Ok, got out to shoot her yesterday after all. Looking at the weather report and it was Thursday or sometime after the first of the week as another Arctic cold front is moving in.
She works great in dry fire mode but it just isn’t the same!
Now this isn’t Scientific, just my general impressions.....
Appearance wise she is a beauty. Balance good. She has a wide front blade and a square cut notch in the rear which seems to let you get a better sight picture quicker.
Front of the cylinder is beveled for getting in the holster better.
The hammer is different from the Colt/clone too. Higher and farther back. I thought it would get in the way but out on the range it was easier to get a hold of, particularly with the ever growing frozen fingers syndrome. It makes shooting two handed much smoother.
As stated earlier for those of you that might be worried about the internal gun lock, don’t be. You have to take off the grip panels to access it and upon inspection I don’t see anyway it could accidently jam. If it further worries you it looks like it could be replaced with minimal effort.
Maybe someone could get a side line going making the replacement part.... If the lock is something you were looking forward to and would use it on a regular basis, keep the kids safe for example, they include instructions for drilling the grip panel out for easy access.
They also give you two little keys that have a screwdriver on the side to get the grip screw off. These will fit on your key ring. More on this later.
At 25 yards, leaning over the hood of my Bronco II, 26 degrees with a 22 mph cross wind, standing in a foot of snow I managed 3 shot groups that averaged 1 3/4 inch.
She shot center and about 3-4 inches low from the point of aim. I have loaded 250 grain RNFP with 5.8 grains of TiteGroup.
After the first three shots I go to pull the hammer back and it’s not working, jammed!
You pull the hammer back and the transfer bar goes up, hits the firing pin and won’t go up, no cylinder rotation, jammed.....
Now you savvy Ruger owners already got this figure out. I have owned several in my life but haven’t had one in my hand for 15 years or better, and never had this trouble when I did.
It seems that the base pin assembly has a plunger pin in one end (the end that pints towards you), and this prevents the action from being cycled when the base pin assembly is removed, or partially removed as in this case. The recoil was making the base pin move forward enough to jam the action.
What was needed was a simple adjustment to the base pin latch (the button you push to unlock the base pin) and I reach in my handy range bag for a screwdriver and oh no, not there, they are in my gun cart, safe and warm at home. What should I do?
The reader that has been paying attention knows, I grab my key ring and use my trusty Ruger New Vaquero internal gun lock key with screwdriver! A couple of quick turns, the base pin assembly stays secure in place under recoil and the day is saved.
I really like the checkered black hard rubber grips. They made it much easier to hold onto in the cold.
If you are a Colt/Clone purist, then this gun isn’t for you. No half cock, opening the loading gate lets you rotate the cylinder with the hammer down. Something about the sound and feel of spinning the cylinder isn’t quite right either.
There is about 1/8 of an inch of creep that keeps advancing the transfer bar when you pull the trigger. If anyone knows how to fix that, besides the “ship it to a smith” response I would like to know.
Having said all that, I sure do like the way she shoots and I’m going to have to get me another one now so I won’t be lopsided! :-)