Mid 90's Ruger Vaquero

[willie]

I'm looking at a couple of mid 90's .45lc Ruger Vaqueros on GB.

Any concerns with these or particulars to look out for?

This would be a fun gun with possible occasional woods carry.

Thanks!

I enjoy my new Vaquero which has a somewhat less robust frame than your revolver. Standard pressure reloads will kill anything you might shoot, and there is small need to jack up velocity into the magnum class. If you plant to reload for it, feel free to pm me if I might help.

[baddean]

So... I won the Vaquero auction.

Attachment 103026

If that is the actual gun in the auction it appears to have hardly been fired due to no spin ring on the cylinder. Nice find.
Congratulations on your win.
Others here have mentioned rust or corrosion and fading on the frame with case hardening.
I have not found that to be the case (no pun).
I've shot a pair of old model Vaqueros for twenty years using heavy black powder loads and have had no corrosion issues.
Shot matches in the rain and even come home from matches where I've had to leave them in the safe for a couple of days before cleaning them and still no problems.
The frames case hardening looks the same today as it did twenty years ago when I bought them both used at the time.
The gun is robust and should serve you in any capacity you choose.

[Bergeron]

Ugh, I want a 2-digit prefix Blued/CCS Vaquero in .357M or .44M sooo bad, and particularly if it were a Bisley Vaquero. Prices are eye-watering, but ultimately doable.

I love to see the pics, guys, keep 'em coming!

[JonInWA]

As mentioned previously, the lack of a free spin pawl on these means that you have to more carefully align the cylinder in the loading gate chute when reloading a given chamber-if you over-rotate, you just have to pick up the next chamber, and catch the missed one on the second trip around. It's not a huge deal, but Ruger eventually incorporated a free spin pawl into the later production ones, and you can retro-fit one to yours; I've left well enough alone with mine.

These things are incredibly robust, but after use, make sure you check the exterior screws to make sure they haven't loosened and backed out under recoil vibrations.

Mine is a .357/9mm Convertible 1978 production piece, where Ruger used the .44 magnum frame, barrels and basic cylinder, just drilling smaller holes for .357/.38 Special (9mm also works, but requires a second fitted 9mm cylinder). That results in an even more massively overbuilt gun; the cylinder alone would classify as a deadly weapon if thrown...

Mine is used for hunting, hiking, IDPA (in a BUG-optimized match-I'm pretty competitive for the first 6 rounds, but the wheels fall off when I have to reload...) And just for fun (Yeah, that's still allowed). Mine is very accurate with both .357 and 9mm; I've never fired any .38 Special through it.





Best, Jon

[rd62]

I picked up the Vaquero today and it looks as nice in person as it did in the Gunbroker photos. I'll have to get some pics soon. Unfortunately, the weather here is supposed to be pretty crappy this weekend so I'm not sure when I'll make it to the range.