I can give you a bit of insight into Joe Bowman and the emergence of the Ruger Vaquero. I became acquainted with Joe during the 1970's. I was a professional magician at the time, and Joe was not only an amazing shootist, but also a magician. He belonged to some of the same magicians' clubs that I did. We ran into one another at various events.
In 1998 or 1999, I became interested in Cowboy Action Shooting, and purchased a pair of Ruger Vaqueros. Part of this was due to Joe's recommendation. Once I got the revolvers, I contacted Joe, who lived fairly close to where I lived at the time. He did action jobs on both of them, and they were really great revolvers -- they shot a lot better than I did!
When I went over to pick them up from Joe, he told me some interesting history about the Ruger Vaquero.
He used to shoot Colt SAA's, but they were kind of finicky. They definitely weren't as durable as a Ruger. One day, he was looking at some revolvers, and a Blackhawk caught his eye. Except for the sights, they looked an awful lot like an SAA. So he purchased two of them, took them to a local gunsmith and had him machine the frame to look like an SAA, and change the front sight to a blade. This was the style he shot from that time on. If I remember correctly, Joe had a total of four of these pistols made over time.
He wasn't happy with the grips, though. So he had some grips made that were thinner than the originals to give the revolvers more of a "Colt" feel.
He was wearing these pistols at one of the national trade shows, either the SHOT show or the NRA show, when Bill Ruger spotted them and realized what they were. Joe let him examine them. Bill asked Joe if he would permit him to manufacture this model. And that's how the Vaquero came to be.
The last time I saw Joe was at the NRA show in Houston in 2005. He was at the Ruger booth, and he was grinning from ear to ear! Ruger had decided to issue a Joe Bowman limited edition model.
I never got any of those revolvers. Wish I had. In fact, I didn't learn of his passing until about a month had gone by.
He was a truly amazing guy!
Three Eyed Willy SASS #22949