new SA fun

[guncheese]

brought home a new gal yesterday

and yes the gun has frost on it, as it was fresh off the fedex truck and its cold as witches brass monkey up here

so after leading the heck out of it in 32 rounds
i slugged everything
here is the map of the results forgive my hen scribbles



what should a fellow who shoots .452" soft lead do?
i powder coat most things
but the lead shavings from yesterday were 45/45/10 lubed

i dont see a whole bunch wrong with the numbers
and by what i have read its way better than what most see

happy new year!!!

 

[35 Whelen]

Fire lap the bore, and since it's stainless, be prepared to shoot LOTS of rounds.

Super good read on the subject: A Contemporary Look At Barrel Leading and Related Sixgun Issues

35W

 

[guncheese]

that was a fun read
thanks!

i think ill make a poured lap and go after that constriction at the threads
it isnt much but it should not be there
and then pour a fresh lap and see if i can get the bore smoothed out a bit

but beofre i do that i need to make up my mind if im going to send it back to ruger
as the monkey they had installing the barrels didnt get the sight cut lined up straight with the receiver, the proceded to knock the sight the other way to make it look like it was straight
the more you look at it the more it bothers you
grrrrrr....

 

[bannockburn]

guncheese

If the sight is misaligned by all means send it back to Ruger. A friend of mine bought a used Vaquero with a similar problem that turned out to be that the barrel was improperly installed. Took a while for Ruger to fix it (mainly because they had to build a new barrel as they no longer had them in stock), but it turned out looking great. Ruger even polished the whole gun so the new barrel finish would match the rest of the gun. No charge for all the work that was done.

 

[guncheese]

well this is a new gun
and im kinda mad about it
but ill guarantee that Ruger will say its just fine
after shooting a bit more ill confirm how far it is off
and if i take a bit off one side of the sight and the other side of the notch and that will fix it
right now that would be .024" total so only 12 thou per side

 

[35 Whelen]

The problem I see with removing one side of the front sight is the sight is, in my experience, too thin as it is (.080"). It's a shame Ruger treated the sights on the Vaquero almost as an afterthought. My Uberti .44 Specials that once had pinched or tapered front sights and the little V groove rear sight all now have full thickness (.100") front sights and 1/8" rear sight grooves. The resulting sight picture is much better than that of my Vaquero.

35W

 

[Jaymo]

Once you get the barrel issue rectified, you will love that SBH hammer.
I put one on my BH convertible .45 and it is much better than the factory BH thumb buster.

BTW, is that the bore diameter or is it the groove diameter?

 

[guncheese]

i took the cylinder throats to .453 -.0002/+.0006 (yes i slugged them again)
i know thats a bit big but its not that BIG
i may regret it and if i do ill just have to live with it
or replace the cylinder
will shoot a bit in the next day or 2
its real burry up here

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

Keep in mind.

Chasing metal around on that gun can queer any future warranty claims.

Todd.

 

[highlander 5]

My Ruger Bisley had tight chamber mouths and a constriction at the frame. Had the chamber mouths honed to .453 and used a fire lap kit from LBT to lap the bore. Took 100 rounds or so to clean up the bore but when I finished the bore was very smooth and very shiny. Accuracy improved and leading was reduced significantly.

 

[Panzerschwein]

Fire lapping with walnut shells and silicone lube should work wonders.

I'd use .450 or .451 gas checked bullets w/ as many grease grooves as you can, and pack it in. Should take no more than 100 to get everything in spec methinks.

 

[MifflinKid]

I fire lapped two Ruger Vaqueros (original large frames) using the NECO Economy Abrasives lapping kit.

http://www.neconos.com/category/PRESSUREFIRELAPPING-20

Their frame chokes were .448" so I had to fire many rounds to open them up to .4508". (Ruger's stainless steel seems to be very hard.) It took me most of an afternoon as you need to fully clean the barrel and cylinders periodically.

I started shooting just six rounds and then doing a barrel and cylinder cleaning. After just a few of these I realized the frame choke was opening up very slowly. So I started shooting twelve rounds between cleanings. That speeded things up.

I did not use the bullets that came with the the NECO kit. I used soft cast bullets, BHN#8, that I purchased and removed their lube by soaking them in Hoppes #9. I used a very light load of Red Dot powder to propel the bullets down the barrel.

My cylinder throats were .449" to .450". I sent them to Hamilton Bowen to be reamed to .4525". The cylinder throats were reamed before I did the fire lapping. The fire lapping did not open up the cylinder throats but it did polish them somewhat.

Before the cylinder reaming and fire lapping my best groups at 25 yards were 4.5" to 5" at 25 yards. Most were more than 5". Now I can get 2.5" to 3". All of these measurements are when shot bench rested.