Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Cowboy Action Shooting Ammo in New Vaquero 45 Colt

Hello Can you shoot the WIN PDX1 ammo in these guns! Or good self Defense ammo.
Thanks

I have shot a few of Winchester's 225 grain JHP out of my Vaquero, and they are accurate and do not recoil much, so I consider them safe in my revolver. Don't know about the PDX1, but according to the velocity on the website for the ammo, it seems within safe parameters.

Keith.
What are some safe pressures to stay within on these new Vaqueros, new to the cowboy type guns i have herd all kinds of stories of failure and mishap's on the use of factory ammo and more so on the loading. I have been using 7.4gr Unique and 200 lead cast Bullets/have had good success what is you recommendation?
Thanks
Bobby

I shoot 200 grainers with 7.0 and 7.5 of Unique. I think you can add to that a bit, but the 7.5 shoots pretty nice in the Vaquero. I also shoot Trail Boss at 5.0 and 5.5 grains with the 200 grainers. Shoots a little low, but well.

I went to 255 grain bullets with the same powders but lighter charges, and I got to say, the 45 Colt shines with the heavier bullet. 4.5 and 5.0 and 5.2 of Trail Boss and 7.0 of Unique. Favourite so far is the 255 grainer with 5.2 of Trail Boss. All my bullets are home cast and water quenched wheel weights.

I am getting blow-outs out to 10 yards and sub 2" at 20-25 yards, so I am happy. Thosw are all less than 12K psi as far as the manual is telling me. It was designed as a low intensity load -- heavy bullets are hard to stop, even at low speed.

I shoot 5 grains of Trail Boss behind 250 grain bullets and 6 grains of Trail Boss behind 200 grain bullets for Cowboy shooting. I use Unique with 255 grain bullets for heavier loads. The only New Vaquero .45 Colt I have is my quick draw revolver and has never been shot with the heavy loads I shoot out of my Old Vaqueros.

I have a friend with a .45 New Vaquero who shoots 10 grains of Unique behind 255 grain bullets. That is over max for about every source of data I have seen. Those loads really are frisky. The revolver has not been trashed yet but is fairly new. I load my heavy loads a fair amount lighter than those and generally stick to the loads listed for the older revolvers.

They will handle any ammo that is not marked for the Super Blackhawk or Thompson contender only type. They are as strong as the S&W 29/629 series of guns and are safe with modern FACTORY ammo.

The NEW Vaquero is NO STRONGER than a 1873 Colt Peacemaker. DO NOT shoot any load in them that a Colt or Colt clone can't shoot. They are NO WHERE near as strong as a model 29 or the older Vaqueros.

Your friend is shooting T/C data out of a gun that should shoot Colt Peacemaker loads. Take some insurance out on him, because he's playing with his health and life.

I suggested that he might want to get the fellow who loads for him to put no more than about 8 grains of Unique behind a 255 grain bullet, especially since he also has several Colt Peacemakers.

7.0 or 7.5 of Unique works good in my Vaquero. So does 4.5 and 5.0 of Trail Boss, and 4.2 of Clays. No need to push that 255 speedy. It'll penetrate paper fine and knock the steel down even at the lower speeds.

That sounds like a good idea.

What TLEE said.

When I shot 45's, TBone Dooley and I came up with a load that really was mild, yet dependable in all temps.

4.1 grains of Nitro 100 topped with a 160 grain SWC and mag primer.

The NV is just as strong as a post war Colt and Colt clones, 45 Colt SAAMI spec is 14,000 psi so I'd recommend not going over that. With that in mind you can get 255gr bullets going ~1000fps and stay under SAAMI spec for 45 Colt.

Ruger has advised the industry that the New Vaquero must not be fired with loads exceeding industry pressure standards (14,000 psi). If loading for a New Vaquero, use the standard pressure data in loading manuals and you will be good to go.



I NEVER advocated using "Ruger only" or "T/C loads" in the new Vaquero, they will handle FACTORY SAAMI spec ammo. I did mean the N frame .45 Colt guns, not the .44 mag, my bad on that typo.

AGAIN, I said modern FACTORY ammo.

My do all load is 24.5 gr Imr 4227 with 250 XTP's. This load does 1300+ in my 7.5" SBH Hunter. It shoots fine from my NV but I don't do it a lot.

I have another utility load I shoot for the NV. It runs around 850 fps.

I don't believe that.

The ruger vaquero is safe with any factoy 45 colt round.
It may be a bit dicey with the +p stuff offered by some companies.

Stick with the standard Winchester, Remington or Federal factory loads and all will be well.
If you reload stay with the regular 45 colt data, and don't even think about the ruger/tc data all will be well.
Using Alliants online data, there are a number of loads that will recreate the original ballistics of the 45 without going over the sammi specs.
I particularly like the 12 grs of bludot, and while I have shot the 10 grs of unique (that has also been listed as far back as the 1940's in the lyman books) I have never found it to be as accurate as 8.5-9 grs with a 250-260 gr bullet.

I push a 250 grain hard cast RNFP with 8.5 grains of Unique fired by a Winchester WLP primer out of a NM Vaquero, Uberti Cattleman and Intearms Hartford Model built by ASM all the time. gives me between 850 & 870 FPS. Barrels are 4 3/4 for the ASM & Uberti and 5 1/2 from the Vaquero.

I have shot my 250 XTP loads running 1300 fps+ in my New Vaquero and it worked fine. But, it hurt too. I have a bad habit of putting my thumb up on the recoil shield.

Is there a problem shooting fairly beefy loads in an old style Vaquero?

The gun I'm questioning is my 44mag if it makes any difference.

Shoot .44 mag loads from a reputable manual and there is no problem at all. That is what the gun was designed for.