Vaquero accuracy problems.

[Dusty Miller]

I'm shooting cast bullets in my 3 3/4" Birdshead Vaquero and it shoots about 4" low at 25 yards and the group is nothing to write home to mother about.  This is the case from the bench and with a standing two handed grip.  I'm considering two options.  One is to lighten up on the powder and the second is to get a box of factory ammo and see how that works with an eye to going with jacket bullets if the factory ammo shoots better.  The 250 gr. bullets group better than the 185 gr.  so I'm stick'n with the heavier bullets over some AA9 dust.  Right now I'm using 10.2 gr. but a load of 9.8 or even 9.5  should leave the bullet in the barrel longer and hopefully bring the POI closer to the POA.  Am I on the right track here or am I missing something?

[Camel 23]

heavier bullets moving slower should bring the poi up

[Lloyd Smale]

im going to let you in on a little secret that worked for me and one other guy with birdshead grips. try a little lighter hold on the gun and allow it to recoil naturaly. I found that when i did that with my birdshead guns accuracy shrunk in half. I know it doesnt make much sense but it did work for me.

[jhrosier]

Leme guess.... :roll:
Gun shoots low and big group = High velocity loads with lead bullets.
High velocity loads always shoot lower, in a handgun, lower velocity loads will shoot higher..
The Lead bullets are probably being swaged to size smaller than barrel by undersized cylinder throats, causing poor accuracy( and probably barrel leading.)
The solution is to use jacketed bullets or have the throats opened up by a gunsmith. I doubt that the factory will be much help with this.
This is a well known problem with the Ruger .45 revolvers.
Try www.cylindersmith.com for throat work. I have not used this outfit yet, but they are highly reccomended in several forums.

[Dusty Miller]

Cylinder Smith already did the throating job.

[oso45-70]

Dusty

If you will go to a heavier bullet with about the same loading you will get a higher POI. You don't need to change your loads. After you try this you might want to up the velocity or lower it. In my Vaqueros i shoot 300 gr bullets just for this reason ..........Joe...........

[DakotaElkSlayer]

Joe,
What muzzle velocity you shooting those 300gr. at?  Did you still have to file the front sight?

Jim

[oso45-70]

Joe,
What muzzle velocity you shooting those 300gr. at?  Did you still have to file the front sight?

Jim

Jim

I don't have a chrony any more so don't know what i am getting for velocity, I pick a load from the books and averaging the load data and go from there. You don't want to file your front sight, That will make you shoot Higher. If any thing you would want to add to the front sight, I would just try a heavier bullet to elavate the point of impact. You can also control your point of impact by varying your powder weight. Good luck ........Joe.........

[bubba15301]

try a different load -try unique or universal clays . start at 8.0 grains

[Glanceblamm]

The 250 gr. bullets group better than the 185 gr. so I'm stick'n with the heavier bullets over some AA9 dust. Right now I'm using 10.2 gr. but a load of 9.8 or even 9.5 should leave the bullet in the barrel longer

Hi Dusty
I checked all of my data (which could be lacking) and the lightest bullet I could find for that .45 where AA9 was listed was 300gr and called for a mag primer.
As long as you still have some of that (dust) left over, It may be worth following oso45-70's good advice and giving those heavy ones a try.



I recieved a new Birds head just last month. The very first shells that I shot through it were with Unique & 250gr XTP loaded to near 1,100. They shot so well that I only fired a couple @ 25yds then quickly moved to 35 & 45yds.
Have also shot some 250gr cast RNFP @ around 900fps. They shot well as I had expected.
Lloyd May Be On To Something Here as I hold the gun fairly lightly & let it recoil naturally.