Anyone shoot a vaquero in 45acp

[Irish Pat]

I have never had one and am wondering if I want one.  

[Texas Lizard]

Still trying understand why anyone would to...My thought, is they are two different animals....Two different uses...But that is me....

 

Texas Lizard

[Tom Bullweed]

Had a couple of DA revolvers in .45. ACP and shoot .45CS in OMVs and Uberti 1860 Henry.  45CS is seated and crimped in ACP dies.

Only issue for me is getting enough crimp to keep the bullet in the case while under recoil.  ACP dies add a taper, not a roll, crimp.  Too lazy to buy a factory roll crimp die for the cowboy specials.

 

[Dusty Boots]

I have a Blackhawk Convertibe in 45LC and 45 apc. The 45 apc is fun to plink with and much cheaper to shoot. It is not used  for SASS meets.

[Abilene, SASS # 27489]

Pat, I had a convertible Vaquero about 20 years ago.  I used to load BP in the ACP rounds for fun.  I did have to pay attention to brass length in mine, since it headspaces on the case mouth.  I discovered that if the brass was over a certain length, the headspace was too tight to turn.  Once I figured that out, I sorted my brass with calipers before loading for that gun.  Unfortunately I do not recall what that magic max length was, but I had to reject about 10% of my brass as being too long for the headspace.  I have not heard of anyone else having this issue, but if you get one it wouldn't hurt to try chambering your brass to check this out before reloading it.

[Three Foot Johnson]

I bought a pair last year (.45 acp only, not convertibles), mainly because they were ridiculously cheap - new-in-box with consecutive numbers, $805. The stags were extra from Lone Star Custom Grips. If you want to shoot Classic Cowboy, I assume C45S ammo will work too. So far, I like 'em just fine. 

[Colorado Coffinmaker]

 

If your going to shoot .45 anything in a Ruger anything .... FIRST step is to fix the cylinder throats.  Almost guaranteed to be extremely undersize for the bore.  Fixing the cylinder throats will also reduce felt recoil (compared to OEM).

 

I also shot ACP cylinders in several .45s and found them to be wonderful with both ACP Brass and C45S Brass.  Absolutely wizard  

[Randy Saint Eagle, SASS # 64903]

My first Cowboy guns were a pair of Convertible Vaqueros. I think I shot one match with the .45 acp cylinders in them but had a few FTF's because I ended up with them crimped in the crimp groove and even though it was a taper crimp they crimped a little too tight (operator error). Some were going into the chamber a little too far to get a good primer strike.  Haven't tried them since, then changed to .38's several years ago so now they just sit in the safe.

 

Thanks

Randy

[Philosopher]

I have 3 New Vaqueros that are chambered in .45 ACP.  One of the Vaqueros has a second .45 Colt cylinder. The other two are TALO models with birdshead grips, they are .45 ACP only.

 

.45 ACP brass and ammo are relatively cheap, and do not have that bothersome, "excess" volume that the .45 Colt case has when reloading reduced power cartridges . It's sort of a .45 Cowboy Special without any fuss.

 

You DO have to pay attention to ammo dimensions however. I'm just getting started in SASS and I've run into dimensional issues both times I've been in a match. A Lee factory crimp die seems like it's going to solve these issues for me.

 

All in all, I'm a fan.

 

 

[Three Foot Johnson]

On 3/26/2020 at 11:12 AM, Colorado Coffinmaker said:

 

If your going to shoot .45 anything in a Ruger anything .... FIRST step is to fix the cylinder throats.  Almost guaranteed to be extremely undersize for the bore.  Fixing the cylinder throats will also reduce felt recoil (compared to OEM).

 

I also shot ACP cylinders in several .45s and found them to be wonderful with both ACP Brass and C45S Brass.  Absolutely wizard  

I've been meaning to do this for awhile. I pulled the cylinders on three original model stainless .45 Colt Vaqueros, three blued New Model .45 Colt Vaqueros, and two New Model .45 acp Vaqueros with the same result on all eight. The three original model revolvers were purchased used from three different sources, so I can't speak with any certainty about the cylinder throats being opened up or not. The other five were purchased new, and have had no work done. The bullets were double checked with digital calipers and a micrometer at exactly .451". The acp style SWC's are plated, not jacketed, so they may be a tiny bit off, but not that the micrometer could discern.

 

My .44-40 Vaqueros (8) were a bit undersize, but I don't remember what they measure... .427"? Anyway, I've never rented a reamer to fix 'em. Now, my three .38-40/.40 S&W convertible Vaqueros had very undersize throats on the .38-40 cylinders at about .395", so I did rent a reamer and fix those, but the .40 S&W cylinders are fine, go figure.
 

 

[High Spade Mikey Wilson]

I have a pair of Uberti Cattleman 1873's in 45 Colt that I also purchased 45 ACP conversion cylinders for. I can shoot either 45 Colt, 45 Schofield, or 45 ACP out of them. I mainly shoot 45 Schofield in them, but I have shot a match already with 45 ACP. You just need to double check your 45 ACP reloads in the cylinder for proper fit if you are going to shoot a match. That extra task alone makes using 45 ACP better for just plinking than for a match in my opinion.