EMF GREAT WESTERN REVOLVER - any one have experience?

**IrocGuns** · April 6th, 2017, 11:10 AM

I'm looking at a nice EMF 1873 SAA in 32-20, not sure of the quality of these repro's. I have ubertis which are great, but this is a great old caliber in a full sized 7 1/2" saa should be a hell of a shooter and the price is pretty good, but can't find many reviews...

Thanks for your help!

**phill** · April 6th, 2017, 01:17 PM

Bought one as a movie prop gun, treated it like **** for 2 wks in S.Dakota because we were in the field. Fired a ton of 5 in1 black powder blanks through it, sprayed it with cleaner of a night. When arriving home just assumed it was going to be pretty sorry. Tore it down scrubbed the hell out of it and found that there was no visible damage at all. Out of curiosity took it out and ran 50rds. of live through it and found that it was a good shooter.

We bought 10 for the guys and not a problem in any.

**Ecclectic Collector** · April 6th, 2017, 06:19 PM

Pretty much all of the companies who sell Colt Model P clones imported their guns from Italy. There were three makers at one point: Uberti (considered the best), F. Fili Pietta (used to be so-so, then got much better in the last 15 years) & Armi San Marco (always so-so, now out of business).

There is also fourth maker: Weihrauch in Germany still builds a near clone Model P, but I don't think EMF ever retailed these.

Isn't EMF out of business itself?

Anyway, who built your gun matters to some extent, when they built it matters a bit more. The nice news is that you can buy so many aftermarket parts you can essentially upgrade/rebuild the internals for not a lot of money.

**Noah_Zark** · April 6th, 2017, 06:50 PM

At one point, EMF imported Great Western single-actions from J P Sauer und Sohn in West Germany.

Noah

**Ecclectic Collector** · April 7th, 2017, 06:14 AM

That must have been some time back. The J. P. Sauer & Sohn tooling was made in the 50s and originally used by the Great Western Co. for their line. Eventually the company merged with SIG to become Sig-Sauer and the revolver tooling was sold off to Weihrauch. Still, very solid guns though a bit more clunky than the Italian versions (made slightly larger since they also come in .44 magnum).

Look at the Proof marks to see it if has the Made in Germany Stamp, and deer antler proof marks of the German proof house; or PSF in shield indicating Italian manufacture.