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.