Rare Vaquero SS 4.63 inch 44 mag. Ruger says No record?

A friend of mine inherited a completely new, unfired (first model) Ruger Vaquero .44 Mag. Stainless steel with the 4.63 inch (4 5/8ths) barrel. Both the original outer factory labeled shipping carton and the yellow display box have that barrel length, .44 Magnum and the correct serial number of the gun on them. The outer box has penciled in "1 of 158 mfd" on the label near the bar code. My friend took it to our LGS. He called Ruger to try and get some info, since he'd never seen or sold a 44 Vaquero with that barrel length.The Ruger rep. said he could find no record of manufacture of any .44 Mag Vaquero's in the 4 5/8ths barrel in either stainless or blued . Serial number is 55-248XX.

Please- Ruger experts can you shed any light on this gun and an approximate value??

They were built....Two relatively short runs, at least; There is a SS matte finish variant in the safe, here in the NNWs...........For more info, see RENE's "Reference of Ruger Firearms".............. 8)

I know for a fact that Ruger made 4 5/8 inch case hardened Vaquero. I had one and sold it years ago. Dang, and now it is rare?
gramps

Have your friend call Ruger Records dept. Give them the serial number, and ask for a model clarification, (such as; KBNV-474-IE.) That's the model info for mine,,,!
According to the RENE guide there should be the following;
KBNV-474 (model # 0556)
KBNV-474-I (model # 10511)
KBNV-474-IE (model # 0530)

Ruger Records; 603-865-2424

I have a consecutive pair of them.

I've got one. Just ordered some American Holly grips for it from Pvt. Schultz.

I have a pair of brite stainless 4 5/8, 44 mags, which I bought new from davidsons and still have the plastic boxes for them.

They made them!

here is a stainless with my bisleys [/url]

steamloco76:
The 4-5/8" .44 Mag. (old Vaquero's) are an interesting subject. The first ones that showed up were the case color finish, but that one and the stainless weren't cataloged for the longest time. We suspect Ruger made them as they came about because of off lengths of .44 Mag. barrel stock. Prices went through the roof when the first ones started to appear, with prices going up to about 1K each when they could be found.
So many collectors started looking for these two models and bugging their distributors that Ruger decided to make it official and offer both models in their catalog.
The KBNV-474 in the 55-248xx serial number range though is another story. There were 100 KBNV-474, all consecutive in that serial number range produced by accident by an employee who must have figured it had to be an offered model.
Chet15

I bought two of these for my wife when we were CAS'ing any idea of current value?

chet15 said:

steamloco76:
The KBNV-474 in the 55-248xx serial number range though is another story. There were 100 KBNV-474, all consecutive in that serial number range produced by accident by an employee who must have figured it had to be an offered model.
Chet15

Click to expand...

Your information helps make sense of the the packaging the revolver came in. The yellow box is the long one for a 7 1/2 inch barrel gun, though labeled for the 4 5/8ths. The gun is part of a collection of blued/case color unfired Vaqueros which were all 7 1/2 inchers. .357 Mag. 44-40 and .44 Mag. All are zip tied to keep anyone from working the actions. We figure those three are worth $500- $550 each.

Question is- any idea of the actual value of that stainless short barrel?

And then there were the 400 late production (2008) guns with the 'warning' under the barrel rather then on the side.
I managed to snag one of those.
Terry T

I've got KBNV-474, serial # 58-01748

It was a x-mas gift in 2001

I've got one that appears unfired I picked up a few years ago. I believe they referred to it as having the bright stainless finish.

Here is mine in the Bisley Model

steamloco76 said:

Question is- any idea of the actual value of that stainless short barrel?

Click to expand...

$500 to $550 is going to be right on the $. When Ruger started making them in 4-5/8", they turned out to be pretty popular, so there's nothing really rare about them today.
The rare ones are those assembled by the factory with simulated ivory panels. And then the blue and stainless Bisley (rosewood grips) are scarce.
Ruger didn't make any blue or stainless 4-5/8" Bisleys with simulated ivory as far as I can tell.
Chet15

Local pawn shop on Highway 61-67 (Jeffco Boulevard?) in Imperial Mo has had one of these in the sale rack for a year or more. He wants about $600 for it. IIRC it has rosewood grips. I've been tempted to buy it, but prefer 5.5 or 7.5 inch barrels.