Post by Aggie01 on Jan 20, 2010 18:02:29 GMT -5
Many thanks to forum member stumpbuster for taking the pics at Jack Huntington's shop while he was there for a visit.
The Story:
I had been fishing around gunsmiths for someone who would craft a .475 Cooper for me on a Ruger Vaquero. This Ruger Vaquero had started out as my FIRST centerfire SA (in .44 Magnum)
I was looking for a low pressure "big brother" to my New Vaquero in .45 Colt.
I wasn't getting a lot of positive response from gunsmiths on rechambering a 6 shot cylinder to a .475 bore. I wasn't really considering a five shot conversion, as I couldn't justify a "full-up" custom rig for something with Vaquero sights. My goal was a 300-325 grain bullet traveling at just under 1K fps - something that was going to be at the very limits of a .475 in a six shot cylinder, as best as I could tell.
When I got around to bringing it up with Jack, he let me know he had a few leftover cylinders in .480 Ruger and .500 Special and he wanted to do one in a Vaquero for a lighter weight, "less serious" gun - exactly like I was looking for - but in a five shot. Most five shot conversions have oversize cylinders. This particular one is the same size as a standard Ruger Blackhawk cylinder - even down to not filling out the frame window forward, as most customs (with the 1.4" cartridge case lengths) tend to do. Anyway, between Jack wanting to do a gun like this (although he wanted to put a shorter barrel on it) and the cylinder being in stock and prechambered, a deal was struck, and the .475 Cooper project died, but out of the ashes arose the .480 Ruger project.
It was sent off to Jack with a Montado hammer and a SBH gripframe with a rounded trigger guard and some gun show Eagle ebony grips.
Thanks to forum member stumpbuster, we can see how it looks today.
The Story:
I had been fishing around gunsmiths for someone who would craft a .475 Cooper for me on a Ruger Vaquero. This Ruger Vaquero had started out as my FIRST centerfire SA (in .44 Magnum)
I was looking for a low pressure "big brother" to my New Vaquero in .45 Colt.
I wasn't getting a lot of positive response from gunsmiths on rechambering a 6 shot cylinder to a .475 bore. I wasn't really considering a five shot conversion, as I couldn't justify a "full-up" custom rig for something with Vaquero sights. My goal was a 300-325 grain bullet traveling at just under 1K fps - something that was going to be at the very limits of a .475 in a six shot cylinder, as best as I could tell.
When I got around to bringing it up with Jack, he let me know he had a few leftover cylinders in .480 Ruger and .500 Special and he wanted to do one in a Vaquero for a lighter weight, "less serious" gun - exactly like I was looking for - but in a five shot. Most five shot conversions have oversize cylinders. This particular one is the same size as a standard Ruger Blackhawk cylinder - even down to not filling out the frame window forward, as most customs (with the 1.4" cartridge case lengths) tend to do. Anyway, between Jack wanting to do a gun like this (although he wanted to put a shorter barrel on it) and the cylinder being in stock and prechambered, a deal was struck, and the .475 Cooper project died, but out of the ashes arose the .480 Ruger project.
It was sent off to Jack with a Montado hammer and a SBH gripframe with a rounded trigger guard and some gun show Eagle ebony grips.
Thanks to forum member stumpbuster, we can see how it looks today.
