Vaquero cylinder stop problem

[Fall Guy]

I have a Ruger Vaquero .44 Magnum that I purchased new in about 1993. I am experiencing a problem with the cylinder over-rotating upon cocking the hammer. Everything works correctly when operating it in slow motion, but when I cock the hammer a little more smartly the bolt fails to catch and the cylinder rotates past the proper chamber. By cocking the hammer smartly I don't mean abusively - just a normal thumb cock without trying to do it slowly. It is clean and visually everything seems OK. The cylinder rotates as it should with the loading gate open. When it does over-rotate there is some play in it, but it wont just turn back to where it should be without lowering the hammer. That makes me wonder if the pawl isn't retracting as it should at full cock.

Any ideas or experience with this problem would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[BBBBill]

Over rotation suggests that the cylinder stop is no snapping up smartly in time to engage the cylinder notch.. Sounds like the hand/pawl may be hanging up, too. Only on one chamber or all? How many rounds through it since a thorough cleaning? Simple fix is to hose it out with gun scrubber and re-oil. If it still malfunctions after that, might be time for more in depth attention.

 

[Kp321]

I have seen this when the edges of the locking notches get peened over, leaving a small burr which keeps the cylinder stop from popping into the notch properly. Take a small scribe and see if you can feel a burr on the edge of the notch, dragging the scribe from the bottom of the notch outward.

 

[Fall Guy]

Thanks for the responses. I just finished putting it back together. Everything looked OK internally to my untrained eye. It was clean and lubed - even better now, but still has the problem. It is on more than one chamber, but I haven't tried to keep track of which ones exactly. I think Kp321 might be on to something with the peened catches. They are very slightly peened. It is so slight that it doesn't seem like it would make a difference, but maybe with a little inertia it could affect things. It doesn't seem to me like there would be a fix other than a new cylinder.

 

[rbernie]

I have to believe that the notches are deep enough that a bit of peening won't cause this problem. The cylinder stop/bolt must not be rising far enough or fast enough.

 

[Kp321]

Not trying to get into a disagreement, but I have seen a slight amount of peening cause over rotation on Ruger's when cocked smartly. The cylinder stop looked perfect and the spring was good. Judicious re shaping of the notches fixed the problem.

 

[45_auto]

Send it to Ruger and let them worry about it. It'll come back like brand new.

 

[Rom828]

X2 on sending it to Ruger. You will be very pleased when you get it back.

 

[BSA1]

I had same problem with a well used Vaquero.

I fixed it by replacing the spring with a Wolff extra power one.