Grip fit on Pietta Navy

[Suntiger]

The front of the grips on my Navies are about .025 and .035 wider than the frame ..the grips are flush otherwise... is this a common thing ?.. I've had them about 5 years and love shooting them , so it's just a cosmetic issue and clearly I haven't worried about it ... but wanted to know..

[sourdough]

Welcome to the club! I have 8 Pietta Navy .36 revolvers in various flavors and all of the ones produced since Pietta went to CNC machining in ~2002 are like that: about 1/16" or more proud of the rear of the frame, but the wood fit to the backstrap and trigger guard is good. One would think they could get it right. I have 2 other pre-CNC Pietta Navy .36 revolvers (AZ/1990 and BH/1996) and the wood fit is very much better at the rear of the frame. Prior to Pietta doing CNC revolvers they would subcontract with other small Northern Italian manufacturers for parts, and then would have to hand fit them before marketing them.

Pietta Factory Tour.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=pietta+factory+tour+video&docid=608027490713862937&mid=AD468CE984F7A58D3B1FAD468CE984F7A58D3B1F&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

Regards,

Jim

[Hawg]

It's not just proud wood at the top of the grip frame. They're fatter all the way around. Like Sourdough said they used to be nice slender grips that fit well all the way around. I think Pietta does listen to what people say and try to appease the majority. Over the years they have made their grips extremely obese, made their front sights ridiculously tall and even changed the grip shape on the Colt navies. That's good for people that want to shoot and don't care about history but sucks for people that do. I like Uberti's much better for that aspect even tho their front sights are too tall. I like guns with original dimensions all the way around. I like the good with the bad because that's the way it really was back in the day. Pietta is crap for history but the best bang for the buck.

[Suntiger]

Think it's worth trying to make it flush? I can live w what I have , and the grips look nice otherwise.
Thought about trying to get a new blank grip to experiment on , but those seem hard to find on the interwebs now..

[Captainkirk]

Think it's worth trying to make it flush?

As long as the wood has 'seasoned' and is finished with it's shrinkage, yes. I don't know, but suspect, that this is why Pietta has the wood proud on their grips. I hate it, and think the transition should be as seamless as possible. Go for it if it bothers you.

[Hawg]

Think it's worth trying to make it flush? I can live w what I have , and the grips look nice otherwise.
Thought about trying to get a new blank grip to experiment on , but those seem hard to find on the interwebs now..

keep in mind if you find a set of used grips they may not fit close enough to make work.