What Bullet Weight is Your Vaquero Regulated For?

[Alaskan454]

Usually I hear complaints that heavy bullets shoot high from Vaqueros but during a recent range trip realized my 3.75" in 45 Colt hits POA at 10 yards with a 350 gr slug.  Haven't chronoed the load yet so I don't know the speed.  It shot 1-3" low at the same distance with 300gr bullets at 1,000-1,150 fps and really low with 200 gr target loads.  

[bulasteve]

I need to solve this issue too. My Nm Vaq 44spec Sheriff gets run with such many options, all over the place ! I need to pick one and dial it in. I did run a SAS shoot with Penn 185gr DEWC on 7grs of Unique and rang everything..Need to shoot paper I know.

[magnumwheelman]

my pair of 45 Colts are regulated to mid level 250 grain bullets for CAS use... I also have a pair of 357's but I've not regulated them yet, but will likely set them up for the 140ish grain mid level 38 Special

[mk70ss]

My 3 3/4 inch Birdshead .45 Colt shot about 3 inches low with 255 gr cowboy loads. A little judicious filing and it is right on now.

[2 Dogs]

My one Vaquero has a Douglas 4 5/8" barrel and a dovetail front. It's right on at 50 yards with a 250 and a bit higher say 3" with 300s.

[500fksjr]

Find a load and live well with it....I like Vaqueros and have found that if is set up for 350gr bullet and 21grns of H110m than thats about it another is set up with 255 Keiths with 11.5/12.0 of hs6 nice play /self defense, an light game load...fwiw

[bigbrowndog]

My 3.75" Bisquero runs 280's with a useable trajectory for hunting out to 75yds. At 25 and 50 they land just over the top of the FO front sight, at 75 they land in the FO.
The 280's are going 1170fps. (Just over FO is 1.5" over)

Trapr

[dale53]

My Ruger Bisley Vaquero, out of the box, shoots center at 25 yards with a case full (+1/16") of 3f Swiss behind a Lyman 452664 cast 30/1 lead/tin and sized .452". It will reliably shoot 2" groups at that distance. It chronos 900+ fps. Good load in the field, too.

FWIW
Dale53

[Sarge]

My 2015 NV was maybe 4" low at 50 yards with 255's at roughly 900 fps. The front sight was a little high on one side and squaring it up was all it took to correct elevation. Windage was dead nuts on from the factory.

[bulasteve]

Dale53 is on to something, or has gone back to something ! Don't discount ole BP. I've some Blacke Dawge bullets here in 44 loaded on a full case and some of FFFG to use in my Vaq.. FUN ! The polished S.S. is easy enough to clean. Heck, I threw together a baggie full of BP loads for the 480 BSBH too. The booom ! and cloud a smoke outta that is awsome !  

[savit260]

Dec 15, 2016 12:48:03 GMT -5 dale53 said:

My Ruger Bisley Vaquero, out of the box, shoots center at 25 yards with a case full (+1/16") of 3f Swiss behind a Lyman 452664 cast 30/1 lead/tin and sized .452". It will reliably shoot 2" groups at that distance. It chronos 900+ fps. Good load in the field, too.

FWIW
Dale53

is that Velocity from a 5 & a half inch barrel?

[dale53]

savit260;
>>>is that Velocity from a 5 & a half inch barrel?<<<

Yes. Swiss 3f is a powerful BP. However, don't read too much into my post. I carefully developed that load for BP only, matches, (both NRA Score and silhouette matches). The Bisley Vaquero also shoots center at 25 yards with the same bullet (BP bullet is 30/1 lead/tin, smokeless bullet is WW's+2% tin - both sized at .452") loaded to the same velocity).

This is a really good field handgun, too and won me a BUNCH of BP only matches:



The advantage of the higher velocity of the 3f Swiss (compared to the lesser recoil of 2f) is that I held center at 25 yards on the NRA pistol target and could hold at the top of the black at fifty yards and it would drop into the ten ring. Remember, fixed sights.

One big thing that is seldom mentioned about the Ruger Vaqueros, but is EXTREMELY important, if you want to hit anything, is they have an excellent sight picture. Yep, you can actually see the sights. Frankly, I don't know how anyone hits anything with the sights on 1st Generation Colts and Clones, as an example. It CAN be done, apparently, but it's kind of like wearing a hair shirt (not something I want to contend with).

FWIW
Dale53