All right, before any of you have a chance to tell me so, let me admit I am a nut and an idiot.
These facts are amply demonstrated by the fact that even though I have never shot CAS and may never do so, I've managed to accumulate the complete set of CAS guns. In particular, gentle readers, I now have two .45 Colt single actions. And they don't match.
They are a stainless Taurus Gaucho, 5.5 inch barrel .45 Colt, and a blued and casehardened Ruger New Vaquero, same barrel and caliber.
The short version is that I like them both. If I do ever shoot CAS I might shoot the "white" gun in the right hand and the "black" one in the left-- heh. Why not make up a character based on that idea? Earl Gray, Britisher in Exile for Reasons Unsaid, a split personality, sometimes hero, sometimes villain..
Ahem. Sorry. I'm having too much fun here. To the point, then. I did have a point somewhere.. where did I put that point? Ah, here it is.
First impressions, comparing the two:
Fit and finish: Equal. The Gaucho is flawless polished stainless. The Ruger is a deep, shiny blue black, with good imitation case hardening on the frame. Being stainless, I expect the Gaucho's finish is much tougher, but the way I use them the Ruger should hold up just as well in practice.
Balance: Advantage Gaucho. It feels lighter than the Ruger, which makes it balance better for me.
Sights: Advantage Gaucho, barely. Both have wide front blades and square notch rear sights, but the Gaucho notch is a bit wider and deeper, making it easier to pick up.
Grip appearance: Advantage Vaquero. Both have checkered black plastic grips, a decent imitation of the checkered hard rubber on my great-grandpa's Smith and Wesson and other revolvers of the period. On the Ruger, though, the checkering covers almost the entire grip, and the Ruger eagle emblem is understated, matte finished. The Gaucho has larger areas of smooth plastic and a larger, smooth bull-head-in-bullseye emblem. It's a modern, 1950s-1960s looking design, and the brightly finished areas of the grips can't look like anything but plastic.
Grip geometry: Advantage Vaquero. Both revolvers are supposed to have grips to match the original Single Action Army. However, the forward strap of the Ruger's grip is nearly vertical at its bottom end. The forward strap of the Gaucho grip curves more so that by the time you reach the bottom it is angled forward. The bevel cut at the base of the Gaucho grip also seems wider and sharper-edged. The result is that while with my large hands both of these guns require me to run my little finger and the edge of my palm along the "sharp" edge of the bottom of the grip (or wrap little finger beneath the grip), the Gaucho is sharp enough that the edge feels uncomfortable. The Ruger is not.
Trigger: Equal, with a caveat. Both revolvers have light triggers. They have a little take-up, travel, creep, whatever the proper term is, that I can feel about half the time. It's smooth, though. The trigger breaks abruptly after perhaps 1/8 inch of motion; about half the time I can't detect any motion before the break at all.
The caveat is that I did the "Poor Boy's Trigger Job" on the Ruger. This is described on www.gunblast.com. Before this, the Ruger's trigger was still pretty OK, but heavier and with more creep than it now has.
Ruggedness? Who knows? I'd expect the Ruger to be tougher, but the Gaucho hasn't been in the field long enough to have much of a record.
I just got the Ruger. I don't have ammo for it. I'm going out to the garage to load some. If anyone's interested, I'll see if I can come up with some info on relative accuracy after I've been to the range.
These facts are amply demonstrated by the fact that even though I have never shot CAS and may never do so, I've managed to accumulate the complete set of CAS guns. In particular, gentle readers, I now have two .45 Colt single actions. And they don't match.
They are a stainless Taurus Gaucho, 5.5 inch barrel .45 Colt, and a blued and casehardened Ruger New Vaquero, same barrel and caliber.
The short version is that I like them both. If I do ever shoot CAS I might shoot the "white" gun in the right hand and the "black" one in the left-- heh. Why not make up a character based on that idea? Earl Gray, Britisher in Exile for Reasons Unsaid, a split personality, sometimes hero, sometimes villain..
Ahem. Sorry. I'm having too much fun here. To the point, then. I did have a point somewhere.. where did I put that point? Ah, here it is.
First impressions, comparing the two:
Fit and finish: Equal. The Gaucho is flawless polished stainless. The Ruger is a deep, shiny blue black, with good imitation case hardening on the frame. Being stainless, I expect the Gaucho's finish is much tougher, but the way I use them the Ruger should hold up just as well in practice.
Balance: Advantage Gaucho. It feels lighter than the Ruger, which makes it balance better for me.
Sights: Advantage Gaucho, barely. Both have wide front blades and square notch rear sights, but the Gaucho notch is a bit wider and deeper, making it easier to pick up.
Grip appearance: Advantage Vaquero. Both have checkered black plastic grips, a decent imitation of the checkered hard rubber on my great-grandpa's Smith and Wesson and other revolvers of the period. On the Ruger, though, the checkering covers almost the entire grip, and the Ruger eagle emblem is understated, matte finished. The Gaucho has larger areas of smooth plastic and a larger, smooth bull-head-in-bullseye emblem. It's a modern, 1950s-1960s looking design, and the brightly finished areas of the grips can't look like anything but plastic.
Grip geometry: Advantage Vaquero. Both revolvers are supposed to have grips to match the original Single Action Army. However, the forward strap of the Ruger's grip is nearly vertical at its bottom end. The forward strap of the Gaucho grip curves more so that by the time you reach the bottom it is angled forward. The bevel cut at the base of the Gaucho grip also seems wider and sharper-edged. The result is that while with my large hands both of these guns require me to run my little finger and the edge of my palm along the "sharp" edge of the bottom of the grip (or wrap little finger beneath the grip), the Gaucho is sharp enough that the edge feels uncomfortable. The Ruger is not.
Trigger: Equal, with a caveat. Both revolvers have light triggers. They have a little take-up, travel, creep, whatever the proper term is, that I can feel about half the time. It's smooth, though. The trigger breaks abruptly after perhaps 1/8 inch of motion; about half the time I can't detect any motion before the break at all.
The caveat is that I did the "Poor Boy's Trigger Job" on the Ruger. This is described on www.gunblast.com. Before this, the Ruger's trigger was still pretty OK, but heavier and with more creep than it now has.
Ruggedness? Who knows? I'd expect the Ruger to be tougher, but the Gaucho hasn't been in the field long enough to have much of a record.
I just got the Ruger. I don't have ammo for it. I'm going out to the garage to load some. If anyone's interested, I'll see if I can come up with some info on relative accuracy after I've been to the range.