Beretta and Uberti

Take a quick look at these.  A pair of SAA Clones.

At first glance, they look identical save for the Beretta’s little medallion in the grips.  There is a good reason for that.   Both are made by Uberti in Italy… Both are Spaghetti Westerns here.  However, the Beretta is imported by Beretta and the Uberti is imported by Stoeger for some reason.   What’s interesting is that the Beretta marked gun is less money.  What makes that so interesting?  The Beretta is the better gun by far.  Let me show you why.

Here you can see the grips if the Beretta very nicely. The way they should fit.
The wood grips on the Uberti have a bit of overlap that you can see and feel. Less comfortable in the hand too.
The Beretta uses a pretty standard, but well executed, Transfer Bar Safety, allowing you to easily load and carry in all six chambers.
The Uberti's firing pin on the hammer set up means you pack it with the hammer down on the empty chamber. Which is a good theory on safety, but leaves you will one less shot to fire.
You can see the seams between the panels. Not bad at all. That's a good fit and finish here. And that little medallion looks sharp.
Huh... Not so good.

What you can’t see in the photos is the FEEL.  The Beretta feels like it’s a much nicer gun.  It feels that way, because it really is.  I’d buy a Beretta easily over the Uberti, every day, every time.  The Uberti’s… not so much.  I like the clicks in the action as you pull the hammer back.

And here’s the kicker…

The Beretta is about 40 bucks less money.

Meopta Optics

There is a fairly new line of optics out.  If by fairly new you mean 80 years in the industry and people have still never heard of them.

This is a set of Meopta 10×42 HD Binos sitting next to a set of Swarovski  SLC 10×42’s.  The Meoptas are retailing for $999.99 and the Swarovski’s for 1500 bucks MORE money.  Looking through both sets, I really can’t see any difference.  Maybe the SLC’s are just oh so very slightly better.  But really I can’t see any difference at all.  Certainly not any difference I’d pay 1500 bucks more.  The Meoptas are a No Brainer Buy.  The best comparo would be to the Zeiss Conquest 10×42 which also retails for 999.99.  The Meopta is pretty much a dead ringer but I like the Meopta better in that it required less movement of the focus knob to get something far away and something farther beyond that to get into focus.  Almost no movement at all to get from Far to Further, if you know what I mean.   Considering that Meopta makes the Zeiss Conquest rifle scopes – I found this to be no surprise.  I don’t know if they are making the Binos for Zeiss or not, but they do build the scopes.  So if you’ve never heard of Meopta, you’ve probably looked through some before if not own some.  Meopta also makes a lot of other optical products for other countries.  Even other industries.  The Periscopes for Subs, Prisms for other optics companies the periscope prisms for the M1A Battle Tank, the windows in the Space Shuttle that have to take High Temp and sudden deep cooling… So they are a very technically advanced optics company.  They make everything in house, unlike some optics companies which sub-contract and dont actually manufacture anything.  (Vortex)
Looking through a Meopta Rifle Scope is like looking through any comparable Zeiss Conquest, but generally for about 200 bucks less.

I also like the fact that they throw in an iPhone Adapter for Digiscoping… taking pictures through your spotting scope.  It’s easy and it works.  Put the phone in the adapter, then putt out the scope’s Eye Cup and put the Adapter/Phone to the Spotting Scope.  Crystal Clear.

Remember how I have said that if I am going to spend my own money on Optics its going to be on Nikon or Zeiss… Throw a 3rd option in there for me.  I’m really digging the Meopta HD Binos and their rifle scopes.

Chained Up

Point of No Return

M taking a Grinder to my old chain.   I was skeered to do it.  No going back from this.  You hit your chain with a grinder – you put on a new chain before you throw a leg over it.  But M’s as good at Bike Work… and we got the new chain on just fine.

Pretty!