New Vaquero Birdshead .45 Colt

[Thumbcocker]

Really a cute little sucker. Anyone have any experience with them? Big question is how do they shoot? Looks like it has potential for a woods tromping gun.

[doc1876]

I have one of the Uberti Thunderer with a 3 1/2 in barrel. I love it. Very convenient to carry.

[Four-Sixty]

Did I see on the new Rugers that they have some sort of raised ridge on the grip panels? I suppose this ridge rests between your fingers???

[contender1]

A few of my friends have one & they enjoy the compactness & carrying ability of that Birdshead.

[Jupiter7]

I have the 45auto. Fun gun, shoots same ammo I load in my 1911's. Mine shoots 4" high with heavy bullets like the 454424. With 230grn it's close with 6 o'clock hold.

[wellfedirishman]

Birdsheads are neat. I have an older stainless 3.5 inch birdshead in 44 mag and it is a hoot. Very compact and tons of power. Top gun pictured.

I find that even with hot loads the BH grip works well as the recoil just rolls the gun back in your grip. the recoil does not feel as hard as with a straight grip.

The middle one is a regular gripped short barrel 357 also and it is nice, but I prefer the birds head grip.

The bottom one below is a 22lr, I think it was a Talo edition. It is tons of fun and easy for beginners too.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm138/wellfedirishman/Cowboy%20guns/RugerSnubbies.jpg

[WALLNUTT]

My 45ACP came with laminated "gunfighter" grips. They're a little thicker at the top,grooved for the thumb/trigger finger web,and then back out at the bottom. Very comfotable. I like the Birdshead better than the grip on my Flat Top.

[shoot-n-lead]

I have the Talo 45colt Birdshead and while it is neat package, I cannot get mine to shoot for me. I have gotten so frustrated with it until I have thought of sending it back to Ruger...and still may do that. It will not consistently shoot any load that I have tried...so, it stays in the say and looks pretty. I know the adage that says if it is consistently shooting around the target, that it is the shooter and not the gun...that is not the case with this little gem...something else is at play here.

[Airman Basic]

I have the Talo 45colt Birdshead and while it is neat package, I cannot get mine to shoot for me. I have gotten so frustrated with it until I have thought of sending it back to Ruger...and still may do that. It will not consistently shoot any load that I have tried...so, it stays in the say and looks pretty. I know the adage that says if it is consistently shooting around the target, that it is the shooter and not the gun...that is not the case with this little gem...something else is at play here.

Have you checked the usual? Throat sizes, forcing cone, barrel constriction?

[WALLNUTT]

I had to get DougGuy to ream the throats on my ACP to .4525. They came .4505 from Ruger.It now shoots very good with .452 cast. Check your throat diam.

[DougGuy]

I have the Talo 45colt Birdshead and while it is neat package, I cannot get mine to shoot for me. I have gotten so frustrated with it until I have thought of sending it back to Ruger...and still may do that. It will not consistently shoot any load that I have tried...so, it stays in the say and looks pretty. I know the adage that says if it is consistently shooting around the target, that it is the shooter and not the gun...that is not the case with this little gem...something else is at play here.

Ruger won't do nothing to address the cylinder throat issues, all they will do is test fire it with factory ammo and send it back if it passes their test. What usually hurts the Rugers are tight cylinder throats for one, most of the ones I get in for reaming pin out at .4505" and .451" which guys that want to shoot .452" cast boolits most of the time won't even chamber fully in the cylinder, let alone the cylinder swages the boolit down when it is fired so now you got an undersize boolit before it even gets into the barrel. Will your boolits fit into the cylinder throats from the front? If not, that's what it is doing, resizing them for you every time you pull the trigger.

The other thing that the .45 caliber Rugers are well known for is thread choke. They use a compression type thread which causes the bore to have a constriction in the area of the barrel that threads into the frame and if they have to really torque the barrel to get the front sight to clock up at 12 o'clock, it can be quite severe, I have seen them squeezed as far as .448" which if you have one that bad, nothing you do to it will get it to shoot. If it is that bad, it should go back to Ruger and let them fix it because that is below SAAMI specs which they do adhere to and they will usually fix that on their dime, including the shipping both ways.

The easiest way to check for thread choke is with a clean bore, patch a plastic cleaning jag very tightly into the bore and shove it down the bore. Observe the effort it takes to keep the patch moving, and when it gets to the area of the barrel that threads into the frame, if the tension on the patch gets tighter, that's the thread choke you are feeling making it tighter. If the change in tension is only a little bit, chances are it isn't very bad, and with a soft enough alloy in your cast boolits, you can get around this easy enough. Plus if you want to firelap it out, firelapping will remove a thread choke if it isn't too much.

On the other hand, if the patch stops and takes a LOT of effort to push it the rest of the way through, it's bad. It's at least .002" to .003" choked below bore diameter and this will need to be fixed before the gun will ever shoot decently. If you have one like this, call Ruger's excellent customer support and describe the problem, they should be agreeable to fixing this.

Checking the bore like this won't tell you the mathematical measurements of the choke, but you can "feel" with that cleaning jag, exactly what the boolit gets subjected to each time you fire the gun. It's pretty easy to tell if the choke is just a little bit or really bad using this method, and it requires no tools or pin gages and can be done by anyone with a cleaning kit.

If it comes to the bottom line and the gun cannot be fixed by the factory for whatever reason, the only other way to deal with a severely choked barrel is by Taylor Throat reaming the barrel. In this case, about the first 5/8" of the rifling is reamed out, along with the choked part of the barrel, and you have a length of freebore that serves not only to remove the choke, but to allow the boolit to stabilize before it hits the rifling and they work pretty danged good after this I have to admit, because I own one that was severely choked and I taylor throated it. Woke that puppy right up, shoots very good groups, no leading at all, it just works.