt it had anything to do with the transfer bar breaking.

[Alaskan454]

Transfer bars do break, lucky the Ruger parts are interchangeable so I usually keep a spare on hand. Cowboy shooters in particular tend to break them often if dry firing without snap caps or dud rounds to take the blow.

[reese]

I'm not going to give up the Pietta now that's it's worked for a year. It gave me a good introduction to single action revolvers. Now I've got a Ruger Blackhawk in my name sitting at the gun shop waiting for me to come pick it up. (In case you're wondering how I can wait, the gun shop is 2 hours away and where I live, handguns have to be registered, so I had to drive 4 hours to find it and reserve it, 4 more to buy it only to have to leave it while it was registered, and 4 more to go get it.)

Good point about snap caps or dud rounds for dry fire practice. I haven't been much of a dry-fire guy because my .22 revolver is rimfire. I did discover that you can use #4 wall anchors as cheap "snap caps" in a .22, but I never really got into it.