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Marshall
Romans 1:16



Beartooth: A Bullet Worth Waiting For!

A great article and the gun came out beautiful. I've had two other problems with the Ruger SA. The cylinder pin pops out, even on the 22lr. I have also seen this happen on a brand new gun firing its first cylinderfull. I use the Belt Mountain pins but is there another way to fix this problem? Also what do you do to keep the screws from coming loose? I had the ejector rod housing fly off a couple of times and it ruined the part. That was with a 44 special load in a SBH. I had just tightned the screw as I usually do after 3 cylinderfulls. Why hasnt Roger ever addressed these problems? Red Locktite did not work.

Ironhead,

Indeed the cylinder base pin is an issue on these guns, and the Belt Mtn. pin is the best remedy to this situation. In fact the next segment of this article will deal with installing the Belt Mtn. pin as well as some other small customizing tricks that are low/no budget, only investing in a bit of time.

Regarding the screws on the Ruger revolvers, I'm surprised that the red Loctight didn't do the trick. On most of my revolvers I simply use clear fingernail polish on the screws before installing them and they never work loose any more, yet can be broken loose should disassembly become necessary.

God bless,

__________________
Marshall
Romans 1:16



Beartooth: A Bullet Worth Waiting For!

[quote=Marshall Stanton]Ironhead,

Indeed the cylinder base pin is an issue on these guns, and the Belt Mtn. pin is the best remedy to this situation. In fact the next segment of this article will deal with installing the Belt Mtn. pin as well as some other small customizing tricks that are low/no budget, only investing in a bit of time.

I had the same problem with basepin jumping out too. Simple, easy cure. Looked at my freedom arms 454 casull. Took basepin out and drilled and tapped a 6-48 hole and used a long filler plug with a .050 allen head. Snugged her up and used the mark set screw made on barrel and drilled a small dimple for set screw to rest in. Took about 45 minutes to do and had the filler screw so it was basically free. Nevr a problem again. God Bless Steve

Excellent article, Thank you for posting it. I wanted to tighten up my stainless Vaquero, bought a 44 mag cylinder from Gary Reeder that matched the overall lenght of mine. Fitted the cylinder gap to .002" and rechambered it for 45 Colt, all the cylinders for different calibers being the same diameter. I installed a super blackhawk trigger and tuned the action. It has a 5 1/2" barrel that will get shortened to 4 3/8" someday. I agree with your idea of a packing around gun.

Just need to make some decent looking stocks....

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MikeG

Marshall,
great article. Not that I need another one, but one of the local stores has a 5.5" stainless Bisley in .45 on sale for a bit under $400. The thing is always sitting there all lonely when I go in for bullets, looking rather unhappy, surrounded by all it's plastic counterparts.

I have a Bisley Vaquero in .44 Mag that I don't much at all care for, mainly as a result of the sights and crappy case finish. I was thinking of putting the Bisley grip frame on my 4 5/8" .41 Blackhawk and putting the Blackhawk parts on the Vaquero and off-loading it on my brother in law for a real good price. How much finishing is typically required to fit the grip frames? Do you think it's a good idea?

Keep up the great work with the articles, bullets, and this forum!

Mike,
got any of those in the Bisley shape that need testing?

Steven,

That's a great buy on one of the 5.5" Bisleys! No, I don't need anothe one either..... not now. But, I'd surely consider picking it up if you don't!

Heck, Idaho would welcome it as a new resident of this fine state, and it wouldn't have to be surrounded by synthetic gun counterfits!

Mike,

Yeah, I know that my little Bisley could use some new rouge and lipstick! I just don't have the time to crank out a set of grips.... Dang, I even have some cherry, maple, walnut and eipai tucked away for a rainy/snowy day.... perhaps someday when I'm not making you fine gentlemen bullets!

By-the-way, those are some handsome looking stocks you've built! Are those mesquite?

Thanks, and God bless,

__________________
Marshall
Romans 1:16



Beartooth: A Bullet Worth Waiting For!

I was looking at GunsAmerica last night, as well as the auction sights, and noticed that it's a good $100 under whats being asked, so I called in and put a deposit on it. Never hurts to have a little trading material either way. If they have more than one I'll pass on the information to you.

Mesquite, yeah.... and they're hard. Real hard. Lost track of the hours spent on those.... you could have cranked out a couple of tons of bullets in that time frame, easily!

Steven.... you are a generous man. Those are for a Vaquero; I do have a 5.5" stainless .45 Bisley... and let me tell you what.... you are in line for the SECOND set of mesquite Bisley stocks that I get around to making!

BTW I got my stainless (used) for $400 so if you can get a new one for that price... I'd sure jump on it. Throats will need to be opened up, but if that's the case, email me when you get it and I've got some information on that you'll definitely want to read, in addition to Marshall's fine work, of course.

Plan for the .44 Bisquero sounds good to me. You can always just trade parts temporarily and see how good it looks.

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MikeG

So Mike,
are ya done with that FIRST set of Bisley grips yet?

You need to think real hard about that Chinese Quince Burl I showed you.

I'm currently doing work with a customer that has furniture that appears to be made of the stuff...it's always nice to have $100,000,000 ,or so, in the bank. Perhaps I can talk her out of an end table....how many grips do you think that would make?

A bunch. Grab whatever scraps you can

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MikeG

Marshall, That is a great article indeed. I am thinking of picking up a Ruger to do this very project on.
I do have one question for you though, does the new front sight get caught up in the holster being such a square front edge on it? I had a S$W 3"629 that had a target front sight similar to that, It did not take long to change it out, this was a ccw, it hung up all the time on my holster.
Thanks for all the great reading!
John, A.K.A. Halfbreed

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overkill? how much more dead, is dead, than dead.

Marshall,

Thank you for a great article.

Where did you get the Ruger Stainless Bisley grip frame and trigger and hammer for your project?

God Bless,

Mark

I see it's late for comments, but I did notice in the box for +P load data that you say it is not for "New Model Vaqueros." There's no such thing. It's a "New Vaquero." Really, all Vaqueros, the original and the New Vaquero are "New Models" in that they have transfer bar safeties. Ruger really did us a disservice in stopping production of the original Vaquero and in also naming the smaller one a "New Vaquero."

EXCELLENT article, though. I thoroughly enjoyed the prose and the expertise. I intend to start taking some measurements of my Vaquero .45 and see what needs to be done! It's my favorite shooter, and probably my least expensive. It has protected me as a legal CCW piece in the city and has taken deer in Washington State with a one-shot stop at 105 yards with factory Winchester Silvertips. Honestly, I'm scared to touch it!

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Dieu n'est pas pour les gros bataillons, mais pour ceux qui tirent le mieux.