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I did quite a bit of shooting with the Piettia Police and I really liked it! The gun is built using their regular Navy frame and has a Semi-Fluted 6 shot Cylinder (it looks real nice too!). The origonal Colt Police was considerably smaller being built on the small .31 frame and is a dandy belt and pocket gun! The Piettia interpretation is built from a commercial standpoint using the parts on hand and only necessitating minor machiening to make the model up. I think it was a smart marketing move and they should sell quite a few.
The shooting that I got in proved the gun to be a good shooter, reliable and balanced well. I was especially pleased on how well the frame handled the spent caps, channeling them to the right and right off the cones! No special effort or theatrics (like the gunfighters flip) were required to get the gun to function and move the old caps around and off.
With a light charge of 18g of powder, the balls needed a scoop of filler to bring them up to the forcing cone but with a 22g load and a Pistol Wad the balls set up just right. The 18 g load felt a little weak and the 22g load felt just right!
Cocking and trigger pull were about average for a new gun. Both were a little tight and the trigger felt a little gritty yet but both will wear-in. The sights were regulated high as usual and later I'll need to file the rear down and re-groove it.
The usual sharp heel was present on the grip and frame, offering a pointy edge to dig into the heel of the hand and the wood at the front of the grips needs a little rounding off but neither was all that uncomfortable during firing. I plan to round off the rear grip and run a sandpaper block across the front wood to bring the grip to my satisfaction and fit. I wish Piettia would do the work for us and stop selling the pointy rear grip! I can't see where that shape fits anyone?
Other than a few minor gripes, the revolver is great! size and power are well martched on this offering. The smooth recoil of the .36 makes this a perfect shooter and the ability to use full powder charges constantlly makes this a fine carry companion!
It was good to get back to the .36 caliber after a year's steady diet of the .44's. I forgot just how nice the .36 is to shoot! I think the .36 was really the high preformance round of it's day. Velocitys were pretty high giving it good penetration and a flat trajectory for accuracy's sake. recoil is nil and it's discharge note is loud but not unplesant.Speaking of accuracy, the .36 is no slouch in that department, giving tight groups at 20 to 30 yards and shooting cloverleafs at 21 ft! It's a good caliber.
Yep I didn't mind handing Cabela's just under two hundred bucks for THIS revolver at all!
ZVP
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