Time to reblue the Vaquero

[Kamicosmos]

My early production Vaquero has been suffering from the 'weak' case coloring. It has several small rust spots, and when you lightly wipe off the rust, the coloring comes with it. It has gone through another session of rusting, and now has several large spots all over the cylinder frame now. It looks terrible.

I figure I have 3 options:
1) Send it back to Ruger.
2) Take it to a local smith for a reblue treatment.
3) Try it myself.

I think I'd prefer option 2, and will probably be contacting a couple smiths this week. I plan on stripping the gun down and polishing the cylinder frame before taking it in, just to save some time and expense. Should I have the whole gun redone, or will the frame match up enough? What about having it case colored...is this something a smith can do? I like case colored Single Actions.

Any other opinions? Has anyone had to send their Vaq into Ruger for this problem? What was the results?

 

[Standing Wolf]

Whatever you do, don't send it to Checkmate Custom in Florida—unless, of course, you want your gun ruined.

 

[Bill Z]

I would question as to how much blueing the local smith does. Sometimes a smaller operation will try to stretch out the bluing or renew it too often and you end up with less than desirable results.

I would highly reccomend Ted Yost of Yost-Bonitz, he does super quality work and blues for a lot of other 'smiths so he keeps plenty of work to do.