That looks great! Definitely better results than the 'ol "Flitz and a soft rag" routine.

Biker, nicely done, looks great!!

Jealous, now I want to polish my dad bod Vaquero models.

My local store has that same model and I was looking at it late last week. Your post inspired me, I might go pick it up.

While the ruger win points for rugged reliability and durability it can not in any way be considered aSAA. In reality colt owns that. The only true competitor to the title was the now defunct USFA.

quote:

Originally posted by captain127:
While the ruger win points for rugged reliability and durability it can not in any way be considered aSAA. In reality colt owns that.

Nobody here made the claim it was a 1:1, and furthermore, I don't think most New Vaquero owners are looking for that. Why do that in the man's thread? He just bought one.

I was waiting for it. It's pretty much inevitable in one of these threads that somebody will be along to point out that the Vaquero is NOT a REAL SAA. I must admit that they're correct...the Vaquero is not a Colt SAA. It's a better gun.

If you want to pay $2500-$5000 for fragile gun with finicky lockwork and inconsistent and oversized chamber throats, that will shoot you if you load the cylinder full and drop it, just to stick it in a box and tell everybody that you own a real Colt SAA, then i guess that's one approach. But if you want a gun to actually shoot and enjoy the experience of a single-action cowboy style revolver, then the Vaquero is the better choice. It looks the same, handles the same, and does everything that an SAA does (except for the 4 clicks), with a greater degree of reliability and safety. It doesn't hurt that it's a fraction of the price, either, but even if it wasn't it would still be a better gun.

OP, that's a beautiful polish job...nicely done!

As to what 92fstech wrote regarding the Colt SAA's 4 click lockwork which the Vaquero lacks, there is (or there was in the past) at least one aftermarket company that specializes in upgrades for the Cowboy Action crowd. Among other things, one of the products is a replacement hammer and parts needed to convert the Vaquero to spell out "C O L T" when the hammer is cocked. Not sure if it's something you're interested in but just thought I'd add that info to this thread.

New rosewood grips arrived today from LS Grips.
They feel so much better than the originals & I think they look better as well.

I really like what you did with the polishing. How long did it take you to do that?

Those new grips do look really nice.

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
Stupid question. I have a New Vaquero, I have never noticed the trigger being heavy or bad in any significant way. Did they fix it or do those fixes only apply to Blackhawks and old Vaqueros?

My understanding is that the converted old model "3 screws" that got a transfer bar system retrofitted under recall ended up with crap triggers. This is why the unconverted three-screws are sought after...although they're not drop safe, they have a much better trigger.

The New Models have a redesigned trigger system that also includes a transfer bar, but it's not the same as the conversion they did to the old models. My New Model .45 has a trigger pull that is indistinguishable from the one in my unconverted .357 old model. I'm perfectly satisfied with the factory triggers in both of my Blackhawks.

quote:

Originally posted by cas:
Even better, just as free. https://cylindersmith.com/triggerspring.html

Oh nice, I missed this post before. I really need to send this thing back to Ruger, but I'll try that out when I get it back!

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
Stupid question. I have a New Vaquero, I have never noticed the trigger being heavy or bad in any significant way. Did they fix it or do those fixes only apply to Blackhawks and old Vaqueros?

Also missed this. I have no idea if they changed anything anywhere along the way, but if you try what I suggested, you'll see a major difference. Much lighter pull. Think Langdon trigger bar kinda night and day difference for a hell of a lot less effort and much cheaper.

quote:

Originally posted by 4.40s1nine:
I really like what you did with the polishing. How long did it take you to do that?

Those new grips do look really nice.

About 2.5 hours start to finish.
Polishing , cleaning & reassembling.