The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Hi I have had my alfa .357 lbr for about 6months now and am very happy with it another club member has one as we'll and he has no complaints .the thing is I keep seeing on the site how poor quality they are and not to get one I'm no gunsmith but they seem fine to me it does what is supposed to do and is priced quite resonable .has anyone had any problems with them? I'd love a colt 1911 or s&w revolver or a glock but we can't have them so my alfa will have to do .i did see the westlake ml alfa revolver at the shooting show and I thought it looked great

I can only speak from limited experience.

Having owned and shot several thousand rounds through a S&W 29 for a good number of years before the ban my impressions of the 2 Alphas I handled was that they were, how to put it nicely, rough as a badgers arse (no offence to Meles Meles who I'm sure has a lovely arse!).

The general finish was at best OK but the actual construction of the gun wasn't good, cylinder timing and lock-up in particular seemed quite sloppy.

Was that fairly recently with the alfas ? As I know they have been around now I think for about 8 years or so .mine is about a year old so they may have better quality control now .they may not look the best but then there's not much to choose from in centre fire .im quite new to pistol shooting so still learning but find it to be a reliable and quite accurate when I take my time and can get some nice groups with it.my only gripe with it as being left handed is trying to find different grips for it .

Sparky stu wrote:Was that fairly recently with the alfas ? As I know they have been around now I think for about I'm n years or so .mine is about a year old so they may have better quality control now .they may not look the best but then there's not much to choose from in centre fire .im quite new to pistol shooting so still learning but find it to be a reliable and quite accurate when I take my time and can get some nice groups with it.my only gripe with it as being left handed is trying to find different grips for it .

Its not a pistol, it's a hand held rifle.......

there'sa great guy ccalled Steve fosket, i did hear he had a go at turning an alpha, and the results were very good,I'm not sure how to get hold of the guy tho.....

If the gun suits you, pleases you and gives you results that make you happy then it is a good gun and money well spent.

Talking kit is all part of the fun of firearms but at the end of the day its all about enjoying our trigger time and a gun that allows you to do that is a good gun.

All my shooting pleasure comes from old multi-owned rifles cost a few hundred pounds a piece, not new, not shiny, not stainless, not scoped, not black, not plastic, not tactical, not customised, not bespoke, not expensive but they give me much joy and happiness to shoot and plenty of challenges to tackle.

I'm an ex pistol shooter and was shafted by parliament and the great british unwashed public along with all the others, all the new "pistols" hold no interest for me and even although I have 7.3 it doesn't hold the relish shooting those guns pre ban did.

That said we pistol shooters of the past have to realise that there are generations of new shooters coming up who don't have our baggage of the ban, which is a good and a bad thing. Having known nothing different they see these new pistols with different eyes and shoot them with different expectations, good luck to them I say for they are blessed in a way I am not, they can enjoy these guns for what they are, not as we see them as, a compromise around something they no longer can be.

Not my cup of tea at all but but I am glad that they find shooters who can enjoy them for what they are, the more the merrier I say and although your way may not be my way I will still celebrate and support without rancour our shooting diversity, unless of course it is new, shiny, stainless, scoped, black, plastic, tactical, customised, bespoke, expensive.

Hi I love my shooting have been clay shooting since I was a kid but only had a few goes on pre ban pistols (which must of been terrible as I'd hate to hand my firearms in )so now having a fac for only a couple of years I've nothing to really compare with .i do shoot with a pietta remington 1858 ml which I guess is as close to it I can get these days .with all these new lbp coming out like the k22 and protsc 1911 which I have one as well it seems a lot of people are getting into them which can't be bad as attracts more people to this type of sport my club alone must have 10 or 12 new generation pistol(hand held rifle smile2 )shooters I know some people don't like them but if we were all the same and only shot 1 type of rifle how boring would that be .