I recently purchased some cast .452 semi wad cutters for shooting in the 45 Kimber and two 45 LC Vaquero pistols. In talking with the manufacturer of the cast bullets, he asked what the inside diameters were for the Long Colt guns....the reason being that when the Ruger Vaqueros were first produced the cylinders were in the neighborhood of .451-.452" at the exit point of the cylinders...nice and tight. In recent years the exit points of the cylinders were more in the neighborhood of .454-.455" in diameter making the accuracy for the Vaquero off somewhat. He suggested taking one of the cast bullets and pushing it into the rear of the cylinder and at the exit point seeing if there was a lot of slop. If there was, he suggested going to a 454 cast bullet instead of the .451-2 ones. I measured mine in both guns with a digital caliper and sure enough...they read anywhere from .4540-.4548. Now...what to do? Would Ruger replace the cylinders with ones that were in the .451-.452 range? Does it make that much of a difference? Anybody ever run across this before?? If the cast bullets are tight in the barrel, is this difference in the cylinders that critical?

That's pretty amazing.

My 1976 'Liberty' .45 Colt has chamber mouths at 0.456." My Bisley, purchased in the early 1990s, went about 0.449," or perhaps a shade below that.

Two more (one Vaquero and one stainless Bisley) that I've examined recently were right at 0.450" or thereabouts. There is quite a cottage industry that has come about with people reaming the throats out to 0.4525" - 0.453" or so (which is what I did).

Anyway.... looks like Ruger *finally* bought some new reamers, and in 10 or 15 years will be back to the tight throats, LOL. My theory is they just keep sharpening the reamers till they can be used in the next smaller caliber....

I'm sure they got tired of people calling and complaining, hence the swing to the larger throats again.

My Liberty gun, by the way, is surprisingly accurate with 0.452" hard cast / gas checked or 0.451" jacketed.

I'd suggest trying the 0.454" bullets first. With hard cast/gash checked, it seems you can be a bit smaller without too many problems. If you are running light loads with plain cast bullets, normally you'll get a fair amount of leading if the throats are too big.

Just something you'll have to experiment with. You might as well shoot it a little first, it may surprise you. Seriously doubt that Ruger will do anything about it..... doesn't hurt to call, though.

By the way, it will probably be more accurate to slug the throats, then use a micrometer, rather than a digital caliper.

Mine must be one of the "tight" ones. .451 bullets will pass through the chamber throats, but .452 bullets won't.

It also has very tight chambers compared to some Rugers I've seen.

Accuracy in mine is decent, but not really as good as I'd like. I might end up reaming the throats, but not really sure what's involved with that.

Drifter

That's actually not bad at all, Drifter - pretty good compared to most. Unless it leads badly, not sure I'd mess with the throats.

You're likely right, Mike. There's virtually no leading with the right bullets and load, so maybe I SHOULD leave it alone.

It'll shoot 2 1/2-3 inch groups at 25 yards easily enough when I do my part, and with my eyes not able to focus perfectly on the sights any more I'm not sure I can do any better.

Heck, how good does it need to be to shoot a bear out of a tree or to hit a javalina or deer out to 30 yards? ;)

Still, those one ragged hole groups are sure purdy to look at! :D

It must be a man's nature to constantly try to make something better, and I oft-times find that all I do is foul up a good thing. I'm going to leave this one as is, 'cause I think I've already fixed all that needs fixed on it.

Drifter