TWO NEW RUGER VAQUEROS TROUBLE WITH ONE- NEED HELP

Ten Wolves Fiveshooter · July 07, 2007, 09:29:50 PM

HEY PARDS I NEED YOUR HELP I JUST GOT TWO NEW VAQUEROS SS 45 CAL 5 1/2 " BARRELS, THESE GUNS ARE GREAT , ALTHOUGH I HAVEN'T SHOT THEM YET , I LIKE THE WAY THEY FEEL. THE PROBLEM IS I WAS DRY FIRING THE GUNS THIS MORNING WHEN I NOTICED ONE GUN WAS REALY GETTING EXTRA SMOOTH, I THEN NOTICED THAT THE CYLANDER WASN'T MOVING . SO I TOOK THE CYLANDER OUT TO SEE IF I COULD SEE ANY THING BUT EVERYTHING SEEMED TO BE OK SO I PUT IT BACK TOGETHER AND CHECKED TO MAKE SURE THE BASE PIN WAS WHERE IT WAS SUPOSED TO BE . I COCKED IT , AND IT CYCLED THREE OR FOUR TIMES AND THEN WOULD NOT TURN, BUT IT WOULD STILL COCK WITH NO PROBLEM. WHEN I GOT THESE GUNS THE ONE I'M HAVING TROUBLE WITH ,THE HAMMER WOULD NOT REST FULLY DOWN IN THE FRAME, IT STAYED ABOUT 1/6" AWAY FROM THE FRAME,NOW IT GOES ALL THE WAY DOWN LIKE ITS SUPPOSE TO . I'VE BEEN SHOOTING SINGLE ACTION FOR OVER 40 YEARS AND NEVER HAD ANYTHING LIKE THIS HAPPEN , I GUESS I'VE BEEN LUCKY , RUGERS ARE HARD WORKING GUN AND I'M SURE THERE IS A SIMPLE ANSWER FOR THIS . I HAVEN'T TAKEN THE GUN APART , BEING A NEW GUN I'M NOT SURE WHETHER RUGER WILL WANT ME TO SEND IT BACK OR NOT. AND I REALY DON'T TO HAVE TO DO THAT IF I DON'T HAVE TO. IF ANYBODY KNOWS WHAT THE PROBLEM IS I SURE WOULD APPRECIATE A REPLY.
THANKS FOR LISTENING

Pettifogger · July 07, 2007, 10:00:46 PM

It these are new guns take the one back and see if they will exchange it or send it to Ruger. They will fix it. If the cylinder is not turning it means the hand is not pushing the cylinder. (Has nothing to do with the base pin.) Since the hammer was hard to drop initially, sounds like the hand spring was out of place when they screwed the grip frame on or they forgot to put in the plunger. If you are handy and don't mind messing with a new gun it is fairly easy to remove the gripframe and check the hand spring and plunger. There should be an exploded view in your manual. Try pointing the gun at the floor and cocking it. If the cylinder turns, then you know the spring and/or plunger are missing or mangled.

P.S. It's hard to read when you put everything is capital letters. Take your cap lock off.

Ten Wolves Fiveshooter · July 07, 2007, 11:06:28 PM

Sorry about the caps... And thanks for the advice i'll give that a shot in the morning , if that is the case Ruger should be able to send me the parts alot faster than me sending the gun back to them .
I realy appreciate this thanks again

Pettifogger · July 07, 2007, 11:37:52 PM

Sometimes Ruger won't send anything because they want to make sure everything is installed correctly because of liability reasons. If it is the hand spring and plunger you can buy them both from Brownells for a whopping $1.80. (Postage will cost more than the part.) It's part number 780-012-104 or 780-012-105 for stainless.

Ten Wolves Fiveshooter · July 08, 2007, 01:10:35 AM

Thanks Pettifogger
I appreciate your time and thought on this , i'm going to call Ruger on monday , i think they should know what has happened. But like you said calling Brownells is the way to go .

thanks for help

Ten Wolves Five Shooter

Ten Wolves Fiveshooter · July 08, 2007, 07:41:35 PM

Hi Pettifogger
I tried what you told me to do , with pointing the gun straight down at the floor, and you were right the cylander cycled everytime , lift the gun up , point at the ceilling and the cylander would not turn , but you could cock the gun smooth as butter. thanks for the advice , and the part # i'm going to call Brownells Monday the 9 th I'll save calling Ruger if this dosn't work . but I have no fear ,I think you called this one right on the money . You made a Frien

Ten Wolves Five Shooter

Ten Wolves Fiveshooter · July 14, 2007, 09:29:23 PM

Hey Pettifogger, you were right, I ordered the part from Brownells Mon the 9 th and they delivered it on the 13 th. I took the gun apart today and found that pawl spring had come off the plunger , and the plunger was stuck in the frame. I took one of my wifes sewing needles and worked it loose, put a new spring and plunger in , and put rhe gun back together and WA-LA, the action workes great . The hammer still stays back from yhe frame by about 1/6 th of an inch when the hammer is down, but everything seems right on . So for know I think i'm going to be just fine.

Again Thanks For The Advice

Ten Wolves Five Shooter

Pettifogger · July 15, 2007, 11:07:51 PM

Just got back from a shoot up in Payson, Arizona. Is this a "New Vaquero?" In other words one of the new smaller frame models? If so and the hammer stays back there could be a couple of reasons. First, did you put in a weaker mainspring? The New Vaquero has a free spin pawl. A lot of people will argue that it doesn't because the cylinder won't spin in reverse. It's designed not to spin in reverse. There is a small pin in the frame that catches on the racket teeth. The pawl, however, is a free spin pawl and between it and the pin this is what allows the chambers to line up with the loading gate on the new Vaquero. The pawl has a little leg that sticks down just a few thousands of an inch into the top of the trigger guard. When the hammer goes all the way forward the little leg catches on a tiny recess in the trigger guard and tilts the pawl back disengaging it from the ratchet teeth. This is what allows it to freespin. If you put a lighter hammer spring in the gun sometimes the hammer doesn't have enough pressure at rest to fully depress the pawl and the hammer will stay back a little. If the spring is the stock spring, the pawl may not be adjusted quite right. However, if everything thing seems to work OK, it won't hurt anything if the hammer is back just a tad when it is at rest.

Sixshooter_45 · July 16, 2007, 08:48:21 PM

Quote from: Pettifogger on July 15, 2007, 11:07:51 PM
Just got back from a shoot up in Payson, Arizona. Is this a "New Vaquero?" In other words one of the new smaller frame models? If so and the hammer stays back there could be a couple of reasons. First, did you put in a weaker mainspring? The New Vaquero has a free spin pawl. A lot of people will argue that it doesn't because the cylinder won't spin in reverse. It's designed not to spin in reverse. There is a small pin in the frame that catches on the racket teeth. The pawl, however, is a free spin pawl and between it and the pin this is what allows the chambers to line up with the loading gate on the new Vaquero. The pawl has a little leg that sticks down just a few thousands of an inch into the top of the trigger guard. When the hammer goes all the way forward the little leg catches on a tiny recess in the trigger guard and tilts the pawl back disengaging it from the ratchet teeth. This is what allows it to freespin. If you put a lighter hammer spring in the gun sometimes the hammer doesn't have enough pressure at rest to fully depress the pawl and the hammer will stay back a little. If the spring is the stock spring, the pawl may not be adjusted quite right. However, if everything thing seems to work OK, it won't hurt anything if the hammer is back just a tad when it is at rest.

A free spin pawl will allow the cylinder to spin in either direction, (the pawl is chamferred at top to allow this, which is termed a "Free Spin Pawl"), Ruger's New Vaquero has the Ejector Alignment Pawl also noted here .

Ten Wolves Fiveshooter · July 16, 2007, 11:11:55 PM

Hi Pettifogger thanks for getting back, hope you did well in Arazonia, anyway as I wrote I got the gun working real nice , when I got the pawl spring and plunger from Brownells I also got wolff springs , the kit ,so I replaced all of them I didn't get the weakest ones , I used to do that when I shot quick draw years ago, and got tired of missfires. I'm not sure what the gun came with for a hammer spring , but replaced it with 19# spring, and a lighter triger spring , also a heaver base pine latch spring. I did this with both guns , and lubed them with gun butter , and I have to say they are smooooth as butter. but the one gun the hammer still stays back , like you said a tad . but then again it was like that when I bought the guns. I ordered two standard Belt Mountain base pines just to have on hand. All I need to do know is to get out and SHOOT. I checked the free spin pawl and it seems to be working fine , you asked what type Vaqueros these were , there the New Model Vaquero, ss 5 1/2" barrels in 45 cal .
Thanks again Pard i'll let you how they do on the range

Ten Wolves Five Shooter

Ten Wolves Fiveshooter · July 16, 2007, 11:29:38 PM

Hi Sixshooter 45
Thanks for the web sites on free spin pawl , I checked them out, lots of information there, I put the sites on my favorites thats one of the things I liked when they came out with the New Vaqureo, i'm used to shooting colt single actions ,and this New Vaquero is close . it just feels and handles like a colt , it dosn't cock like a colt , but i think i'll get used to it, they really are NICE GUNS
Anyway Thanks For Your Input and Help

Ten Wolves Five Shooter

Pettifogger · July 17, 2007, 12:12:16 AM

Quote from: Sixshooter_45 on July 16, 2007, 08:48:21 PM
A free spin pawl will allow the cylinder to spin in either direction, (the pawl is chamferred at top to allow this, which is termed a "Free Spin Pawl"), Ruger's New Vaquero has the Ejector Alignment Pawl also noted here .

Like I said, a lot of people will argue about the "free spin" pawl. Ruger calls it the ejector alignment pawl because that is what it does because of the alignment pin in the ratchet window. The pawl itself, however, is identical to the commercial free spin pawls sold by another maker. All you have to do if you want the cylinder to spin backwards is remove the alignment pin.

Ten Wolves Fiveshooter · July 17, 2007, 01:33:38 PM

Thats good to know Pettifogger, I guess they all use ideas, and or barrow ideas from other firearms co. I like the way the new Ruger Vaquero indexes, I never did care for the way the old model would spin in either direction. But thats just me I know there om Vaquero shooters out there that like it that way. I've shot colt and there clones so long that I'm just more comfortable haveing the cylander index right on for loading and unloading. But for others reading this , its good to know you can reduce or remove that pin to make it free wheel
Thanks for sharing your knowledge with me and others who might read this also, you've been a big help
Your Pard... Ten Wolves Five Shooter