Howdy folks,
I started with a Rossi M92 .357mag, great gun, I bought the Nate Kiowa Jones DVD and had a local gunsmith do the mods, it worked beautifully. I eventually went to a Uberti 66 in .38spl, again I bought all the race parts and had them installed by a local gunsmith, we also reinforced the loading gate right out of the box. I was told that it is an issue that you will need to address very soon if you don't do it right away.
The Uberti is a lot faster and looks awesome.
A couple of my fellow Cowboy Shooters run Chaparrals 66, they've had great luck with theirs they both have all of the same race parts and runs just as well as mine. The quality of the finish is better on the Uberti and that, IMO, is what you pay extra for.
I also went with NM Vaqueros from the get go, all I did is swap the springs for a pair of Wolf springs and that has been it. I have approx 10,000 rounds thru the pair of em with no issues. I highly recommend'em. A lot of the guys are shooting Piettas and they love 'em.
Bottom line you have lots to choose from and fact is, upgrading isn't that hard, there are always people out there looking to buy well maintained, used guns at a fair price. I sold my 92 to a new shooter for the original price minus taxes and I got 2 excellent years out of it, so, whatever you go with, enjoy it, hope for the best and shoot them cowboy targets all to hell!
Frenchy