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My fiancee and I finally got up to Angeles on Saturday afternoon to try our new six guns.
She got a 5.5 in Ruger New Vaquero in .357 and I got an Uberti Remington 1858 conversion in .45. They were both fun to shoot. Suprisingly, the Ruger is heavier than the Uberti replica despite the Remy's 8" barrel.
We bought some 158 grn magtechs and some .38 cowboy loads to run through the Ruger. It shot both loads fairly accurately (enough for the fiance to shoot the center out of her targets). The weight of the Ruger tamed the recoil of the .357 loads and the .38 cowboy loads felt like shooting .22s in comparison. The gun ran flawlessly. I can see why these guns are extremely popular. With its modern internals and transfer bar safety system, we are seriously considering this gun as a night stand gun until we can get a nice double action revolver. The only complaint was that the hard rubber grips were quite abbrasive on Patty's hands when shooting the .357 loads. She has already decided on getting some aftermarket grips for it.
The Uberti replica was fun to shoot and drew a bit of attention from some other shooters that were shooting single actions. It is built from the start as a cartridge gun so it can handle all SAMMI standard pressure .45 loads (as opposed to black powder conversions that are meant only for black powder equivalent loads). I shot some magtech 250 grn lead .45 cowboy loads and some winchester 225 grn silver tips. Both shot pretty accurately and I was able to put some fairly tight groups together at 7 yds, though it took awhile to get used to the sights. This gun wanted to shoot about 1-2" high in general. I need to shoot it at further distance to see where it shoots POA to. This gun was bought on an impulse as mainly a range toy. I think it just looks cool, but with an 8" octagonal barrel and needing to manipluate the vestigial loading lever to actuate the shell ejector it definitely is not on the practical side. The heavy hammer spring plus the short hammer spur made cocking this gun heavier than the ruger. The trigger was a bit heavy but was a nice clean single action break. Neither gun was as light or crisp as my old model single six though.
I ran into two issues with the Remmy though. First, the shell ejector has a rectangular nub on the end that acts as a "handle" when ejecting shells. The nub is screwed onto the end of the rod and kept comming loose under recoil. Since the nub is also used to "capture" the ejector by the loading lever when not in use, as the rod unscrewed from the nub, it started to interfere with the rotation of the cylinder. Its something that a bit of locktite will fix but was a bit annoying.
Second, the spent shells had an annoying tendancy to hangup on the recoil shield. It turns out that the loading port cutout in the shield is not matched exactly to the loading gate conversion ring. This left a small legde that would allow the shells to hang up on. The ultimate solution would be to grind the loading port open a bit more so that it matches the opening in the conversion ring. In the short term, I found if I rotate the cylinder a bit to the right, past the natural resting point after the "click", the shells will eject without hanging up.
drc
She got a 5.5 in Ruger New Vaquero in .357 and I got an Uberti Remington 1858 conversion in .45. They were both fun to shoot. Suprisingly, the Ruger is heavier than the Uberti replica despite the Remy's 8" barrel.
We bought some 158 grn magtechs and some .38 cowboy loads to run through the Ruger. It shot both loads fairly accurately (enough for the fiance to shoot the center out of her targets). The weight of the Ruger tamed the recoil of the .357 loads and the .38 cowboy loads felt like shooting .22s in comparison. The gun ran flawlessly. I can see why these guns are extremely popular. With its modern internals and transfer bar safety system, we are seriously considering this gun as a night stand gun until we can get a nice double action revolver. The only complaint was that the hard rubber grips were quite abbrasive on Patty's hands when shooting the .357 loads. She has already decided on getting some aftermarket grips for it.
The Uberti replica was fun to shoot and drew a bit of attention from some other shooters that were shooting single actions. It is built from the start as a cartridge gun so it can handle all SAMMI standard pressure .45 loads (as opposed to black powder conversions that are meant only for black powder equivalent loads). I shot some magtech 250 grn lead .45 cowboy loads and some winchester 225 grn silver tips. Both shot pretty accurately and I was able to put some fairly tight groups together at 7 yds, though it took awhile to get used to the sights. This gun wanted to shoot about 1-2" high in general. I need to shoot it at further distance to see where it shoots POA to. This gun was bought on an impulse as mainly a range toy. I think it just looks cool, but with an 8" octagonal barrel and needing to manipluate the vestigial loading lever to actuate the shell ejector it definitely is not on the practical side. The heavy hammer spring plus the short hammer spur made cocking this gun heavier than the ruger. The trigger was a bit heavy but was a nice clean single action break. Neither gun was as light or crisp as my old model single six though.
I ran into two issues with the Remmy though. First, the shell ejector has a rectangular nub on the end that acts as a "handle" when ejecting shells. The nub is screwed onto the end of the rod and kept comming loose under recoil. Since the nub is also used to "capture" the ejector by the loading lever when not in use, as the rod unscrewed from the nub, it started to interfere with the rotation of the cylinder. Its something that a bit of locktite will fix but was a bit annoying.
Second, the spent shells had an annoying tendancy to hangup on the recoil shield. It turns out that the loading port cutout in the shield is not matched exactly to the loading gate conversion ring. This left a small legde that would allow the shells to hang up on. The ultimate solution would be to grind the loading port open a bit more so that it matches the opening in the conversion ring. In the short term, I found if I rotate the cylinder a bit to the right, past the natural resting point after the "click", the shells will eject without hanging up.
drc
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