Will Ruger sell you just the .45acp cylinder ? I have a SS NM Vaquero I'd like to have one fitted for.
You can send it to Ruger and have a new one fitted for a reasonable price. I'd worry about just picking one up somewhere
In times past, Ruger would not sell a second cylinder without the gun in-house to fit it to, too much risk in the legal arena. What you are seeing at the shows are orphaned cylinders, from conversions, rebuilds, and sell-offs. I haven't sent one to Ruger lately, or know of anyone that has, but it used to be a several week process. I looked at doing it many years back with a .45 LC, but was cheaper to wait and buy one local as a factory set-up. The second cylinder with any Ruger should have a "electro-pencil" serial number matching the original gun on the forward end of the cylinder. I had several used offered to me over the years that were a mis-match, but I haven't found that with a factory/dealer direct gun. Somebosy else may have a different experience.
Has anybody discussed the .45 Colt brass being potentially weaker than the the .44 mag brass? Older cartridges loaded to safe Colt SSA levels had less brass in the cartridge head/base, loading these cases to Ruger levels were a potential hazard, as same cases had a tendancy to split/seperate early in their case life. I haven't had the problem, but I have read in the reloading manuals and on-line where it happened. Most of my brass in .45 Colt is Starline, haven't had an issue with Ruger level loads from Georgia Arms.
