I have a Bisley in .44 mag I've been working on.  
I did the following to customize it;

-Free-wheeled the cylinder with a Power Custom pawl
-Installed  a Bowen rear sight
-Installed a Belt Mountain base pin
-changed out the blued pivot pins, grip frame screws, ejector rod, and ejector rod housing screws for stainless steel ones and polished them with my Dremel tool(this looks better than I thought it would)

Now I'm thinking about sending it to Dave Clements and having the barrel cut down to 5.5".  

Getting over the file jitters was the hard part, but it turned out really nice even if I do say so myself.

Of course the really nice thing is that I found out it likes the "standard" load of a 240 grain XTP ahead of 24.0 grains of WW296.  I shot a 1" five shot group offhand at 25 yards.  

This has been a fun project and now I just have to wait for hunting season to try it out on deer.

Hitman, lots of fun ain't it? You probably saw the update on my Bisley, it's coming along great. How dificult was it installing the freewheeling pawl? Have you changed the springs yet? The Belt Mountain base pin makes a difference in lock up does'nt it? Well have fun and keep posting your changes.
Phil Uruburu

Phil,

The pawl wasn't too bad.  Just measure the original to get the length correct and then you have to cut a little bit of an angle so the pawl doesn't bind on the ratchet.  I did that by holding the pawl up to the ratchet to see how they would fit together.  A gunsmith friend of mine gave me some advice and coaching for this also that helped.

I haven't put in a spring kit, because I have the action pretty good by dropping off one of the legs.  So I'll run like this for the time being.

The new base pin does make a tremendous difference, as does the Bowen rear sight.

Yes, it has been quite fun!  You keep us posted on yours as well.

All the best,

Rob

I did some tuning on the used Vaquero, I just bought.
I got the most benifit from polishing the transfer bar's forward face. It rubs on the little spring loaded tip of the base pin, and the original has tool marks. I polished it on a 1000 grit waterstone,  I did a little stoning on the back side to, where it runs in the slot in the frame.
It looks like the fit is pretty sloppy, and am considering shimming it.  Since I polished it, it feels much better than my new Vaquero.
Dan