I have a Centarure, by the way.
My quite critical position does not apply to importers only. In my opinion, some companies have made huge contributions to the replica industry, like, for Instance, Pedersoli....who changed for better the replica World by not inventing anything, but by recreating muzzleloading guns as they really were in their time.
Traditions, a Spanish company ( Ardesa is the owner), however, has been making the same crap for 40 years...nicely made, historically innacurate, mediocre mechanisms, good barrels. Have them really contributed to the replica World? No...because they didn’t raise the standard. They just sell affordable BP guns..but we could live witouth their replicas.
By the way, I talked to them about manufacturing a new replica, as they have the means to make it, I was supplying the engeneering . They were not interested.
in short, I could live without 90% of the huge list of Cimarron SAA models. They added nothing of value to this field.
Orbea Smith Wesson russian revolvers were the clones of their day. Orbea was not a workshop, but the biggest firearms company at that time in Spain. They made a HQ exact copy of the SW Russian. By closely observing one piece, blued, I could see no diffferences in quality to the original product. Fine machining, fine blueing.
The owner was shooting it, by the way, a 44 russian revolver. The accuracy, thanks to its progressive rifling, beat the Italian copies.
It is the third time already that I shoot basque and Belgian clones, and they were more accurate than my Ubertis and Piettas that I owned at that time.
I prefer Belgian and basques copies to Ubertis or Piettas. I stopped some years ago buying them. Mediocre shooters. When they make a new replica, I will buy it, however.
The Schofield and SW russian copies by Uberti have been a bit dissapiointing, in my opinion. The Starr by Pietta too. The steel was too soft in the latest, much better steel in the originals..that compensated the faulty design.