Stainless vs Blued?

[ZVP]

Is the manufacturing procedure different for the Ruger Vaquero in Stainless vs the Blued one?
My stainless looks as if it was all machiened, no ground parts or edges. The Stainless also seems heavier leading me to wonder if the Stainless 4" Vaquero is stronger than the Blued/Case hardened revolvers?
At first I had second thoughts about buying the Stainless model but as I shot it over time, I found the sights to be very clear and without the old wives tales about Glare.
I added a set of synthetic Stag Style Grips to the gun and it draws rave remarks all the time! Handles great too!
Maybe the bright edges make the cuts look sharper but I think it has more machiening in it. The seams are near invisable!!!
It seems to me that you can't cast Stainless, you need to cut it.
ZVP

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Stainless is just that, Stainless Steel. Blued or case hardened is usually Carbon Steel. I think all Ruger revolvers are made by casting including the Stainless revolvers so I'm fairly sure it can be cast.

 

[bannockburn]

ZVP

The one think I like about stainless is that, if you've a mind to and with a little effort, you can polish it up to give it a finish that makes it look like it was nickel plated!

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

Stainless and blued Vaqueros are made the exact same way, there is no difference in the manufacturing process for either. Although barrels and cylinders are machined, frames and all the small lock parts are investment cast. Not the same as die casting. There is almost no machining done on Vaquero or Blackhawk frames, only the front surface where the barrel screws is machined as a secondary process, and the barrel hole is tapped as a secondary process. Then the frames are polished the old fashioned way, by hand on buffing wheels. Since this is a hand process, the amount of polish, and the amount of blurring of lines will vary slightly from frame to frame. Nothing to do with whether or not they are stainless or carbon steel, just the touch of the individual polisher.

When the Stainless Vaquero was first introduced, a very few of them had a matte finish, but Ruger quickly realized that by giving them a high polish they would resemble nickel plating, which was very popular in the 19th Century. But hold a polished stainless gun next to a nickel plated gun and you can tell the difference, the nickel plating has a slight yellowish tint to it.

As to the 'old wives tale' about glare off of stainless, just because you have not encountered it does not mean that it does not exist. I still have a black sharpie in my gun cart from the days when I shot a pair of Stainless Vaqueros in CAS. I can tell you for a fact that under the right conditions (or the wrong conditions) the front sight would completely disappear from the glare unless I blackened the rear of the blade.

Regarding weight, while it is true that all steel alloys have slightly different densities, you would be hard pressed to tell a stainless gun from a carbon steel gun just by hefting it. The difference in densities is very, very slight. However Vaqueros used to come with an alloy ejector housing rather than steel, while the stainless guns have always had a stainless ejector housing.

 

[Sav .250]

One verse the other.......................more a personal choice.

 

[CraigC]

Same process, same weight. Do enough shooting in enough varied conditions and you'll find that the "old wives tales" about shiny sights are true.

 

[ranger56528]

Stains less I don't care because I wipe all mine down after shooting so for me it's just a waist of money,as long as mine shoot and I keep them clean I see no real advantage to having stainless over blued except for the neat factor. I know there are other factors to having a stain less weapon over blued but it's just not my thing unless it's all I can get or its at a really good price.
To each their own..

 

[BCRider]

Don't the blued Rugers use an anodized aluminium alloy grip frame? Or is that just the Blackhawk models?

If this is the case then the alloy grip frame plus alloy ejector housing that I know they use would add up to a noticeable weight difference with the blued guns being a couple or three ounces lighter.

 

[jmr40]

I know the Blackhawk's in blue use aluminum grip frames and ejector housings which does make a huge difference between the same guns in SS. As far as I know the Vaquero's are all steel even the blue versions.