I just got a 5.5 inch Ruger Vaquero (not new Vaquero), and I love it. At 25 yards standing shots I can break clay pigions every time with pretty quick follow up shots. With a rest it will group about 1.5 inches. The problem is that the shots are grouping about 2 inches left, and 3 inches high. As long as I aim for the bottom right corner of the pigion, it hits every time. I am not too worried about the up and down as that will change with different loads and distances, but I would like to be able to aim at the middle of the target. Otherwise at 50 yrds it will be 4 inches off and so on. Are there any cheap fixes, or does it need to go to the gun smith?

Minnie...

That's the thing about grooved sights. You're pretty much locked into "Kentucky windage". You did touch on a good point; use of different loads. You may be surprised to find that different loads may also change windage. Operative word here is "may". You would have to experiment.
Otherwise, pick one that both you and the Vaquero likes, and become familiar with the combo and how you need to hold at various short distances. Grooved sights are for short distance and instinctual shooting. What you see is what you get.

Renster

you can use "kentucky windage" or to correct for the left you would tweak the sight to the left. I do this with lead shim material and vice grips, the lead keeps from scarring the sight. for elevation if it were hitting low then you could file the sight but the only way to correct for hitting high would be to install a new front sight which if the one on there has been filed you could go with factory otherwise make your own, the sight is soldered into a groove in the barrel. Even if you take it to a smith you need to decide on a load first because the gun can only be set for one position and then you have to go back to "kentucky windage" for different loads. If you your hitting high first try a hotter load which if you don't handload you'll have to get some ammo from buffalo bore or cor bon or one of the others.

Don't go tweaking the front sight!

The easiest solution is to widen the rear notch with a file. We do this for Cowboy Shooting all the time and it is easy.

First have someone else shoot the revolver to make sure it's not the shooter. All my vaqueros have shot pretty much center, but I have widened them from .10 to .14" For precision work, I would stay under .12

If you want to move the point of impact to the right, widen the notch on the right side. Run a piece of tape along the notch as a guide. A small bastard file works really well & should only take a minute. Use a good vise with pads. If the gun is stainless, no finishing is necessary. If blued, just a drop of cold blue and you are set.

Vaqueros generally shoot low from the factory with anything but hot loads. My wimpy cowboy loads hit 7" low at 15 yards when benched, but hit pretty much POA when fired one handed.

A widened rear notch doesn't hurt resale value, a tweaked front sight does not.

I don't know, I can't even tell mine are tweaked and it takes me 5 or 10 minutes to change them when I need too if I need to put a brand new one in after I've filed or tweaked and I want to get rid of the gun. I remember reading an article from the 70's on regulating Colt SAA's with a hydraulic press.

Jared, great idea! So simple. I sold all my fixed sights because I change loads so often. The only suggestion I would have is to be sure you've done all your load development before adjusting the sight and then stay with it.

Thanks for sharing!

Bill in OR

Thanks for all the advice. I'll have to do some more load development and then decide what to do. I didn't realize windage could be affected by different loads. Mabey I will stumble across a load the gun likes the way it is.

Thanks

Chris

That's the best idea, before I converted my Vaquero to 454 it shot dead on with my standard HS6 load with a 250 soft lead bullet as it also was with an earlier Vaquero I had, but when I used some ammo given to me when I bought the Vaquero it was shooting almost 12" to left with the same weight lead bullet but a different brand. My thoughts are this and you take it for what it's worth. I have a case hardened frame on mine and I figure I can buy a 5.00 sight and replace it if I want to change loads or sell the gun but once I file the frame the case hardening is gone and the same with a blued gun plus if you go too far there is no going back. The other thing to consider is the wider the rear sight opening gets the harder to center the front sight and to this day I've never had anyone even notice a front sight tweaked a few thousandths of an inch and I've done a bunch. One of the ways they used to correct the old colts was to put them in a press and tweak the barrel itself right at the frame because again your talking about a few thousandths of an inch at most usually. Like I said take it for what it's worth but a 5.00 sight is easier and cheaper to fix or refinish than a cylinder frame anyday.

x2

Sometimes the barrels don't get indexed perfectly when they are screwed on. A little tweak goes a long way. I've seen several 'Hawks, GPs and SPs where the barrel was stopped just a hair short, or long, of 12 o'clock.

Thanks, I think I will try tweaking the front blade. It is shooting left with all loads so far. Another problem is that it is shooting high. The big boomers are 10 inches high at 50 yrds. When comparing with my brothers vaquero, my sight blade is shorter. So I think I will need a longer one. Can I switch them out myself, or do I need a gunsmith?

depends on your comfort level, basicly you need to put some heat to the sight to loosen the solder and pull it out and then silver solder it back in the channel. It would probably be just as cost efficient to have a smith do it if your not set up. I use a silver solder paste as it is easier to work with but you also need a jig of some type to hold it in place and keep downward pressure on it while the solder heats and sets.

Can I use a torch to heat it up, and a clamp with a grove cut in it to hold it down? The smith wants 80 bucks parts and labor! It doesn't have to look pretty, this gun is my work horse/carry gun/short range deer gun.

The smith thought the front blade on Vaqueros were "pinned in" rather than soldered. It was Gander Mtn., mabey he didn't know what he was talking about. It is the original Vaquero, not new.