Howdy Pard!
I, too, shoot Ruger vaqueros in 44-40 with 7 1/2 barrels, and I use Goex cowboy BP (28-32 grains or so) with a 205 grain spg 2 lube grove bullet in Winchester brass. I've run them up to 7 stages in a row without doing ANYTHING to them, other than loading and unloading them. I can go WELL over 50 rounds in each pistol when out practicing, again without any intervention. Did they always work this well, you may ask! One did from the get go; I did nothing to it. The other had the same problem you describe. 2 or three cylinders full and it would get sticky and hard to cock and rotate the cylinder. One could easily see that when the hand came out and engaged the cylinder ratchet, it also shoved the cylinder slightly up against the barrel as it was rotating into place, and this was leading to the problem. (Let me interject, these pistols were prepped with straight ballistol everywhere, and the cylinder pin and cylinder hole were copiously covered/filled with bore butter; this is how they always start a match.) I gave the one hanging up to a good smith I knew and told him the gun was hanging up; he fixed it. (I believe he fixed it by increasing the cylinder gap by using a tool that brownells used to sell, that squeezes the cylinder bushing/collar and makes it a tad longer. I think I may have had more cylinder end shake than you describe.) I doubt Ruger would 'level' out your cylinder as the cylinder gap numbers you quote seem to be within their acceptable range; afterall, they did not design the gun specifically for BP use. I would suggest taking it to a good smith that you trust. Don't get frustrated! These Ruger vaqueros can be made to run supremely well with BP, and that is surely one of the best calibers on the planet for such!