I finnaly ordered my dream gun, a high quality .45 saa 7 1/2 inch barrel etc etc etc.. I was surprised at the short time it took to come in after id ordered it.. I bought my first wheel gun at about 14, a combat masterpiece, nice gun.. In college a pre 1970 colt national match, my sons favorite,, then a couple of pre 1970 (about) pythons, then a ruger black hawk 44 mag years later in 1976. It would shoot 6 inche groups at 100 yards. then a combat magnum used, a ruger black powder stainless( it shoots as good as any wheel gun ive owned with a quick barrel clean between shots. , and then a model 60 smith.. the model 60 smith shoots 1 1/2 inch groups at 20 yards. nice gun.. . then things went bad,, a cimmeron .45, cylender barrel algnment off, sights off, broke several bolt springs,.. still have it works ok, but a piece of crap, requires pure lead bullets so it will go around the corner,... then a 1926 original colt, very soft steel, many problems, after 400 dollars of work, loose barrel etc, a gunsmith put a 5 pound trigger on it and noone else would touch it after that,, lost a bundle AND took a long time to sell.. Finally decided to follow recomendations and buy a us firearms .45 saa.. What i thought was the best on the market. I got it in today, and i can clearly see the cylinder edge looking down the barrel, looks like a solar eclips!!.. first i was really mad, then felt like i was going to throw up, then later tonight im very depressed..
Dont know if im going to loose a bundle on this, or they will take care of it.. Im guessing u.s. firearms has only a few years left.. Ive been in buiesness for over 30 years and have seen this many, many times, its the death of a company. Charge more for the same qualtiy you can get for half the price.. I will have to pay for the return or just sell it for a loss. If they agree to look at it, pay for the return get if corrected or sell it for a loss if they say its as good as it should be.. I feel cheated.. Yes im particular, i was a cabinetmaker for 23 years and made everthing to the very best of my ability, going back several times if needed to make the customer happy... Ever seen an 1880s waltham, elgin, ect 18s high end pocket watch?,, with the equipment they had back then is seems impossible, but some of these watches kept pretty darn good time and ran for years between cleaning and many are operational today.. EAch hole thruout the peice had to be held to extreem tolerences thru three levels (plates)..Real ruby jewels (bushings) in gold seats with three screws holding each jewel seat down, and diamond end stones on the balance wheel.. In the late 1800s!! Now look at the cnc machinery these companies have today? If you built an engine or transmission like my saa it wouldnt last a month.. Any comments welcome.. I probably deserve some flames on this, but it just poured out.. dave.

Wow, whew, i feel so much better now,, maybe tomorrow i can get a life!!. dave

I'm sorry to hear that your revolver is defective. My friend in Colorado has three of them and they are absolutely beautiful, accurate and fully functional. I would be surprised if they didn't take care of it for you. I would suggest that you have a smith use a ranging rod on the barrel/cylinder lineup to check it out before contacting USFA.

Mark at Us firearms has issued me a fed ex call tag to have the gun returned for repair.. It appears they may be the quality that ive heard, ill repost when the gun has been returned.. thanks for your time. dave

Dave,

Let the maker have a chance to fix the revolver and post the results. I know it is a let down to buy a top end product and find it wanting but sometimes stuff happens. I agree from your description it shouldn't have left the plant but good companies will make it right with the consumer. A friend and my BIL have .45s like yours and they are very nice indeed.

John

Jks asked for results of return of us firearms saa.. I am very pleased with the results, it took time and i bet alot of work from the factory..
The cylinder alignment was reduced to half of its orriginal problem, varyence was even from cyl to cyl so i gave it a try upon receipt. As close as i can tell, i can see a fired case edge on one side and not on the other meaning its about .005 off in clinder to bore alignment, quite abit better than before.. So a fireing test was in order.. the first three rounds out the gun was about 3/8 inch at 25 yards so this gun has tremendous potential especially with 45 colt origianal style 250 grain pure lead bullets with deep hollow base. Smokin guns makes them for me in missoula mt,. they have to have a plug inseterd into the mold for the deep hollow base, and cast one at a time, i like pure lead as were the orriginals. .. this load uses 7.6 grains of unique,(a .451 expander the full lenght of the bullet which is 3/4-1 inch).. this same load shoots under one inch in my marlin cowboy at fifty yards, so i had an advantage with the load i started with ..
two more things have been found that are minor and i will find out how to deal with them at my own expence since the company did so much for me with my sincere thanks.. the front site is too low for cowboy action/target loads, but dead on left to right.. Tnew cylinder throats are gauled,(not the exit part which are smooth and blued, but the transition from the case size to the exit of the cylinder diameter, which puzzels me, and may or may not cause leading/accuracy falloff, with repeated shots, but maybe not.. I swithched bullets to see what other loads were working in the gun and to free up some brass. the .454 bullets from remington with graphite coating did not preform admirally in this gun, and appeard to lead slightly,,... gun specs (ameture measurements) the cylinder (exit) throat is 453 and the bore about 452 so im not surprised the 454 bullets dont shoot well esepecually with the gauling maybe being a factor in the oversized bullets, these .454 shoot about 2-3 inches at 50 yards in the marlin cowboy and the saa showed its dissaproval with an 8 inch group at 50 yards.. but overall am very pleased with the us firarms saa.. ... This guns look and feel, cylinder tighness, end shake, bolt tighness, arm fitting is absolutly astounding..Trigger pull is good.. thanks for your help and support..dave.

Dave,

Thanks for the follow up! It sounds like your revolver isn't quite perfect but is greatly improved and you are satisfied. Good going on US Firearms for the fixing and you for letting them get it right. Have a great time with your .45.

John

My brother is a real fancy machinist.
He never shot his US arms Rodeo, but took it apart to clone it.

Years have gone by, and I think it is still an unfired basket case, with no cloned parts made yet.

Those parts were not so easy to make.