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I had Bob Munden work on my Ruger New Vaquero with one of the thing he did was sight it in by turning the barrel. Another was action and trigger work. He was able to put 6 rounds into one ragged hole at 15 yards with it and right in the bull too. So I would say the Ruger is very accurate in the hands of someone who can shoot. I'm still working on that part.

I shoot nothing but Colt's in CAS. I also shoot them extensively throughout the year for small game, especially rabbits. 4 of them are first generation guns. Anything made after 1900 is safe to shoot with Cowboy loads. Save the hot stuff for Rugers, if you do blow one up, it's only a Ruger...

Are the second & third generation guns the best or is the newer ones just as good or better?Kinda seems to be 4 generations to choose from...

Second generation Colts may be the very best. They made them after WWII when there was still a lot of care that went into manufacturing, before "Cheap" began to be a rule. 3rd generation guns are still good quality, a bit more affordable, just not quite the finishing touches of the second generation.

There is no real 4th generation, although Colt did produce some Custom Shop SAA's and they did start to re-introduce the base pin bushing in the cylinders again.

Either way, Colt SAA'a are still great guns, worthy of your hard earned $$. You will see that they haven't gotten much over $1300.00 retail, that has been the standard now for a few years.

+1---just like "Series 70 Commander"---there's no such thing.

There's no "real" 45 Long Colt either. Right?

At various times, Wyatt Earp, William Cody, Jesse James, Wild Bill, and John Wesley Hardin, used Smith's. The SAA didn't appear in large numbers on the frontier until the mid-1870's by which time the large-framed Smith and Wesson single actions had been available about five years.

Hannie used a Tranter.

I wonder how come S&W or someone else didn't try to copy the colt... seeing how populer the colt saa is...also someone like winchester could have made a colt copy to go with the rifle,,,seems like everything is copied now days but even after all these years..S&W still doesn't make a colt saa copy,,,i guess Ruger/uberti/freedom arms have gotten comfortably rich from the colt design by now..LOL..

Patents. The Colt SAA was patented. The patents run out after a certain time. I'm no lawyer, but I assume Uberti either started producing their clones after the patents ran out or Italy didn't recognize the US patent laws. I would guess the former. It could also be that the Uberti is just different enough to get around the laws. There were Spanish copies of the SAA back during the era. These were probably infringements as were the Spanish and Belgium copies of the Smith and Wesson. I had one of the latter at one time. A copy of the 2nd Russian model #3 Single Action.

Smith was successful on their own and competing with Colt. I don't have the production figures, but with military sales, especially to Russia, Smith's #3 single action may have outsold Colt's SAA. After Smith's hand ejectors came out, they concentrated mainly on double actions. I'm sure the model 10 alone has outsold the SAA many times over. The SAA was still selling until WWII, but wasn't a hot seller, to the best of my knowledge. After about 1900 and the advent of good double actions, the SAA was pretty much a western proposition whereas Smith was selling their guns worldwide.

Winchester and Colt had an informal agreement to not tread on each others turf. This is why Colt's Burgess gun was not manufactured long.

Freedom Arms has always been an elite type gun, not for the average gun person.

Ruger redesigned the Colt and brought the Blackhawk out when Colt was no longer producing a single action. This was in response to the demand for new guns brought about by the advent of "adult westerns" on Television and the subsequent fast draw craze. Colt responded by retooling for the moribund SAA. New Colts, unless I'm mistaken, are made by Uberti and assembled and finished here. USFA is the heir to the SAA making their guns fully in the USA and actually in Colt's old plant, unless I'm mistaken.

I like Colt SAA's very much, despite some of these posts. Just sayin'...

Thanks coleyounger,That's some great info right there!
So the usfa guns will prolly be more smoother and better guns you think?I don't know,i have just read somewhere that the newer colt saa are rough as a cob?
I had bought a nice little colt 22.lr one time and was so proud,i went to shoot it at the range and not knowing anything about them,all of a sudden had a very hard time cocking the little unit,I finished shooting the thing and was trying to figure what was wrong and reliezed the pin was coming out!
It scratched & buggered the hell out of the cyclinder from all that dragging!!!
Ever hear of this problem or experiance it?
I guess the pin was just to loose a fit,i dont know,i got so mad i traded it first time i got a chance...would really hate to score up a new colt saa like that ,especially one that cost 1500.00 ...that would be awful!

Yes, I've heard of it happening, but not to any large number of guns.

Colts are generally fine. I doubt the new ones are any better than Ubertis though and probably somewhat inferior to USFA. I've never owned one of the latter, whereas I've owned quite a few Colts and Ubertis.

When the ruger vaquero first came out i bought one in 44 magnum,i was at a pawn shop buying a holster for it and the owner wanted to see my new ruger bad,so i went out to my truck and brought it in for him to coon finger it..LOL..he pulled out a uberti 45lc saa and compared it to the ruger,he said they were both identicle in everyway and that the uberti was acoltsaa copy in everyway...he also said his uberti saa was his favorite personal gun at the store and he prefered it over all else..i asumed he was right,was he?
Are these 3 guns pretty identical?
I would have kept my ruger but it shot so low at 25yrds,i had to aim 12inches high to hit a bullseye and that was just to much kentucky windage for me....all my pistola shooter friends at work said i really need a lower recoil cartride in the saa vaquaro to hit better "something like a 38spl."and that the saa colts & clones were only accurate at across a poker table distance..hehehehe..oh the stuff you here from "shooter experts"
It cost alot of quid to find out all this stuff on your own,thats why iam asking so many questions...I got nobody that knows anything about cowboy guns,,,if the newer colts are really uberti guns,iguess i could go ahead and get a uberti and be the same or better off or the Ruger vaquro/blackhawk ?
What about the AWA peacekeeper guns?or beretta's/cimmiron's?
There is so much more to choose from now than 25yr.ago..
found this link http://www.uberti.com/

http://www.coltsmfg.com/Catalog/tabid/61/CatID/31/Default.aspx
http://www.usfirearms.com/

Nice!!!

No, the Vaquero in either of its incarnations is not a clone of the Colt SAA. The original Vaquero is easily distinguished as not being one. If you have the two, lay them side-by-side and you will see that the frame is longer and it is a bigger gun. The Colt SAA with normal gun steels, is not a robust enough design to handle the .44 Mag. cartridge. The internals are different too. If you cock it, you will see that the Colt has a hammer-mounted firing pin and the Ruger doesn't. Moving inside, the springs on the Vaquero are coil type. The Colt has flat spring steel springs. The New Vaquero has very similar internals to its predecessor, disqualifying it from clone status. Its exterior is much closer to the Colt as Ruger has trimmed it down considerably and shortened the frame. The Ruger is much closer in appearance to the Colts but is not a clone by virtue of its mechanism.

Uberti single actions of the Colt type are clones of the Colt SAA. The inner workings are identical save for some differences in the size of some parts. Generally the sizes are so close that they will interchange even if one is say, metric and the other is fractional. If you disregard the markings on the two guns they are very difficult to tell apart. Armi San Marcos used to make guns such as these too. The company is defunct now.

At one time the German firm of Sauer put out a lot of Colt copies. Whether they are close enough to call a true clone, I don't know.

Beretta's are Uberti's. Beretta bought that company. I haven't examined Beretta's single action that closely, but I believe they are the same basic gun as the Uberti Cattleman, which is a clone. AWA is to the best of my knowledge, one of the many importers of Uberti's to the United States. Cimmarron, Taylor's, Allen, and several others, are/were importers of same. Most of these guns are/were clones. The fly in the ointment is when you encounter certain single actions by these makers and importers. For instance, Uberti makes a "Callahan" model which is a .44 Mag. It isn't a clone and probably is the same they used to call the "Super Buckhorn".

Taurus makes a single action now, I presume in Brazil. I cannot recall whether it is a clone or not, but I am thinking it is.

So the Ruger is not "pretty identical" but the Colt and Uberti single actions are.

The Ruger's sight may have been regulated for higher-powered loads than you were shooting, especially if yours were Cowboy-action type loads, which are very low velocity. These are the type loads a person needs to be competitive. I'm not a Cowboy Action Shooter myself, but I have heard that many of the more competitive shooters have gotten away from the .45 and .44 calibers due to the recoil which makes them slower to shoot. I have heard the .38 Spec. is one of the top calibers for the "Gamer" faction. A more traditional approach to this problem is the 32-20 or 38-40, both of which are now available in new guns. The 38 Spec. came along after most of the old west was over.

I hope all this is less confusing to you than it is to me.

Thank You "BIGTIME"! I "think" i got it narrowed down to a colt or usfa now..LOL

FWIW, Colt SAA's are NOT made by Uberti. Uberti did make some of their reproduction cap and ball guns, but not the SAA. According to Bob Munden, who's as good a single action gunsmith as he is a shooter--nothing's as well made on the inside as a Colt. While I find that surprising considering how rough the last nib SAA I bought felt, I'm going to bow to his expertise. FWIW, once he does one of his "basic package" jobs on a Colt--there's NOTHING like it---cocking the gun is like rubbing a stick of butter over warm glass.

One last thought---the USFA gun is possibly smoother out of the box than the Colt and their "Rodeo" line is probably the finest value available. Down the road, should you ever want to sell these, the Colt will almost certainly hold its value better.