I've had a couple of SAA clones and one Vaq to shoot as you described. I took some height off the front sight to correct. Just remember that POI will change slightly with different bullet weights and velocity so you may want to settle on a favorite load and adjust accordingly, OR just compensate with your sight picture. Try a heavier bullet to raise POI(a result of increased recoil and barrel time) If you remove too much sight blade you're screwed.

 

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Yep - Settle on a loading, before messing with the sight/zero.

No matter what load, or laser, a factory uses to set the sights, the chances of a buyer duplicating the factory zero are very slim, indeed.



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I have had this gun a while and have settled on a load. Just have not had a chance to work with it very much. I expected to have to do some sight adjustment, just not quite as much as is indicated. I am going to run a lot more rounds of my load through it before I do any sight filing. Tighten up my groups a little more with some practice and play with the sight picture.

Thanks for the info.

 

It should be regulated for a 255 grain SWC at around 900 to 950 fps, at least mine was.

 

I shot one that belongs to someone else a while back that was brand new right out of the box and it was also shooting point of aim with 250 - 255 gr cast bullets at 950 fps. Don't own one yet myself and do need to fix that situation.

 

My load is a 250 grain cast at 975 fps. I have a good number of the 250 grain bullets as I shoot that bullet in my Uberti made clone. I would like to stay with that load as it groups well in the Vaquero. My Vaquero load is that bullet over 9 grains of Unique. I can go another half grain and get a tad over 1000 fps. That load shoots well, too, but is a maximum load. I may try a few of the 9.5 grain rounds and see were it hits the target. But, if I remember correctly from when I was working up these loads, that the point of impact was essentially the same as with the 9 grain load. Otherwise, I would have probably used the 9.5 load. But, I was shooting mostly at 15 yards then, so it may make a difference at 25 yards. I will load a few up and see where they go.

As before, I did expect to have some vertical adjustment, just not 10 inches.

Edit: I called Ruger to see what they would recommend. The technician said that they use the tall front sight by design and an vertical adjustment is typically necessary. He said they would work on it, but I would be better off doing it myself using my preferred load. So, that is what I will do. Just going to shoot a lot of rounds through it before I take up the file.

Thanks all, for the responses.

 

Learn about Six O'Clock holds.

If you start off with the minimum published loads, and then work upwards, your P.O.I.'s should start coming down, not up. If you're hitting low, either you're using the wrong weights of bullets, or you're shooting them too fast.

E-mail Ruger and ask them at what range, and for which weight of bullets they regulated this Vaquero for? Its both the weight of the bullets and their time inside the barrel, which causes "muzzle whip". So there must be a really light weight bullet which will always hit low, with any minimum safe loads. From using my old Ruger Blackhawks, as I put a Red Dot on my newest one, I believe that Ruger regulated your revolver's sight for a lot longer range than 15 or 25 yards.

The last time I got to shoot my late brother's 45 Colt New Model Blackhawk at 100 yards, we were loading Trail Boss under 200 gr. Ogee nosed bullets. They seemed to hit a foot low out at 100 yards. And my brother was moaning that they were dropping too much for him. But I had started out the Trail Boss at less than full charges. I was merely trying to introduce him to that case filling sneeze powder.

I was trying to bridge the hot burning pistol powders like Unique, with the dirty ones, such as 2400. Trail Boss, and a light for caliber bullet, (200grs.), seemed to me to be a good alternative. On his big 7.5 inch bbl'd, New Model Blackhawk we had the luxury of adjusting the sights, which you won't have on the Vaquero.

Previously, we used these same Hornady Ogee nosed bullets with hotter loads, (above CAS legal limits), and he was happier with them. But I was sweating him getting a double charge into one of his reloads. But apparently, this was falling on deaf ears.

With any fixed sight six shooter, you can always hold the front sight higher in a six O' Clock hold, to keep your target in sight, pardon the pun. If you grind it down, though, you are going to be like Hiawatha, shooting projectiles into the air, and not knowing where.

Shooting 38 Special Super Police, 200 gr. ammunition, out of a standard, fixed sighted S&W Model 10 with a four inch bbl. will provide a good example of this. Incidently, my old Model 10 S&W was a heavy barrel twin of my Model 58, 41 Magnum. Both of these had non snagging front sights, which were a lot skimpier than your Vaquero's front sight is. So I gravitated to shooting the heaviest available bullets in both of them. This way, the muzzle whip worked for me, instead of against me.

Live and learn!

 

1Calicocat,

I like Rugers and have a few Model 77 rifles, a .44 magnum Super Blackhawk and a .41 Magnum Blackhawk. I looked at the Vaquero and PASSED ON it because at that price, a few more dollars would have added an adjustable rear sight and you could then easily correct you 10-inch divergence betwixt point of aim and point of impact. I do own a few fixed-sighted handguns, and happily they shoot to point of aim. Those that did not got traded for guns with sights that hit where they look.

Webley

 

You could use a heavier bullet or slow down the one you are shooting yo raise point of impact or use more front sight above the rear groove

 

If a 250 grain bullet at 975 fps is too fast or the wrong weight in a 45 Colt then something is very wrong. After my discussion with the Ruger technician I got the impression that they did not actually regulate that gun for any particular load. The front sight gets you in the ball park and you go from there. Maybe I am wrong, but that is what I got out of the conversation.

I have several Blackhawks with adjustable sights. But, I like the feel and handling of the Vaquero. Similar to my 44 Mag flattop which, I believe, shares the same grip. I am perfectly willing to jump through a few hoops to get this thing where I want it. I have a couple of loads I am willing to work with. If I cannot get it shooting those I will get rid of it.

Thanks again for all the input.

 

My point was and is verticle POI can be changed by bullet weight and or speed without removing any sight material. Slowing the velocity will make the bullet point of impact raise. A heavier bullet at the same velocity will raise point of impact.

Simply giving you another option to explore.

If you like the Varcarro you can always file the front sight down to zero vertically with your present load if you do not wish to change bullets and or loads.

 

My full-sized Vaquero in .45 Colt with a 5.5" barrel hits to the sights almost perfectly with a load like you describe. Maybe luck? I don't know. It isn't very far off the mark with 300gr. bullets either, at full-throttle loads. I could measure the front sight height for you, but I don't know if that would be useful information for you (sounds like you have one of the new small frame guns).

 

At S&W's Armorer's School they showed us how to "adjust" point of aim/point of impact on fixed-sighted guns. It is not pretty and never was a permanent fix. I built 5 M65 3-inch barrel .357 DA revolvers and bought one. It did not shoot to the sights. After the slamming on a block of lead, it shot to the sights for 300 or 400 rounds until it needed "whacking", again. I would get adjustable sights whenever possible.

Webley

 

I have an Old Model Vaquero convertible in 45colt/45acp.

When I shot it, it shot both cylinders to the same height and groups size, but the 45 ACP shot 6" to the left of the 45colt cylinder. I sent the gun back to Ruger and explained the problem. 3 weeks later, I had the gun back and now both cylinders hit to the same POI.

My advice would be to send it to Ruger and have them fix it. I have no doubt they will get the gun shooting centered groups.

 

Well, thanks all for the helpful comments. I have discovered something. I was not using the entire rear sight. This may sound strange, but here goes. The notch for the rear sight is essentially an arch on the frame with the top of the arch removed to make the notch. If the frame were square there would be more metal at the top of the groove. Since it is an arch the top of the groove has much less metal there as it comes to somewhat of a point. When sighting the gun, I was not seeing the top of the sighting notch were the metal looks thin, almost like a point, and was placing the front sight too far down into the notch. I am not sure if this is what is called an optical illusion or what. But the bottom line is that I could not see the top of the sighting notch. Once I figured out where it was I had no trouble finding it afterwards. Apparently, something to do with the way I was focusing my eyes.

I discovered this while alternately shooting my Vaquero and my Uberti made clone. The sighting notch on the clone is tiny and for some reason I never had that problem with it. But, alternately shooting one and then the other lead me to that discovery. Now that I am aware of it, I see it fine. I was also having some vertical stringing with the Vaquero. Now that problem is solved as I now have a reference point when I pick up the front sight to place it into the notch. That reference point being the top of the rear sighting notch.

It took me a good hundred rounds to figure that out yesterday afternoon. Once I got the hang of it i was hitting small chunks floating down the river behind the house at 50 yards or so. The gun is apparently regulated very well for my preferred load. Thanks again for all the help.

Edit: I think the progressive lens in my glasses had something to do with my problem. My eye are 68 years old, but almost perfect past 5 feet or so. A tilt of the head can really change the focus on something as close as a rear gun sight.

 

jwp475, please see PM coming your way.

 

German P-38's sights

1Calicocat, don't feel bad. I had this kind of a problem with a German P-38. I had 20-10 vision when I was young, but I had to hold the Walther out in front of me, instead of out to the side, to get the miserable thing to shoot where I was pointing the sights. There weren't any glasses involved back then.

After dealing with an old decrepit Colt 1877 with its front sight filed down, by a previous Pard, I'm glad you figured this out before you took a file to your sight blade.

You might look at buying some of the little discs which you glue to your shooting glasses, to force your master eye to look through the pin hole, at your pistol's sights. This is one way to tame "keyhole" bi-focal glasses.

My custom shooting glasses are the same prescription as my bi-focals, but without their close up lens segments. I gave up on the blended in Key Holes, after I retired.

 

Carpooler, my optometrist said he could make me some shooting glasses. Not sure how that would work. The only correction I need is up close. Actually, I have found with rifles with peep sights and my revolvers with adjustable sights I shoot just as well without my glasses as I do with them.

All I really need now is to run a few hundred more rounds through this thing.

I have a Taurus snub nose in 45 Colt that was shooting really high with fixed sights. I sent it back to Taurus and they helped it a lot. What little extra height is there now I can probably compensate for by changing the load. I have no idea how they changed the point of aim when it was shooting high, but they made a significant difference.

 

No more double indexing

1Calicocat, for one thing, prescription shooting glasses eliminates any double indexing. Rock your head up and down, while you're driving, and looking down at your gauges. When those L.E.D.icons appear twice, that's double indexing. Those little discs help most folks see their sights better. But they won't improve on your prescription glasses. This may be more noticeable for people like me with the two simple bi-focal lens, glued into the bottoms of our prescription lenses.

 

The sights are intentionally left high so you can file them down to zero for your load/hold. If your Vaquero (or New Vaquero) shoots to point of aim, it is purely coincidence.