Fondled a pair of SASS Vaqueros yesterday,,,!

Help Support Ruger Forum:

contender

Ruger Guru
Joined
Sep 18, 2002
Messages
25,142
Location
Lake Lure NC USA
One of my local dealers (and Forum member here,) had a new pair of SASS Vaquero's in his safe when I stopped by yesterday. They are awaiting shipment to Ca for another Forum member,, Terry T,, as soon as the proper Ca paperwork can be figured out.
Well, after admiring them,, and knowing that Terry will be out blasting away with them anyway,, we decided that since they were being shipped to Ca,, where they MUST pass a full safety check,, we decided to make sure they will pass.
After we both fired about 100 rounds of Blackhawk 300 grn loads,, we decided that the recoil was a bit heavy,, and since it wasn't quite hitting to point of aim,, we fired up the milling machine. We opened up the rear sight channel,, welded on a piece of flat brass bar stock,, & then after an oil bath to cool them off,,, we went back outside to see what soft cowboy loads would do. (we'd run out of the 300 grn bear loads.) Dern,, now we had to mill off a bunch of the front sight,, even below the welded joint. But after about 200 more rounds through each gun,, we declared they would pass the Ca safety test.
Funny thing though,, we did a police combat course,, and it was raining so we had a lot of mud to deal with. We only dropped them about 1/2 dozen times,, but hitting them with the pressure washer when they stopped working cured the gritty feel in the actions.
So,, Terry,, rest assured that these guns will hold up to the dreaded Ca testing,, and don't worry about them shooting to point of aim,, they'll hit the side of the barn w/o any problems!
 

JD Trampas

Bearcat
Joined
Jun 17, 2010
Messages
13
Location
Iowa
I hope you are kidding on this, I'm sure you are, was fun reading though, now the truth, what did you think of them. I have a pair of them and I like them just fine.

All for now JD Trampas
 
Joined
Sep 1, 2003
Messages
7,095
Location
Richmond Texas USA
JD Trampas":24245ndh said:
I hope you are kidding on this, I'm sure you are, was fun reading though, now the truth, what did you think of them. I have a pair of them and I like them just fine.

All for now JD Trampas

Well now, Contender NEVER speaks with forked tongue :lol: :lol:

Jim, who always tells the truth :roll:
 

Terry T

Buckeye
Joined
Oct 17, 2006
Messages
1,917
Location
NorCa.
"Contender",
Since I don't have a personal firing range at my home (like some folks do), it is great to know that they will be 'good to go' when they arrive here! :shock:
I will need to know the exact load that you have so carefully adjusted the sights to. Hopefully it is a load that will work for both our California cougars and and our even more special California Zombies. 8) (Neighbor on the 10 ac. across the street from my home spotted a big cougar on his property just a couple of weeks ago!) (the Cal. Zombies have been a bit more elusive but I'm told they may wander out of the cities at any time.)
I'll have to try your "North Carolina Country Boy" method for smoothing an action. Sounds like a lot more fun and a lot less time consuming than dismantling the gun and using a stone. :D

Glad you had a chance to see them before they wandered out to the 'left' coast. With all of the Ca. rules, etc. it's going to be mid Aug. before I have them in my safe. :(
I did have a good time hanging out with you and the other guys doing the action shooting in NC.
Thanks again for all your help - I've been trying to get a new set for almost a year - they seem to be somewhat scarce.
Terry T :D
 

caryc

Hawkeye
Joined
Jan 31, 2004
Messages
8,358
Location
Southern California
I'm actually making two pairs of grips for a pair of those SASS guns right now. The customer sent me the SASS medallions to install in the grips.

I was a little disappointed with the medallions. They did not chrome plate them as with the regular medallions. They left them bare metal. This shows up as a gray ring around the insert. There is also too much radius on the insert making it stick out too much when they are mounted in the grips.

In the pic below you can see what I'm talking about. You see how much it sticks out with the medallion base mounted flush with the grip. If you try to sink the medallion any lower it looks kind of funky. Of course it's only my opinion but I think they would have looked a lot better if the insert was a lot flatter.

They will be really pretty grips no less, but the medallions could have been made better. The top left pic is with the medallion in an actual grip.

F-SASS-MEDS.jpg
 

contender

Ruger Guru
Joined
Sep 18, 2002
Messages
25,142
Location
Lake Lure NC USA
Yeah,, it's tough to own a gun range where the local LEO's come out & play with their toys occasionally. At least when I fire off those loudkickinboomers,, no one grips too much as there are a few LEO's around who know how to tell the whiners to shut up.
As for the load we used,, it was easy,, we just filled the cases with Bullseye,, tapped a little out,, compressed a 300 grn SWC on top,, and heavy crimped them suckers. Any cougar or zombie (Ca style would be to say any zombies will be coming out of the SF Bay area,,) will be in trouble if hit with one of these cannon balls. As for smoothing that action,, we felt the mud & pressure washes helped smooth out those pesky rough tooling marks made by our milling machine when we were inside tuning it up a bit.
Oh,, I was glad to help with a few phone calls to get that set for ya. It allowed me to field test them suckers before they got lost on the left coast.
PS; Come on back to Bear Arms anytime or even down to my range & we'll have a long day of shooting!
 

Terry T

Buckeye
Joined
Oct 17, 2006
Messages
1,917
Location
NorCa.
"Contender",
10-4
I'll let you know the next time I'm in the area. Next time I'll bring a piece along that is more in line with the action shooting game at Bear Arms. The exercise was very informative. I learned a lot about myself and how different pieces perform.

I'll let you (and the forum) know when I finally get the SASS set in hand. I've wanted a set as soon as I heard about them but they seem to be a bit elusive. They sound like the single action I've always wanted - stainless, fixed sight, 'end of the world' tough, and in my favorite cal., 357. And with 'Contender' regulated sights, they should be good to go. Now, if the 'end of the world' will just wait until I have them. :shock: (Been watching too many Zombie movies on DVD :D ).

(Your pet .357 load sounds good enough for Grizzlies - there is talk by the Sierra Club to reintroduce Grizzlies to the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where we live. :shock: )
Terry T :D
 

contender

Ruger Guru
Joined
Sep 18, 2002
Messages
25,142
Location
Lake Lure NC USA
Terry,, I hope I made ya chuckle with all of my ramblings.
I did go over to Sam's to talk to him about some other stuff,,, and we had to get those guns out & look them over. I think you'll be pleased.
And,, if you do get back this way,, maybe you can wander down from Brevard to my range,, and we can do some SA shooting. Of course,, bring something for the matches at Bear as well.
I expect to see a pic of you smiling with those SASS guns!
 

Terry T

Buckeye
Joined
Oct 17, 2006
Messages
1,917
Location
NorCa.
'Contender",
We hung out enough for you to know I do have a sense of humor. Yes, I did get a chuckle out of your ramblings. Life's too short to take everything too seriously. Got to have some fun too.

By the way, what is Sam's 'handle' on this forum?

Might be Aug. but I'll post some photos of the SASS set when I finally get them.

This forum is a great community - meeting nice folks from one end of the country to the other.

Thanks again for a good time and for all of your help,

Terry T :D
 

Terry T

Buckeye
Joined
Oct 17, 2006
Messages
1,917
Location
NorCa.
SASS set is safely in my local shop's safe. All of Contender's modifications appear to be internal with no visable external marks. :shock:
They look VERY nice! :D

Now the wait is on for their place in line in Califorian's 'one gun a month' program. :(

Fired case date is June 9, 2010 and they DO say "New Vaquero" on them.

Thanks again,
Terry T
 

contender

Ruger Guru
Joined
Sep 18, 2002
Messages
25,142
Location
Lake Lure NC USA
Terry,, I'm glad to hear that those guns arrived in Ca. I only had a small hand in helping things along,, but I was happy to do it. Once they make it all the way home,, you can truly enjoy them!
 

Big Bubba

Single-Sixer
Joined
Dec 26, 2006
Messages
112
Location
WV
Only mistake I can find in your test report is the mispelling of CA. It should be KA. :wink:
 

153

Bearcat
Joined
Jul 12, 2010
Messages
42
Not CA, Not KA, it's the PRK (People's Republik of Kalifornnia)

:wink: :wink:

PS: Had to add the extra n in Kalifornnia as the website charnged the first letter K to a C - I guess not everyone has got the memo!
 

Terry T

Buckeye
Joined
Oct 17, 2006
Messages
1,917
Location
NorCa.
Now guys, play nice. I don't disparage your home.

We have large pockets of 'normalcy' in the state. In fact, most of the 'socialists' have been confined to the few large cities on the coast. Just look at the 'red' voting counties vis the 'blue' voting counties.

With 36M folks, we have a little bit of just about every kind of folk here. No such thing as an 'average' Californian. :shock:
Terry T
 
Joined
Jan 10, 2005
Messages
3,051
Location
Alexandria, LA USA
I find it interesting that they say "New Vaquero" on the frame after all the talk about the confusion that may be created with leaving the "New" off the previously issued guns, such as reported by Gunblast.com. Wonder when that happened and if some complaints from the RF brethern helped influence the decision. If so, there's another collectable Ruger!
 
Top