Vaquero'ising a Blackhawk.

[Four Fingers of Death]

I have been searching every where for a 44Mag Vaquero to match my first SA revolver.

I have since picked found a 7.5" SBH and the NMSBH is a bit excess to requirements.

I have a very talented gunsmith machinist mate who has performed some magical machining tricks for me in the past (repairing stretched 1866 action by welding up the pivot hole and relocating it further forward to take up the headspace, etc). He reckons he can convert the NMSBH to fixed sights.

Anybody ever tried this?

There is plenty of meat to play with on the backstrap, but isn't the hardening on the surface?



The top one is the model and the bottom one is the intended victim.

Mick.

[Lloyd Smale]

I think bowen has done it but to me its almost a waste. You should have no problem swapping the gun for a vaquero if you post it on a bunch of classfied sights.

[Four Fingers of Death]

Trouble is in Australia, the 40+ calibres are few and far between, and not many shooters bothered going to the trouble of getting all of the proper permits and consequently most were handed in to the Govermint, who paid for them then crushed them in front of you (if you could stand to watch).

New Rugers sell here new for just short of $AU900 and I advertised the Vaquero for $400 for months in the local cowboy action newsletter and didn't get a nibble. I don't think I'd do any better trying to sell the NMSBH. At least by doing it this way, the licenses stay the same so I don't have all of that hassle and expense.

I have tried to source a second hand 44 or 45 old vaquero with out success. The only one I have found was the 44SBH with the 7.5" Bbl that I mentioned.

One of the biggest gunshops in Australia told me the other day that 44s and 45s weren't being bought into the country, except on special order. Seems most cowboy shooters are content with sissy guns.

Mick

[Lightning Ross]

See if you can buy one in the US from a private party Have it shipped as a high speed hole driller.

[Four Fingers of Death]

I've been thinking about getting my dealer's license, I'd be able to import it myself then. Tanks, Mick.

[Bass Ackward]

Sorry Mic. Here you can't give away a large bore fixed sight. Mention that you want to sell and you might as well have AIDS or something.

What's wrong with buying the 7.5"er and hacking off the barrel at the length where you want it. Much easier conversion and a cheaper option.

[McLintock]

It's very doable, there's been a number of Old Model Blackhawks done this way for various reasons; I've got a set of .44 Specials myself, that have been "vaqueroized", or "colterized" as others call it. The problem I can see with a stainless gun though, is that you have to do some welding on the backstrap where the adjustable sight was in order to fill it in. With a blue gun you just reblue it, but with a stainless, it'd be harder to make it look good.
McLintock

[nvbirdman]

In case anybody is wondering, I just did a currency conversion and AU$900 = US$692.

[KCSO]

Mick
It can be done and prior to the Vaquero it was a common conversion for the fast draw crowd. Les Bowman shot these in his fast draw exhibitions for years. You need to weld up the top strap and mill to dimension and then take off the front sight and braze in a sight. It helps if you have a frame fixture to prevent warping when welding. Other wise go slow and let it cool and use a wire welder to do the fill work. As I remember when they were doing these conversions it was running in the neighborhood of $400 bucks US a gun, but if you have a freindly smith and let him do it in his spare time it might not run that much. When you are done with the conversion just have them polish it and it will look nickle plated.

[McLintock]

For doing these two guns, after buying both, and having one already converted to .44 Special in the mid 70's, I paid $550 to do both backstraps and convert the other one to .44 Special. That was about 3 years ago. I gave $110 for one gun in 1974 and $270 for the other in 2003, and $189 for the first .44 conversion, so have a little over $1100 in them at this point.

They're one set of main CAS guns I have and I've just fitted Old Army steel grip frames to them. Hope to have the mainframes color case hardened some day, but that's pretty expensive.
McLintock

[carpetman]

My gunsmith has done this conversion many times.

[Four Fingers of Death]

Sorry Mic. Here you can't give away a large bore fixed sight. Mention that you want to sell and you might as well have AIDS or something.

What's wrong with buying the 7.5"er and hacking off the barrel at the length where you want it. Much easier conversion and a cheaper option.

The 7.5" is a Blackhawk.

I have a BH and a Old Vaq, I want one adjustable sighted gun and a pair of opensighted ones.

I never thougth it would be a small job, but I think the best thing at this stage is to keep looking. I might do a search on Aussie gunshops and start ringing around.

[gregg]

http://www.leverguns.com/articles/ta...everywhere.htm

http://www.leverguns.com/articles/taylor/357magnum.htm
ROLL DOWN THE LAST ONE TO FINE MORE ON THE 357
REMAKE
Good reading if nothing else

[Four Fingers of Death]

That's it I'll have to get the big bastard out (file, that is) Mick.

[ace1001]

I have thought it might be fun to smooth/style one down and leave the adjustable sights. Stainless would be easy, no reblue job. I believe there is no surface hardening. Even the case hardened is only "color case hardened". All for show, no hardening. Ace

[Four Fingers of Death]

I remember reading about old Colts having S&W sights fitted to them in the 60s and 70s, there wasn't the aftermarket stuff around then like there is now. Didn't look too bad. I quite like the adjustable sights, but shoot cowboy action.