New Vaquero .44 mag and a question

Hello, first post here and just picked up my first Ruger as well: a stainless Vaquero .44 mag.

The gun is in great condition, but I notice a few spots that may be rust/corrosion and I'm wondering if someone can tell me if it's a problem, and if so, a good way to remove it. I think it was stored in a leather holster for many years, if that means anything.

Some gold-ish spots at the bottom of the front sight:

http://imgur.com/TA37sqO

The same gold colored strips running down the inside of the barrel:

http://imgur.com/DV6Yf2S

A few scuff marks:

http://imgur.com/Fy8dL3I

Thanks!

I didn't spend a lot of time on the pictures, but my first thought of the "gold" in the barrel is it's probably nothing more than brass from someone shooting jacketed ammunition. Nothing that a good brass brush wouldn't take care of.

The rub marks on the side of the gun is probably from a snap on the holster, I'm thinking. Not sure about the sight.

Sight coloration looks like brazing metal or high-temp solder used to fix the sight to the barrel. Might show repair, might just be a bit of discoloration due to storage in leather. I wouldn't worry about it either way; I don't know of an easy way to make it match but it is unlikely to spread or worsen.

I see no rust. I do see what I believe is a bit of a sloppy brazing job at the base of the sight, metal fouling in the bore (normal -- clean it), and normal exterior wear on a stainless gun (origin unknown but typical).

You can make a stainless gun look like new if you want to. A little metal polish like Flitz or a Lead Away cloth will clean everything off the gun. Going over the gun with a Scotch Brite pad (used/soft green) will restore the factory finish.

Great, thanks everyone.

Vaquero99 said:

Great, thanks everyone.

Click to expand...

Welcome to the forum. Shoot that Vaquero a bunch, clean, and repeat till you can't anymore. 8)
gramps

Vaquero99,

Welcome aboard to this forum!

1. The front sight color is normal; the factory uses silver brase which is another name for silver solder, a high temp/high strength solder used on guns. Polishing will make it far less noticeable, and the blob behind the sight can be polished off down to the stainless barrel surface.

2. The bore, as those posted above is from jacketed bullets, I would not fuss with it, or you could clean it, or a steady diet of hard cast lead bullets will usually get rid of it.

3. The scuff marks are normal. Stainless is soft and shows fine scratches easily on the high gloss polished Vaqueros. Once a year or so I "LIGHTLY" re-buff my gloss finished stainless Rugers, with a soft cotton buffing wheel and the white stainless steel buffing compound. Hand polishing with Flitz, SemiChrome, Mothers Mag Wheel polish and other products works very well. For deeper scratches, I use 2000 grit wet-or-dry paper wrapped around a hard 2" pencil eraser to keep the surface level and not wallow the surface where the scratch was, then polish or buff.

The Scotch Brite pad will match the satin stainless finish of the Blackhawks but not the gloss finish of the Vaqueros.

Hondo44 said:

1. The front sight color is normal; the factory uses silver brase which is another name for silver solder, a high temp/high strength solder used on guns. Polishing will make it far less noticeable, and the blob behind the sight can be polished off down to the stainless barrel surface.

2. The bore, as those posted above is from jacketed bullets, I would not fuss with it, or you could clean it, or a steady diet of hard cast lead bullets will usually get rid of it.

3. The scuff marks are normal. Stainless is soft and shows fine scratches easily on the high gloss polished Vaqueros. Once a year or so I "LIGHTLY" re-buff my gloss finished stainless Rugers, with a soft cotton buffing wheel and the white stainless steel buffing compound. Hand polishing with Flitz, SemiChrome, Mothers Mag Wheel polish and other products works very well. For deeper scratches, I use 2000 grit wet-or-dry paper wrapped around a hard 2" pencil eraser to keep the surface level and not wallow the surface where the scratch was, then polish or buff.

The Scotch Brite pad will match the satin stainless finish of the Blackhawks but not the gloss finish of the Vaqueros.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips! I will try polishing that front sight area a bit. I did run some Hoppe's 9 copper solvent through the barrel and it seems to have removed abount 70% of the fouling, so I may just wait and shoot it some and see how it looks. I'll have to try some of your methods for polishing the rest of the gun, thanks.