.480 Ruger Vaquero

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Aggie01

Blackhawk
Joined
Oct 16, 2008
Messages
978
Location
Texas (DFW)
Many thanks to singleactions 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.
It still lacks final fitting of the gripframe, but we can get a pretty good look at it right now thanks to these excellent pictures by stumpbuster.

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B.Roberts

Single-Sixer
Joined
May 19, 2007
Messages
101
Location
Gig Harbor, WA
I like the bright blue accents. Subdued, yet functional and classy. Nice gun! That is pretty close to what I was hoping ruger was going to introduce this year.
 

Stump Buster

Single-Sixer
Joined
Jan 6, 2008
Messages
216
Location
N. California
Hey Aggie01,

I hang out here quite a bit too!!! Glad you like the photo's....I can't wait to get a field report!!!....


....with pics!!! :D
 

3T

Bearcat
Joined
Sep 9, 2007
Messages
57
Location
Nebraska
Very Nice! Now you've gone and gotten my interest up.

I have an almost new blued and same condition stainless Bisley Vaquero 44mag sitting in the safe being neglected. This is giving me a nice idea...now which one do I pick :wink:

Be sure to post how it shoots.
 

John E Davies

Single-Sixer
Joined
Jul 24, 2006
Messages
179
Location
Spokane, WA USA - The Dry Side
Aggie01":102b5dwx said:
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.

Hey that is going to be quite a gun when it is finished!

I have to comment that you were misinformed about the velocities, unless that bullet weight was a typo. You can easily get a 400 gr bullet at over 1000 fps out of a 2.5 inch barrelled Alaskan. 325 grainers are significantly faster.

BTW I load up 325 gr ".480 Spl" plinking rounds at about 750 fps and they are a hoot.

John Davies
Spokane WA
 

Aggie01

Blackhawk
Joined
Oct 16, 2008
Messages
978
Location
Texas (DFW)
John - Note that my orignal weight/velocity intent as posted was in a rechambered six shot factory Ruger blackhawk cylinder.
You can't ramp the pressure up in that configuration.
The .475 Cooper is fractionally shorter than a .480 Ruger, so that you can't stick a .480 factory round in there and blow the gun up.

With the five shot cylinder, i can run this a lot hotter than I was planning on.
Between this and my Clements .475 Linebaugh, I bet my .475 BFR goes up for sale by March.
 

Unconverted

Single-Sixer
Joined
Apr 1, 2005
Messages
172
Very nice Ag,

You commissioned the .480 a lot of us here wanted the factory to make. The factory wouldn't have made it pretty with fire-blued parts and a dovetailed front sight though. Tell Jack a shorter barrel would have probably resulted in a taller front sight, which wouldn't have been as pleasing to the eye. :wink:
 
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