Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Ruger New Vaquero 45 Colt

I bought a Ruger New Vaquero off Armslist awhile back, for about half of MSRP. These guns are just a tad bigger than Colt SAA yet they will easily handle 20,000 CUP loads. The gun looked real clean in all the photos and I thought they only recently changed the grips on these from checkered plastic to rosewood. When the FFL sent me the serial number I checked against Ruger's serial number database and discovered it is newer than the latest New Vaqueros they list for 2014, so it's maybe 2 years old. Of course it is in my favorite barrel length and caliber, 45 Colt.

It arrived today and aside from a faint turn ring, you would think it was new. The previous owner apparently played with it but didn't shoot a box of shells through it. The area around the firing pin bushing shows essentially no wear from 45 Colt cases slamming into it, other than perhaps the half dozen test rounds at the factory.




The finish on this gun is better than anything I've seen from Ruger in a long time. So is the fit. An 0.002 feeler gauge would pass between the barrel and cylinder, but an 0.003 gauge would not. The factory trigger pull was surprisingly good and gauged 3 ¾ pounds, with no creep. I didn't believe the numbers either and had to look at it twice, myself. It won't be any work at all to produce a three pound, icicle crisp trigger pull on this gun.

Some subjective observations... Ruger did in fact recreate the Colt grip and pointing qualities. For those of us old enough to remember the pre-62 Flat Tops, handling this gun was like a cold drink after 50 years in the desert. I could pick a spot in the wall, close my eyes and then draw cock and point the gun; and upon opening my eyes, find the sights aligned within a few inches of it. It's about as close to a Colt as you can get with a transfer bar the Ruger name stamped on it. The revolver's pointing qualities shined on 6” plates at 15 yards. Working from the holster and shooting as soon as the front sight was visible against it, I was able to slap them down quick shooting strong hand only.

I chronographed two 45 Colt loads through the New Vaquero; Winchester's 250 grain 'Cowboy Action' load,
rated at 750 fps and a Lee 452-255-RF over 8.5 grains of Hodgon's Universal, which produced 864 fps from my 45 Bounty Hunter. Both sets were six shots, one around the cylinder. From the Ruger New Vaquero, the Winchester factory load averaged 761 fps and the Universal load averaged 952 fps. Standard deviation for both loads was right at 18 fps, indicating good ignition and uniform pressures from all chambers.

My only complaint is that the gun shoots a little low-left, but this is easily remedied. This is six rounds of the Lee 255RF/Universal load at 25 yards using both hands from a sitting position, with my hands rested on one knee. This is not my strong suit, but I neglected to throw a shooting table in the truck. With the stray to the right the group is 2 ¼ inches, but there are enough overlapping splashes to tell me the gun was shooting better than I was.



I counted 66 fired cases at the end this short session. All were lead bullet loads and 50 were the 950 fps Universal load. After reading credible accounts of 'thread choke' (bore constriction where the barrel screws into the frame) in late-production Ruger revolvers, I was worried I'd find significant leading. I inspected the bore and found almost none. What little there was vanished with four passes of a dry brush. I am real pleased with this revolver.

Nice!

Any Ruger S/A is tough to beat. Nice find.

Not only is that very sweet; but it's what I'd like my next handgun purchase to be. Always wanted a 45 Colt in something like that. I love those New Vaqueros and one in 45 Colt would be ideal. Thanks for the pix; that thing is a beauty.

That is a handsome pistol..have fun shooting it!

Nice! Love both of mine. One of mine loves Tite Group Powder and the other loves Unique. They have special runs that came with did different grips. I prefer either the checkered wood ones or the fake ivory.

Oops! Wrong topic thread,

No prob chlinstructor.. And thank you all for the replies.

Very nice!

I like it!

That is mighty nice Sarge. I've mostly stuck with the original frame guns. May have to rethink that. Good catch.

Sarge, did you happen to measure the throats?

I ran over the cylinder with my old dial calipers and got .450 all the way around. I'll scrub it real good and check it again afterward. I expect opening the throats to a uniform .4525 would only make it shoot better.

sounds like you got one heck of a nice revolver, and at a good price.

Sarge, I picked up some Vermont Tool pin gauges on Amazon cheap. You can buy them individually for a couple three bucks and get the range that would be most useful. Just an FYI.

That is great and thanks for the heads-up.

Nice shooting Iron, you got me looking at my New Vaquero, it does have better blueing is seems mine came with the grey lam. grips, and its in 45acp, realy like this one!

Doing it that way wouldn't work for me...at least that I would rely on it...for a comparison, yes, but not for a real diameter.

I just take out the cylinder, grab a .452 bullet and see if it will slip through all the throats. I haven't seen a Ruger BH (mostly older frame) that didn't have 2-3 that were too tight. Some way down there at 449. I ream them all to .4525 then check the barrel.

Depending on the result of slugging the barrel, a couple more thou on the cylinder might be even better.

This is a combination gun-wrenching and range report, so bear with me.

I had little on the agenda today so it seemed a good time for some tune-ups on the New Vaquero. I'm a vocal opponent of internal locks on firearms, so I was prepared to eat crow upon removing the grips. Apparently the previous owner disliked them as much as I do because the lock was gone from this one, replaced by a standard Ruger SA mainspring strut seat. Now I don't have to figure out how to get rid of the damn lock. God bless you, Previous Owner.



This explains the light trigger and slow 'lock time' I'd been noticing. My biggest complaint with this arrangement is that it doesn't fit the frame cutout, allowing the mainspring strut to wander around some. While the current setup works, I'll fabricate a replacement that centers the hammer strut and and sits higher in the frame. This will likely increase the trigger pull a pound, so I'll engineer around that now. The sear and hammer notch and sear were stoned smooth and a slight 45 degree break-away angle was added to the engagement side of the sear. Result? 2 ¼ pound icicle crisp pull and the hammer does not 'push off'. If rebuilding/raising the mainspring seat adds a pound to to the pull, it'll still be a great trigger for a Ruger SA.

After disassembly I noticed the barrel throat was pretty rough; so I fashioned a polishing head from a section of cleaning rod, a suitably-sized conical rubber anti-vibration mount and 400, 600 and 1000 grit wet or dry paper. A drilled out 40 S&W case kept the apparatus centered in the bore. The finished throat looks like this and I was happy to note Ruger got it concentric to the bore.



To correct sight regulation, I rosined the barrel and clamped it in my vise using oak blocks Dremeled out to fit the barrel. Since the gun was shooting left the barrel needed to be tightened and I estimated about the width of a scribed reference mark would correct it. Once that was accomplished the gun was reassembled and I headed for the range. The first few shots confirmed the windage fix, so I filed a few strokes off the front sight to correct elevation. Zero was on a Copenhagen can at 25 yards if you didn't screw up the shot. I figure 100 yards is about the farthest I use this gun, so I fired a couple of the 950 fps load at my rifle gong from that distance. Standing unsupported, the windage was about perfect. I expected the load to shoot a little low.



Finally I rested the gun and fired six at the round gong, also from 100 yards. 5 of 6 shots went into 6 inches, so the throat cleanup was a success. The sun had come back out by this time and I assume the right impact was cause by glare on the shiny front sight.



This one of the best shooting Ruger single actions I've ever had.

Very nice score, Sarge.

Thank you all for your kind comments. I've now run 5 different lead bullet loads through the NV, swaged & cast, 452 and 454, 750-1000 fps. It has exhibited very good accuracy with all of them and virtually no leading. I seem to have won the used gun lottery with this one.

Like all the New Vaqueros I've seen so far, mine came with a bright stainless hammer and trigger; something I detest on a blue single action revolver. Blue steel replacements can be had for most large frame Ruger SA's but at some point, I am told, Ruger decided OEM replacements for the New Vaqueros & 50th Anniversary size guns would be of stainless steel.

Power Custom makes blue Colt and Bisley style hammers & triggers for the NV/50th revolvers. I've handled a few Ruger SA's with them added and they look great, add a 'half cock' option and they produce an excellent trigger pull. I may buy purchase a set at some point. Prices start around 150 bucks including reduced power springs, which I have no use for.

I've already worked the trigger on my New Vaquero using the factory springs and it suits me fine. The half cock option is cool but not something I'm dying to have on this gun. I researched heat coloring stainless steels and there are lots of web references and videos if you're interested further. All the colors I wanted could he achieved under 700 degrees, with an oil quench. I didn't figure 700 degrees would harm the parts so long as the engagement surfaces didn't get beyond straw color (about 400 degrees) and the oil quench would negate any brittleness.

So with a little knowledge and too little sense for inhibitions, I decided to give this a try. I used an ancient Prest-O-Lite air-acetylene torch for the job. It's a pretty well-established piece of equipment as this 1914 ad attests.



I removed the transfer bar plunger & spring from the hammer, degreased the hammer and trigger and started applying heat. When I got the colors I wanted, I quenched the part in motor oil for 10 seconds and went straight back at it, heating just until the color darkened and quenching again. This is the result of three heats and oil quenches. I'm happy with the colors and I don't anticipate any problems. In 300 or so rounds I'll tear it down and inspect the engagement surfaces.

That coloring looks nice.

+1

That turned out nice!

when those first came out, i ran across one in a lgs. I made a mistake, and picked it up and it followed me home. I did replace the grips with the yellowish type favored in john wayne movies. I have never used pin guages on it, ruger wouldn't talk to me about the throats, but pearce did. The thing is as far as i can guess pretty tight. It's what got me on a 45kick, and while i have fired a bunch of stuff in it, mostly that scovill 270gr saa.
I did run across a bunch of 200gr round nose sooner or later i am gonna run in 45colt.
I do have a first year colt 44.40, and they do feel pretty close.
Just a good handling revolver. Pearce had a article in handloader a few years ago about them. They definitely will take more pressure than the old colt, but not up to the levels of a redhawk/blackhawk. I seem to remember without looking three different pressure levels and i want to say 22000psi. I wouldn't count on that figure without looking at the article. I have never really pushed it, figuring 280grains as cast at about 950fps works for just about everything.

Thanks guys.

Ron the New Vaqueros are supposedly good for Tier II loads. I find my life is simpler if I use a different bullet each power level I'm going to use.

I like the Hornady swaged RNFP over 7.1 of HP38 (about 825 fps) as a garden pest/small game plinking load.

The Lee 255RF over 8.5 of Universal (950 fps) will handle anything here including our recent migration of smallish black bears.

I don't cast but occasionally see 270 SAA bullets for sale so I'm going to try a top-end Tier II HS6 load that scoots it 1100 fps. Not many places I would be uncomfortable carrying that one. I shot a buck longways with a 255 SWC at that velocity some years back and watched the bullet kick up a hatfull of dead leaves, about 65 yards behind the deer. I have no doubt a 270 SAA at that speed will shoot through five feet of meat and bones.

That coloring looks great, Sarge. Now, when you doing the frame.


Ought to ask you to finish the coloring on the hammer and trigger on my Old Vaquero.

Believe me that frame & loading gate are in my crosshairs... just need to research removing & replacing the firing pin and spring first.

I've already had a couple of other people hit me up to do hammers & triggers for them. But I am flying by the seat of my pants here. One set might not color like another. I'm going to experiment with some different oils and see what works best.

I also don't know how durable the colors will be and absent a Rockwell Test, I don't know for certain how sear hardness was affected. The oil quench might have even surface hardened them a bit. I've got a hard Arkansas trigger stone and made a few passes over the sear & full cock notch to clear any scale off. I am for damn certain these parts are harder than they were before the heat treat.

Bottom line- if I ruin parts I was going to replace anyhow, you guys get to point and laugh but I'm not really out anything. I sure don't want to ruin anyone else's. Let me see how this goes and I'll PM you if it works out well.

Mighty fine looking Vaquero you have there.

i had a grandson out yesterday and his first experience with 41magnum. did pretty well actually everything considered. Told him next time he was going to be introduced to 45colt. In many respects just as capable or more capable, with less blast. I have several of the old vaquero's that will take the real high pressure stuff. Just don't need it most of the time.

Glad your enjoying the Ruger. I don't post much (if ever) but this made me want to share.

I bought the case hardened version of your gun when they first came out. Fit and finish was as you described, i.e., leagues better than what they were making before. Promptly went out to check sight alignment and shot 10 out of 12 clay pigeons at 55 yards with 255's and 6 grains of Red Dot. Astounding considering the shooter. Had the trigger polished up and it is absolutely perfect.

This got me so excited about single actions I could afford that when they came out with the flat tops in .44 Special I ordered one sight unseen. Fit and finish was....meh. And get this; the adjustable sights didn't have enough adjustment to get the shots in the black at 25 yards, both in windage and elevation.

There's a lesson here somewhere. I'll probably have to relearn it from time to time!

Have fun with it. It looks like a keeper.

Sarge, no critique here. Always enjoy your MacGyver'ings.