Vaquero action job advice needed

[Harry Stone]

I'm looking at buying a New Vaquero soon. Actually a pair, for no other reason than to satisfy my cowboy fantasies and improve my shooting skills. I have a Blackhawk now that I love, but I like the looks, weight, and balance of the Vaquero better.

I want to have action jobs done on them to get the trigger pull down to something fairly light but still safe. I imagine they'll be dry fired quite a bit, and shot quite a bit. I want to spend a lot of time working on point shoooting, with both hands. Based on these things, I lean towards having one of the gunsmiths that does cowboy action shooting work do their usual magic on these guns.

Is that the way I should go? I won't be using these guns to compete, but they will be shot quite a bit. I do want to make them as bombproof as possible.

 

[Dienekes]

I have three NM Ruger SAs--a .45 Convertible, a 50th .357 Flattop, and a NV. Each has responded well to minimal work; on the .45 I just tweaked the trigger return spring to lessen its pressure; on the latter two I put in a Wolff kit. In all three cases the results were excellent. The .45 has a 2# pull and the other two are only slightly above that. Presumably if I paid a name gunsmith $150 it could be bettered ("magic"?) , but as a practical matter this is good enough for me and I shoot them well.

The NM SAs are lots of fun to reassemble if you detail strip them. IMHO more work than the above is unnecessary.

These guns are as "bombproof" as anything gets to be, but not indestructible...

 

[Harry Stone]

Thanks, that's exactly the kind of insight I was looking for. A 2 pound pull would be plenty for me.

When you say reassembly is fun, do you mean fun like building an AR15, or fun like reassembling a Mark II for the the first time?

 

[LightningMan]

Howdy! I like to get the Ruger 30/14 spring kits. #969-000-156AA and also use this web site; http://www.cylindersmith.com/triggerspring.html to adjust the springs to get the right trigger pull. LM
PS. I've got my trigger pulls down to 1 1/4 pounds, just the way I like them.

 

[Coyote3855]

I have three old model Vaqueros that see service in Cowboy Action Shooting. The spring kits are a good idea. You can achieve a lighter trigger pull just by removing the grips and unhooking one leg of the trigger spring. See part #57 in the Brownells Ruger Vaquero schematics. I agree that you can install the spring kits yourself, no problem. If you're satisfied with the results, then no need for a gunsmith. Assembly after a detailed strip is tricky the first time or two, but gets easier with practice.